With the first extended stretch of games complete and another off day today, I finally had time to sit down last night and watch "Cubs Forever", the wonderful two-hour retrospective of sixty years of Cubs baseball televised on WGN, which the station first aired last week (it's being re-aired at 7 pm CDT this coming Saturday in case you missed it or want to put it on your DVR). The link above is to the book version of the show, incidentally, and it doesn't specifically say so, but the publisher's website says there's a companion DVD. I'd buy it just for that.

In addition to some great old video -- some of which I hadn't seen since the day it aired years ago -- the thing that struck me most and affected me most were the comments from every single person they interviewed, from fans to employees to Hollywood types to former players, talking about what will happen when the Cubs finally do win the World Series. Basically, if you haven't seen this, they all said, "It'll be the celebration to end all celebrations."

And what that says to me is that they "get it". They understand, all those who have played as Cubs; Andre Dawson, in particular, said he'd want to be in Wrigley Field on that day, because his six years in a Cub uniform, only a third of his major league career (much as we'd love him to go into the Hall of Fame as a Cub, if he is eventually elected, I suspect the Hall -- who now makes the choice, not the player -- will put an Expos cap on his plaque, because he had his best seasons in Montreal), gave him the feeling we all have. That being a Cub fan is special. That being a Cub is special. Eric Karros said it, even playing just one season here: "Every major leaguer should spend a year as a Chicago Cub."

Some of the current players understand this, too, including Derrek Lee, who is now in his fifth year here (can it really be that long already?); D-Lee was interviewed for the show and said (I'm paraphrasing) that the current team is working hard to win for everyone that's gone before and never made it. And I've put this quote from Mark DeRosa in the quote box on the right sidebar, but it bears more prominent repeating here:

I stayed at home the other night and watched that "Cubs Forever" show. Every once in a while teams should be forced to watch stuff like that and realize how much it means to the city and to the ex-players that have been here, and how lucky we are to get a chance to put on the uniform and play in front of these people.

Amen, Mark. You understand. Because when you strip away the stats and the analysis and the little details and arguments that all of us get into on a daily basis because we disagree about ways that we all think would be the best way for the Cubs to be put together, either roster-wise or lineup-wise, the bottom line is this: each of us fell in love with the Cubs, for different reasons and in different places and times, and have suffered loss after loss, year after year of failure. And when they do finally win, all the players on the field that day will be winning for themselves, but also for all those who came before -- and for all of us, because without our support, without our following, where would they be?

May that victory come soon.

There's a somewhat related topic that rumbled through my mind as I was ruminating about writing this post last night and this morning, and that is, that in addition to our support and fandom making the livings of baseball players possible, so does it make the existence of ESPN (and its associated website) and MLB.com possible. Why, then, do these institutions insist on continuing to give us people and websites that we ... well, I'll be nice: that we just... don't... like?

ESPN's top baseball broadcast team is universally detested by just about every baseball fan. This is something that never used to be the case; when people like Bob Costas and Vin Scully and Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola were the national broadcasters, they were chosen not just for their broadcast competence and baseball knowledge, but because the viewers of the broadcasts actually enjoyed listening to them. That just doesn't seem to be the case today; it's almost as if ESPN is saying, "Screw you, we're doing this anyway."

And setting aside the TV blackout nonsense -- another issue entirely -- why does MLB.com have such a miserable setup for watching and listening to games? And why did they redesign their team websites this spring in a way that makes them bloated and unusable for many users? It's almost as if they have given their sites over to people who have contempt for the people who are trying to use them. And yes, I am well aware that some of you have had trouble with adjusting to the redesign of BCB and other SBN sites -- but give Trei and his team credit, they are listening to you and me and they're making changes (and remember, this platform is still a beta platform and more changes and fixes will be coming).

Without us, ESPN would not exist. MLB.com would not exist. You'd think they'd at least listen to us, their best customers.

I've rambled on long enough. This ought to give you some things to think about and rant about till the Cubs take the field again tomorrow night.

Last November, as we did the year before, we had a "Free Agent Frenzy" contest to mirror MLB.com's similar contest.

They -- and we -- should have thought of this; there's one free agent in the contest (Barry Bonds) who is still unsigned. Based on everything I've heard and read, he's probably going to remain unsigned. Don't know what MLB.com is going to do, but I'd like to declare our contest over. Here are all the original picks. If someone could go through and tally up all the points and let me know the winner is (leaving out all points for Bonds), I will send out the prize, which is a copy of the book The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball by Glenn Stout.

Also, we are about to tally up everything now that the shirts have all been delivered and there will be a substantial sum left over to donate to Derrek Lee's Project 3000 -- which was part of the point of doing the shirts in the first place. I'll let you all know how much after the final tally. We can add to this, too. Last year several of us, myself included, pledged to donate to Project 3000 based on the 2007 season performance of various Cubs. (I pledged $10 for every Ryan Dempster save, a total of $280, which I am happy to donate.)

All the pledges are here. (Link opens Excel spreadsheet.) If you are on the spreadsheet as having made a pledge, please contact me; I have contacted someone with Project 3000 to find out who you can make out your check to, then send the check to me and I'll send them in all at once.

Thanks to the generosity of BCB readers, we should have quite a large donation to make to Project 3000.

I had promised during the last homestand to post scans of my scorecards -- unfortunately, this week I got too busy and wasn't able to do it till today.

Didn't think you'd want to see the card from Tuesday's loss, but here are the cards from Monday and Wednesday's big wins.

Scorecard from Cubs' 7-6 win over the Reds on Monday

Scorecard from Cubs' 3-2 win over the Reds on Wednesday

(Links will open in a new browser window. If you are using IE, you may have to click the lower-right corner of the image in the new window to expand it to its full size; in Firefox click anywhere on the image.)

That's cliché Latin, of course, but it's the best I can do, because I am typing this post with one hand while trying to remove my foot from my mouth with the other.

I have many times at this site said that if I were wrong about something I would freely admit it. Just a couple of examples: I was wrong about Greg Maddux not being traded at the deadline last year; and I wrote quite a long post finally giving up my support for Dusty Baker, long after I should have.

And wow, have I been wrong this past week, and I wanted to say so, and let each and every one of you know, so that we can get this community back to being the great place that each and every one of you has helped make it.

Here it is: I was wrong. I take the blame. I ask you to read and think and forgive.

I've been called a dictator at times, and while I think that's a little over-the-top, I have heard from some of you that I was too heavy-handed last week in addressing the community guidelines. That's the last thing I want for this site. In going back and re-reading the offending comments, and thinking about how I handled that situation, I'll admit that you guys have a point. I should have handled that situation differently, and as you will see below, in the future, I pledge to you that I will.

That said, I felt that things such as hijacking of diaries, and all the various comments and diaries about the nuts and bolts of the site, took away from our mission here -- which is to enjoy baseball and the Cubs and, when appropriate, other things, too, and have fun. I was concerned that we were getting away from that, and am still concerned about it; again I give you a pledge that I will deal with it more effectively in the future, and one thing all of you can do is help me in that effort, and I have in fact had some help already, particularly in putting together this post, and for that, I am deeply grateful. (You know who you are!)

A blog is a living organism in many ways, particularly when it's set up the way BCB is, with free and open commenting, and incidentally, SBNation is within the next few months going to roll out a vastly improved commenting system (as well as some other upgrades) which I think all of you will like. Head on over to the SB Nation University of Nebraska site Corn Nation to see a bit (and that's far from everything -- stay tuned for more announcements) of what this is going to be all about. (One of the best things is going to be an auto-refreshing comment system, which will make the game threads a lot faster and hopefully, more fun.)

I'm digressing, so let me get to the point. If any of you -- anyone -- thinks that I have been too dictatorial, too smothering, too picky, too patrolling, too stifling, then you are right, and I have been wrong. I may be the oldest blogger at SBNation, but that doesn't mean I can't learn a valuable lesson and change.

As you know, I've set up community guidelines here, and have been accused of "censorship" as a result. The guidelines were not and are not supposed to "censor"; all they are supposed to accomplish is to keep a level of civil discussion among people who can get quite passionate about their positions, as well as keep the diary system from degenerating into 1500 different diaries on "Jason Marquis sucks!" I admit to all of you today that I may have been too heavy-handed in attempting to stick to these guidelines, and I'm going to stop doing that. Period. No excuses, no loopholes, I'm just going to stop. As such, I have tweaked the guidelines a bit, and I encourage all of you to check them out if you haven't lately, or not at all.

So today I invite each and every one of you -- yes, you, you the ones who are apparently voluntarily staying away, because yes, I noticed the silence here yesterday too -- to come back, to post freely, about anything and everything.  I note that has already begun today, and I'm glad to see that. Diary hijacking? Well, I think I overreacted. Please feel free, and I mean that. All I ask are two things:

• please, no name-calling. There are ways to criticize another poster's post without calling him or her a "moron".
• try to keep the profanity level down. I don't mind the occasional "fuck", or even "fuckwit". But we do have kids reading BCB -- mine, for one.

Baseball games start this Thursday! I'll have an open thread posted that day. C'mon back, everyone, and I mean everyone.

Let's chat, shall we? Please, sit. Please. No, really. I insist.

We've had some problems on this site as of late, and frankly, it's starting to annoy me and a lot of other people who are valued posters on this site. I am speaking, of course, about the so-called "hijacking" of diaries. And before you start calling me "pot," I will freely admit that, in the past, I have been as guilty of this as anyone. That said, this practice has got to stop.

I know that many of us have come from other blogs, and hence are familiar with the "open thread" diaries. For those of you who don't know, the open thread is generally a diary where you can post, at all hours of the day and night, about whatever pops into your head. Do you fear North Korea? Have an opinion about which flavor of Pop Tarts is tastier? Want to report suspected subliminal messaging during "Fairly Oddparents?" Then the open thread is the place for you.

In this vein, we created the "Non-Baseball Diary," which has since morphed into the "OBD" last May, in order to combat this very problem. For those of you that were around then, you will remember some of the better diaries (and sometimes the game diaries) would often devolve into a mess of movie quotes, personal anecdotes, and something that resembled an online singles bar.

As of late, it seems that, every night, some unfortunate diary becomes the victim of unruly hijackers. As one of the more prolific diary posters here, I can tell you that it really sucks when you put some thought into a diary, and wake up to find that there are 200 + comments on a diary, only to discover upon opening it that most of the comments have nothing to do with what you've written about (see my meltdown on the Smack Talk diary for more on how this makes a diary poster's head explode).

All that said, enough. Okay? The OBD is there for a reason; to direct all the OT traffic into one area so it doesn't pollute other threads. Frankly, Al and I are starting to get emails from a lot of diary posters who are upset about what is happening to their diaries. Diaries take time to write, and it's not fair to their authors to take them over talking about, well. . . basically nothing. To be honest, it's making this site more reminiscent of cubs.com and it's driving valued posters away. So feel free to hijack the OBD till the cows come home, but leave the other diaries alone.

In the same vein, before you post a diary, please think about whether or not it actually merits a diary. We're getting a lot of diaries lately, consisting of a couple of lines, asking people what they think our lineup will be or whether we think Wood and Prior will be healthy. That's not diary material; that's worthy of a comment on a related thread.

Also, please at least try to convey something about the subject matter of the diary in your diary title. Sometimes we get 5 diaries on the same topic because the first diary posted has a funny title, but not one that tells people what it's about.

I'm not posting this to pick on anyone, but rather to let you guys know that, as much fun as we have here, it's starting to cause problems. Please try to be considerate of other posters.

The season is starting. There's going to be a lot more to talk about. Let's all have fun and keep other people's feelings in mind.

Thanks.

[editor's note, by Al] Julie & I had a discussion about this topic this morning and she offered to make this post, to which I add my complete agreement. Let's all have fun, enjoy posting about the Cubs and baseball and when appropriate, other topics. Thanks from me too.

No, it's not my birthday today, as you well know if you've been reading BCB since at least last November.

Today is BCB's second birthday -- the very first post here was on February 9, 2005.

In those two years, the Cubs have, well, gone from mediocre to awful, and we hope this year will return to at least respectability and perhaps contention. And BCB has become a large and vibrant community, for which I thank every single one of you.

Since its inception I've been the sole blogger and site administrator here. That's the way I've wanted it, and, as my SB Nation colleague Adam Morris put it on his Rangers site Lone Star Ball, I have done this for a lot of reasons, in Adam's words, "not the least of which being that I'm a selfish control-freak". (HEY! You're not supposed to be nodding in agreement!)

But, as Adam also says, I'm not at my computer 24/7 (even though it may seem that way to you at times), and also, the size of the site has prompted me to enlist some help.

With that in mind, I'm taking this opportunity to announce to all of you that I've asked cubbiejulie to officially come on board as contributing editor and assistant blogmistress. I have great admiration for her enthusiasm and passion for the Cubs and the quality of her writing. In her new capacity, she will:

• Continue to post her Off-Base Diaries, subject only to her rules... which I know you will follow!
• Coordinate all BCB projects and contests, like the upcoming fantasy leagues, and the BCB day in the bleachers (with my help) and I've also asked her to help me think of ideas for next year's offseason project. If you've got any, let her know!
• Help out by updating gameday open threads if I've posted them and left for the ballpark and some big news breaks, and add the lineups when they're posted, and post the threads and recaps if, for any reason, I have to be away from the site (at this time I don't anticipate that happening, however).
• Post other breaking news on the main page if I'm not around when it happens.
• And, share some of her own Cub and baseball thoughts on the main page from time to time.

That said, I turn over the rest of this post to her.

Discuss, as has been often said here, amongst yourselves. Today's top 100 post will be up in a couple of hours.

As you likely noticed, BCB was down for about eight or nine hours today.

This was due to some bugs which inevitably fly in and buzz around when upgrades are made. That's what our tech gurus were doing last night -- and here's the deal.

They are located on the West Coast, and work late into the night there. Thus, if there's a problem in the early morning in the East or Midwest, where most of us live and wake up, they're likely sleeping, and thus the frantic emails of SB Nation bloggers go unanswered till later.

This isn't to blame anyone, because things like this happen to computers and servers, and I want to say here and now that our web gurus do a fantastic job of keeping over 100 sites up and running the vast majority of the time.

Anyway, welcome back, and I'll get the top 100 post up later in the day.

Once again, this year MLB.com is sponsoring its "Free Agent Frenzy" contest, where 15 free agents are listed and you, as the contestant, have to pick where you think they'll sign, and also assign a ranking, from 15 to 1, a "confidence" value -- i.e. the one you're MOST certain of would get 15 points, the one you're least certain of would get 1.

The contestant with the most points wins.

Last year, we had a BCB contest based on this game. So -- let's do it again. The winner will get a prize from Al's Big Collection Of Baseball Stuff. If I win, the 2nd-place finisher gets the prize.

The 15 free agents for the contest (and this year ought to be interesting, because of several names on the list connected with the Cubs in some way) are:

Juan Pierre
Jason Schmidt
Greg Maddux
Ray Durham
Frank Thomas
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Carlos Lee
Nomar Garciaparra
Gary Matthews Jr.
Julio Lugo
Barry Zito
Ted Lilly
Andy Pettitte
Alfonso Soriano
Barry Bonds

The winner of our contest will be named after the last of the 15 free agents signs. Last year that took until February.

You can leave your picks in the comments to this thread. I'll probably post some updates on this from time to time.

I'll also need a volunteer to add up everyone's points at the end of the contest.

Have fun!

UPDATE [2006-10-31 9:38:12 by Al]: Forgot one thing. This contest should have an entry deadline, so let's have it match MLB's deadline -- 10:59 pm CT on November 14.

Since the dust is now settling over the departure of Dusty, and although we'd like to see a replacement named soon, it probably will take a week or two, and so today, I have some other things I'd like to say.

This post is going to be long. Really long. Really, REALLY long. And although I'd like for you to read all of it, I'll answer the question you're all wondering about first, the one I promised to address at the end of the season. Yes, I'm keeping my season tickets. Frankly, I don't think any of you would have thought I'd do anything differently, and I never have given this a second thought.

Read carefully to learn why this is so, and why there is room for differing opinions on how fans follow baseball, and why. I implore you to read this entire post -- and yes, it's pretty darn long, so pull up a comfy chair -- before you make a comment.

Stop what you're doing right now and take a REAL deep breath. No, don't just pretend. Pause for a second and DO IT. 2006 is over. This season has been horrific, not just for the play on the field, but because it has gotten many of us, who should be of one mind, one heart, rooting for our team, at each other's throats. Right now, let's lay down our swords and work together for the common goal we all want -- a Cubs World Championship. More on this later.

The reason I go to as many games as do is, of course, because I love the Cubs and the game -- and, further, because I am lucky in living where I do and have the time to do it. I (and I say I, but I know a great number of people who agree with this, most notably the friends with whom I share most of my time in the bleachers, and who you have come to know through this blog) believe in the history, the saga, the mythology, every bit of it.

To me, this is the basic difference, the thing that sets professional sports apart from all other businesses. I can't change brands, change stores. To give up the Cubs in the manner that those who think giving up season tickets is a statement of sorts, would be giving up a good deal of what I've made myself.

I don't deny the realities of this or what it means, for I have chosen this path for myself.

Anyway, the ownership of pro sports franchises -- not just the Cubs, but ANY professional sports team -- get all this for NOTHING. You can't buy mystique, you can't leverage loyalties handed down as though by genetics. My God, they have got it made.

The other great reality, the one that is seldom spoken in so many words, is that the investment of loyalty and identity in a team is a ONE-WAY INVESTMENT. It would be nice if management tossed a couple of bones in our direction now and then, but it's NOT YOUR CANDY STORE. This is the case not only for a corporate-owned team like the Cubs, but for rich-guy owned teams such as the Orioles, too. Sure, a Steinbrenner would be great as owner of the Cubs; he spends money like the proverbial drunken sailor and has a bushelful of postseason appearances and championships to show for it (and also has the allure of New York to help attract players to his team) -- but the Cubs, if sold, could just as well get as an owner Peter Angelos, a meddling fool who has ruined a once-proud franchise. Be careful, as the saying goes, what you wish for.

What I'm trying to say here is this -- you become a fan, at whatever level of intensity, entirely at your OWN RISK. You can expect, even demand, a winner, but the basic relationship allows for only one source of practical import. Even the sainted Bill Veecks of this world (well, there was only one), never took real fan input when it came to running their teams. Veeck said, in so many words, on many occasions, that his loyalty was to his partners. He was in it to make them (and himself) money, in the end. And, he always did. Lots of it. He died a very wealthy man. As much as he may have raised hackles among the majority of ownership, his investors were always satisfied in their results.

I was recently given an analogy here at BCB that read, for the most part, as follows: that I am like a man who eats at the same restaurant every day, has a terrible meal, but then upon leaving, says to the chef, "See you tomorrow for lunch", the implication being that I am willing to accept constant terrible meals just to be in the restaurant. What I'm supposed to be doing is to stop going to the restaurant and instead, bitch and moan about the meals from the outside.

That's silly on its face -- not every meal is a bad one, of course, and to further the analogy, if this were the case, then ONLY those who REFUSED to go to the restaurant AT ALL should have the right to criticize the food. That's more than silly; it's ridiculous, and my position is that I think I have a better chance of being listened to, if I flatter myself that I will be, by being there every day and being a paying customer. And "paying customer" is the operative phrase -- at one point, someone here made the ludicrous claim that I would be "given" free season tickets by the Tribune Co. Who wouldn't love free season tickets? But I pay for mine, full price, just as I have done every year for the fifteen seasons since bleacher season tickets were first created in 1992.

I have been accused of being an apologist for the Tribune Company, first, because I have taken a very small amount of their money ($180 all told, not even IRS-reportable, since I am an independent contractor, not an employee) to write short pieces for the Cubs' in-house magazine, for which ALL of the material was culled from Bleed Cubbie Blue posts, and second, because I have defended Dusty Baker beyond the point at which he, in hindsight, could reasonably have been defended.

One of the reasons I have done this is because I refuse to stoop to criticizing for the sake of criticism, or being snarky or belittling of others, or being among those who speak derisively about sports talk radio and then use in their own writings the worst elements of it.

There is no doubt that the Cub organization has fallen to a new low. This is absolutely the worst season I have ever seen, and I've seen more of it than many of you, including the 103-loss season of 1966 (at least that team had three future Hall of Famers on it -- and should have four, with Ron Santo), the 96-loss mess of 1974 after they promised us they were "backing up the truck", the 98-loss debacle of 1980 with the feckless Preston Gomez as manager, and what would surely have been a club-record-loss year in 1981 had the strike not wiped out a third of the season.

But I love baseball, and although change is absolutely needed, I also love enjoying baseball at the ballpark. For this, I have been tarred with what my detractors probably believe is an epithet, "Cubs game fan".

I wear that as a badge of honor. For what are we except fans of a game? Baseball is not just statistics to be moved around on spreadsheets, not just millions of dollars to be allocated. They are human endeavors, and meant to be enjoyed. I was pilloried a year ago because, in a game that the Cubs fell behind 7-0 in the second inning, I dared to think that maybe I could have seen baseball history, by having a no-hitter thrown by the opposing pitcher in a game the Cubs were going to lose anyway.

I was pleased to learn in this post on the Pirates blog Bucs Dugout, made a week before the season ended, that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Charlie, the proprietor thereof, is a displaced Pirates fan living in San Diego, and went to see his favorite team play in Petco Park, and nearly saw Chris Young -- even more ironically, a guy the Pirates originally drafted and let go several years ago for Matt Herges, who defines "generic middle reliever" -- throw a no-hitter against his team.

Was he happy that Joe Randa got the only hit and broke up the no-hitter? Hell no:

Precisely. There's more at Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?:

(emphasis added by me)

Bingo again. No one who's a Cubs fan, least of all me, WANTS the Cubs to lose -- ANY day. But sure, if it is inevitable, why not see some baseball history?

This is what the naysayers, those who refuse to go to the ballpark, thinking that holding their money out of Tribco pockets will make one iota of difference, don't understand. There is beauty in the game we love, 130 years of history, potential records to be set each day. As WHYG,AVS said, there are hundreds of faceless losses (and wins, too) each year. Especially in a season such as this one, I'd love to see some history created, to feel a part of it.

Those of you who have actually come to the bleachers and met me know that I really am no apologist for Tribune Co. While they are not as successful as many franchises/ownerships have been over the last twenty-six seasons, as I have pointed out elsewhere, winning postseason series is almost a crapshoot. The Cubs have four berths in the twenty-six seasons of Tribune ownership. That's not great, but not putrid; not incompetent, not neccesarily half-assed. Consider, for example, the Brewers, who have ZERO appearances in that stretch, or the Tigers, who have just made the playoffs for the first time in nineteen years, and who now have three postseason appearances in the last thirty-eight years.

You might say that the Cubs have enough revenue from all sources to do better than that, and you'd be right. Further, in this day and age, any team in the market size the Cubs enjoy will always be able, with competent marketing, to make through the turnstiles what they need. Given that reality, the idea that being an intense fan reinforces mediocrity, is just plain self-serving.

But after you make the postseason, the team on the field wins you championships. Those are athletic contests played on a short leash, and at that point there is nothing the front office can do about postseason failures, as we learned in 2003.

In fact, as I have written before, it is simply not possible to "build a team to win the World Series", because the way the playoffs are set up, once you get there, it's a crapshoot.

In the eleven seasons since the wild-card format has been in use (1995-2005), how many times has the team with the best record in the regular season won the World Series? Twice -- last year's White Sox, and the 1998 Yankees. In the four times the Yankees won between 1996 and 2000, their "dynasty" phase, they had the best record ONCE -- that 1998 club.

The 2000 Yankees, in fact, won the World Series with the NINTH-best record in baseball. The 2001 champions, the Diamondbacks, won TWENTY-FOUR fewer games than the Mariners, who had the best record but were eliminated in the first round. Three straight champions -- the 2002 Angels, 2003 Marlins and 2004 Red Sox -- entered the postseason as wild cards, not even winning their divisions.

Build a team that consistently gets to the postseason -- absolutely. But you cannot say "build a team that wins the World Series every year", because that simply cannot be done under the current system. If you don't believe me, how about Baseball Prospectus? In their book "Baseball Between The Numbers", they looked at every playoff team from 1972-2005 and wrote: "There is literally no relationship between regular-season offense and postseason success."

There are a few final things I want to say about why I won't ever give up my season tickets. I keep them because I enjoy watching the game live, hearing the sounds and smelling the smells, talking with other fans around me, feeling the feeling of being part of the game, seeing history made from 0-0 to (one hopes) 95-67, or (more usually, lately, 67-95). I have made many lifelong friendships in the bleachers, and for me, that is just as much a part of the game as the play on the field. This year, of course, the Cubs have performed badly, and tested all of our patience, and unfortunately, has at times gotten us at each other's throats, and with the season now being over, I thought I'd offer an general olive branch to everyone; that record is reset to 0-0 now, isn't it?

I hold hope that the next time I go, and the times after that, and the season after that, they will play better, and thus I hope all of you will accept this olive branch, and let us all focus on the goal, which is that one day, our team will reward the loyalty I have described within this post, with a World Championship, just as Red Sox and White Sox fans were rewarded in the last couple of years.

That, of course, will need sea changes in the players and management of the Cubs. Unfortunately, management is something we all have to live with, and I defy anyone to show me a baseball team without problems. Even if we could custom select one from ownership down (and all of you have shared many, many thoughts about who you think should run this team, from ownership on down!), we would make mistakes and people would criticize our choices. No matter what you think you know about what Jim Hendry "will" do this offseason, we cannot know what goes on behind closed doors with management, and although we would like instant gratification each time a player blunders, or a wrong choice is made, all we can do is wait and see what happens, and hope that changes are afoot behind those closed doors.

Whether you believe it or not, management DOES want success even more than I do -- for it is their job to do so, and Jim Hendry, after a season like the one just ended, will absolutely feel the pressure to succeed, or his livelihood could end. However, as you well know, it takes time to make changes. The 2003 near-success and ultimate failure, I think, made us less patient, and rightfully so. There has already been change at the top, with Andy MacPhail's resignation, and the non-renewal of Dusty Baker's contract. Should Hendry also be replaced? Maybe. But again, it's their candy store and since Hendry was just contract-extended (and you know as well as I do the Cubs won't eat his contract), HE is going to have to be the one to fix this mess.

We can "hate" management if that makes us feel better, we can "hate" their choices, and of course all of us are armchair managers thinking we could do better, but the last time I checked, I do not have a magic wand any more than they do. We have to live with what we buy. I buy tickets to see baseball and regardless of whether it is good or bad, I want to see it, experience it. I don't buy tickets for wins only, I buy for an entire season, and I go out there continuing to hope for change, or cheer for the changes already made, and nine innings later, I always assess what's gone on during that one game's time. But baseball isn't just "nine innings". It is a season -- remember, I've often said, baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, and so, yes, complain, but don't throw the season away because of nine innings. Victory can be just around the corner. Some here have said they have lost hope -- but think about some of the Red Sox fans and White Sox fans, some of whom literally waited patiently six or seven decades for the ultimate victory, and never lost hope. Take some more deep breaths and let out the stink of 2006, and replace it with the hope that maybe, JUST maybe, management will sit down and decide to do this right, and that 2007 can bring us the miracle we so richly deserve.

If that could be more easily accomplished by the Tribune Company selling the Cubs, by all means, go ahead and do it. But breathlessly following each blip of TRB's stock movement, or each Tribco board meeting's results, isn't going to make this happen. They'll sell if and only if they're damn good and ready to, and not before. As I've said, it's their candy store. Yes, we pay for it, and sometimes I do think that "they" (and by "they" here, I mean both the billionaire owners AND the millionaire players) forget that's what puts them in their gated communities.

One day this team will reach the promised land of a World Championship. And when it does, I won't care, and I bet you won't either, who wears the suits in the executive suite. And when it does, I intend to be there, in the left field bleachers, cheering my lungs out and perhaps shedding a tear of joy or three.

Sometimes I wish I could write more lyrically than I do, and to close I'd like to share this post I found on a blog called "The Latest Obsession"; the post linked to my post last February about Sammy Sosa's silent goodbye to baseball, but then morphed into this sentiment, which reflects well why any of us loves baseball, and also why I love attending games in person:

Onward. To the ultimate victory we have been waiting for, from before most of our lifetimes, and that we so richly deserve.

It's over.