Am I a bad fan for thinking that the season is over?

I’m beginning to just cheer against them than for the Cubs. I still have hope they’ll implode, and the Cubs will squeak in. It doesn’t look like the Cubs will catch them without some help.

IDK, it may be because of the huge loss tonight, but really, even with all the injuries and all, we just haven’t been that good. I’m still looking forward to the postseason, but idk.

Please bear with me, I’m only a teenager venting over this season. I’m only getting ready for a lifetime of disappointments. =P

Yea, as a matter of fact, I kinda hated baseball a few years back. I didn’t know about starting rotations, about interleague play, about baseball in general. My dad was never a sports fan, so he never really took me to a game. And if he did, it was usually a soccer game, and he was the one asking questions. My mom didn’t know much about baseball either – I had to teach myself everything.

So, yes, I’ve followed 3 postseasons. I can still remember all the commotion over Bartman, and I remember being puzzled as to why he was targeted by so many Cub fans.

But through all of it, I kind of fell in love with the aura, the mystic nature of Cubs baseball.

And now, finally, I get a dose of the negativity that comes with being a Cubs fan – now I understand why so many fans are a little more jumpy about negative trends and such.

Still nothing better than Bleeding Cubbie Blue, and spending endless summer nights with other fellow Cubs fans who feel pretty much the same way I do.

Why is it always a race to call “game over” and “season over”? Maybe it could be productive before the deadline but that is gone. There is nothing to be gained from cashing it in now. Let’s just see what happens.

Not looking down at you, but that’s exactly what that phrase means.

I’m 17 and it seems all I can remember are the cubs going to the playoffs and the nemerous winning seasons and playoff apperances in the past decade. So no, you’re not a bad fan, its new to the younger crowd to suddenly see the cubs fall off the page.of course it doesn’t help that the media,and other team fans pressure us for not winning a championship, but that what we should expect; and the only thing we can do is prove them wrong. So keep your hopes up, its never “over,”there will always be baseball and the cubs and you’ll just have to continue and fight trough thick and thin.

I’ve said it 1,000 times.

Sports is entertainment.

It’s supposed to make us feel good. If a TV show or movie makes us scared, or squeamish, or depressed or just plain NOT entertained, we have every right to give up on it and no one thinks twice about it.

We are not here to pat them on their backs and tell them they still have a chance, or that they played a good game. We do enough of that for our children in Little League.

The Cubs, or any other sports team, are here to make US feel better.

If they’ve stopped doing that, or if you feel they no longer have the chance to do that, then of course it’s time to give up on them.

And let me pre-emptively say that just in case tonight starts a 19-game winning streak, you have every right to come back.

Think of it as fast-forwarding through the bad parts of a movie.

or playing on the west coast when you cannot really watch….and then get up to see another loss and things slipping…. that you really have a feeling that there is nothing you can do about it and it is over without you really getting a chance. I hate these late games, combined with no game Sunday, I feel really lost. About like Soriano at the plate lost.

He saw that the team we had for 2007-08 was not getting it done in October, so he made changes. Sadly those changes includes:

1. Freel
2. Gathright
3. Miles
4. Heilman
5. Gregg
 
You then add to that:

1. Soto / Fontenot / Bradley / Marmol not playing to expectations
2. Rami / Soto / Lee / Zambrano / Lilly /Dempster / Reed Johnson / Bradley / Soriano spending time injured
3. Lou seeming as if the game has passed him at least twice a week
4. team in August is still looking for an identity
5. who is the leader in the clubhouse? I think your guess is as good as Lou’s right now (this is where DeRosa and Wood are missed the most)
6. St Louis doing what it does annually, getting each player to produce above expectations, Duncan and LaRussa are amazing at what they do

Other than that, they are playing great

Think we can all start facing the potential reality – if we have not yet done so – the Cubs just are not very good and will be heading home on October 5th.

It’s always tough on the real fans (fanatics, you know all of us here, not the casual fan thing I’ve heard so much about these past several years). All of us have the ups and downs rollercoaster with this team. That’s what happens to real fans.

It’s so easy for one to call oneself a “fan” when the team is ripping off victories left and right. The Bulls had millions of those in the 1990’s. The tried and true for instance those that really bleed cubbie blue are the ones that feel this the most and will still be ready and raring to go come mid-February.

A few weeks ago, when the most negative people on here were screaming that “the season is over,” Baseball Prospectus’ simulator had the Cubs still having nearly a 40% chance of making the playoffs. This morning, it is down to 9%. That sounds about right to me – the Cubs would have to go 29-14 and the Cardinals would have to go 20-19 for the two teams to tie with 90 wins.

Just to do their part, the Cubs would have to do the following:
- Split the last two games of the Dodgers series (1)
- Sweep the home series vs. Nationals, Reds, Diamondbacks (9)
- Take 3 of 4 from the home last series against the Pirates (3)
- Sweep the Cardinals at Busch (3)
- Win 5 of the 8 home games against Houston, Milwaukee, and the White Sox (5)
- Go 8-5 on their other 13 road games (PIT, NYM, MIL, SF) (8)

Will they accomplish four of those six goals? Probably. Will they accomplish all six? Doubtful. Will they accomplish all six while the Cardinals acquiesce and play 500 ball? Not stinking likely – about the 10% chance that BP gives them.

the same way that the 1969 Cubs were in mid September. Mathematically yes, but psychologically and spiritually….not so much.

At what point does Hendry shut down some of the better performers like Ramirez (hurt), and Wells (innings piling up for a rookie) and start playing the AAA call-ups and guys who have been bouncing back and forth like Shark? My personal opinion is that Hendry will keep on plugging along until the end of the Cardinals series on September 20, unless this team falls to ten back.

If this team is obviously out of it, I want to see:
- Fox having six starts a week mostly at 3B and 1B but also catching 4-5 innings a week
- The eighth inning being handed over to the trio of Stevens, Patton, and Berg. Every. Single. Day.
- The Shark/Caridad pairing pitching 7 innings combined every fifth start

The important thing is that you root for them and be supportive, especially of those players who didn’t disappoint you. That doesn’t mean you have to turn your back to reality.

Next season we’ll all have our hopes high again.

your are realistically calling it as you see it, and I felt the season ended in Colorado with and exclamation point with the following Phillies series.

It’s hard enough to win a division, much less 3 in a row. We were pretty lucky with injuries in 07 and 08 and we had guys picking each other up every day. Not so this season. Is it a symptom of no leaders?

The only consistent thing I have seen this year is that we look like crap for a few games or a week and then we have a game where we win 10-3, 7-1 or 17-2 and then we shit the bed again for another week. I thinkI we can all agree that Hendry hamstrung this team. I have said before that I would have taken my chances again this year with last year’s team.

Bradley is playing better, Thank you, Milton, but the season’s almost over. Soto, thanks for showing that you are still a kid and that Blanco had more to do with your ROY award than you think.

Soriano. It’s all been said. Dempster got his payday, what did you expect? Yes, he has personal issues going on, and I’m not ragging on him for that. Marmol is his own worst enemy. Gregg was a bad signing from day one. No improvement in the closer role, the spectre of Wood’s durability cost us. I feel Woody would have had another good year for us. Lou is Lou. Hard headed and has no clue at times. DO you think Soriano would get this much leash if Ozzie Guillen was managing him?

Ramirez going down was the injury that killed this team. They had no backup plan and we wasted dozens of great pitching starts while he was gone and this team kept their bats in the deep freeze.

That’s enough for now. The dead horse that is the 2009 Cubs has been beat to death and has left us with a bad taste in our mouths.

The Cardinals do what they do best. Play fundamentally good baseball and get the most out of their players, and make enough moves to improve. They have a HOF manager and The Machine. All they have to do is hang around and let the others beat themselves.

If the Cubs go on a 10 win in 12 streak starting tonight, God Bless’em. I presonally don’t see it and I haven’t invested a lot emotionally in this team this year, so I am basically “meh” about the whole mess.

Hendry and Lou got what they wanted and a few unfortunate injuries plagued us all season. There you have it, most likely a no-show for post season play this year.

I am still a fan, but I have other things in my life that are more important than getting upset over a team that just can’t get it done.

looking at the Cubs situation and thinking that not only were they a bad ballclub but that they weren’t going to be good again anytime soon. Then the Cubs started throwing around money to fix all the problems and while it covered up some problems and did get us two division championships, the fundamental problems that this organization had then still exist now.

Here’s hoping they can slowly turn it around.