How do we define disappointment? A Poll

… have the chance to experience something great and be disappointed, than never come close and be disappointed for months or weeks at a time.

…there was no let down as devastating as the collapse in the 1984 playoffs. The Cubs were SO GOOD that year and seemed so much better than the Padres. And then to take the first two games and need only one more to advance to the World Series…I think even the most cynical Cub fans thought that one was in the bag. I was in college at the time and hanging on every pitch…I still remember how devastated I was after Game 5…it was the kind of hurt that lingered for days afterwards.

2003 was a close second but, by that point, I was older and a more seasoned. I had started to learn that, for me anyway, the key to surviving as a lifelong Cub fan was to dial down expectations as much as possible. That’s basically the strategy I’ve employed ever since. I cried in 1984…i was shellshocked in 2003…but ever since I’ve managed to, for the most part, just chalk disappointment up to my particular cross to bear as a Cub fan.

all of your examples are of teams that contend. I’m much more disappointed in a team that’s 20 games back by July, and never gets anywhere.

I mean, think about it: We’ve been given the merciful opportunity to come to grips with our disappointment relatively early in the regular season.

Were we? Didn’t we have first place there for a while in the last month or so?

Contend. That’s what I want. Non-contending teams disappoint me.

AWESOME POLL .. this should be a great gauge for how Cubs fans view things in terms of definable and understandable choices.

I definitely voted for choice 3.

This year, the Cubs never really got in synch from day 1. For me, from May onward, I really didn’t follow them much .. I had a hunch things were going to go south. The injury A-Ram had somehow just burned into my head and I felt things were going to get worse. For now, I really question if they can still pull themselves together enough to limp into a footrace for the Wild Card.

It’s still possible. I haven’t given up.

Injuries, slumps, drama, etc. have plagued the Cubs enough this year unlike anything in the past two year .. they weren’t dramatic and jarring enough like the Barrett-Z issue. It was like a steady drip-drip-drip until the the tanks drained. The holes are still needing to be plugged and the fuel injection system is clogging sporadically. For me, the absolutely unbelievable meltdowns of the 84 and 03 ones will be etched into my mind as the most haunting for this old Cubs fan. No question. But 07 and 08 are almost as equally baffling .. and almost as maddening.

I guess the honest answer is that they’re all disappointing to various degrees. Does it matter if you die by poisoning or gunshot or knife?

Speaking of which, hold a gun to my head and I’d pick No. 1. It’s always good to have meaningful games to watch every day for 5-6 months.

I’m waiting to see how 2009 turns out before answering this one.

My reasoning is that a team must first be either projected to do well or actually doing well for there to be a disappointment. Having a crap team that basically gives you no hope for the year cannot be disappointing because you have no expectations.

I would much rather go through fifty straight years like 2008 because, excluding those three horrific days in October, last year was a carnival ride of giddy expectation and stunning comebacks that we as Cubs fans haven’t seen in decades. I had a blast watching them, and moments from that season are branded on my brain. Yes, the goal is to win a championship, but unless you’re the one team that does it, it’s gonna end badly.

The best thing is for it to be fun while it lasted. Nothing is permanent. Neither this season, nor the next, nor the one after that. To come into 2009 with a team that I truly felt good about and just watch fate drop turd after turd on us is, to me at least, the biggest of disappointments, because I have to wait until next February to get stoked up again. At least October is far closer to February than August is.

post with the take of ’What’s more miserable?"

I mean, you can write whatever, but…….do you see what I’m getting at?

Must we all wallow in misery? I know this season stinks, as many have, but……come on….

It’s good thinkin’ and that fact that all 4 answers are getting good votes shows how good a poll it is.

It’s tough to choose, but I voted " * A team that goes deep into the playoffs but ultimately fails (i.e., the 1984 & 2003 Cubs)" But not only because of the deep run, but because of the specific way these 2 teams lost during their deep run.

Heartbreaking.

The 2009 Chicago Cubs were projected to win 90+ games and, well, that’s looking pretty doubtful right now.

It’s the word ‘Projected.’

It’s a meaningless word. It has no basis in reality.

It’s like Bear fans who say this:

“We were 9-7 with Kyle orton. We should be at least a couple of games better with Cutler.”

I’m a Bear fan and would never make a statement like that.

In theory yes. On paper probably.
On the field in 2009? Pretty much meaningless.

Cutler could play like John Elway at his best, but things like bad defense, injuries and so on could negate much of what he does.

Or Cutler could struggle.

Projections are pretty useless. All that matters is how a team plays on the field.

What were expectations going in?

In 1998, did we really expect a Wild Card run? Did we really think we’d see a 20k game, or 66 homers? Or a 163rd game end in a Cubs victory?

I mean, I wish we hadn’t been swept by the Braves, but how can you complain?

2007 didn’t disappoint me nearly as 2008 for that reason and neither disappointed me as much as 2004.

How high your hopes are have a direct correlation to how far you fall when they are taken away.