I'm not talkng about the Cubs anymore

[veryzer]

oh i may comment on a trade or some such, but unless they win 8 games in a rown or 10 of 11 or some shit like that, i am completely done with this team this year, and maybe longer. i'm too old for this shit and my summer is kind of shitty this year without adding cub angst to it. i quit.

[hPOD]

<!--quoteo(post=46912:date=Jun 29 2009, 08:07 AM:name=veryzer)-->QUOTE (veryzer @ Jun 29 2009, 08:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->oh i may comment on a trade or some such, but unless they win 8 games in a rown or 10 of 11 or some shit like that, i am completely done with this team this year, and maybe longer. i'm too old for this shit and my summer is kind of shitty this year without adding cub angst to it. i quit.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Did you just create a paradox with this post?

You posted about the Cubs to say you're no longer going to post about the Cubs, and then, you posted it twice.

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bow.gif[/img]

[Lance]

So why is your summer bad other than the Cubs?

I've been wondering why we seem to be losing people because of the bitchfest this shitty season has engendered. It's not like we haven't weathered other shitty seasons. Is it the expectation level? Is it just that everyone is getting older and gets tired of hearing it?

I don't understand why people seem to be taking the negativity so personally this year. This isn't a criticism--people are going to feel how they feel--just wondering why so many have dropped out.

[sleepyhead]

<!--quoteo(post=46922:date=Jun 29 2009, 08:30 AM:name=Lance)-->QUOTE (Lance @ Jun 29 2009, 08:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->So why is your summer bad other than the Cubs?

I've been wondering why we seem to be losing people because of the bitchfest this shitty season has engendered. It's not like we haven't weathered other shitty seasons. Is it the expectation level? Is it just that everyone is getting older and gets tired of hearing it?

I don't understand why people seem to be taking the negativity so personally this year. This isn't a criticism--people are going to feel how they feel--just wondering why so many have dropped out.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

For me I just don't need to be any more negative then I already am. When the Cubs are in the tank, I tend to avoid game threads and some of the threads in the main forum because it just pisses me off more.

[rok]

I'm getting to the point where I'm dreading going to the couple of games I have tickets to later in the season.

I'd really like to find that happy place again where I can just sit down and watch a game and have fun like I did when I was a kid, but that part of me has just about died. A few more weeks of play like this and I can probably just be a regular fan again, but it won't be easy.

[Scarey]

<!--quoteo(post=46954:date=Jun 29 2009, 10:01 AM:name=rok)-->QUOTE (rok @ Jun 29 2009, 10:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm getting to the point where I'm dreading going to the couple of games I have tickets to later in the season.

I'd really like to find that happy place again where I can just sit down and watch a game and have fun like I did when I was a kid, but that part of me has just about died. A few more weeks of play like this and I can probably just be a regular fan again, but it won't be easy.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


I think it will be a lot easier on us all if the Cubs either fall completely out of it, or vault to the head of the pack. This sitting around .500 bullshit is sickening.

[rok]

<!--quoteo(post=46960:date=Jun 29 2009, 10:13 AM:name=Scarey)-->QUOTE (Scarey @ Jun 29 2009, 10:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=46954:date=Jun 29 2009, 10:01 AM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Jun 29 2009, 10:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm getting to the point where I'm dreading going to the couple of games I have tickets to later in the season.

I'd really like to find that happy place again where I can just sit down and watch a game and have fun like I did when I was a kid, but that part of me has just about died. A few more weeks of play like this and I can probably just be a regular fan again, but it won't be easy.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


I think it will be a lot easier on us all if the Cubs either fall completely out of it, or vault to the head of the pack. This sitting around .500 bullshit is sickening.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yep, that's the thing. We're playing like shit yet still hovering around .500 and somehow are still in it. I'd be much more ok with it if we were either completely out of it or playing well and in 1st or 2nd. This is all just too frustrating to watch and I have no idea where we stand.

[veryzer]

<!--quoteo(post=46922:date=Jun 29 2009, 08:30 AM:name=Lance)-->QUOTE (Lance @ Jun 29 2009, 08:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->So why is your summer bad other than the Cubs?

I've been wondering why we seem to be losing people because of the bitchfest this shitty season has engendered. It's not like we haven't weathered other shitty seasons. Is it the expectation level? Is it just that everyone is getting older and gets tired of hearing it?

I don't understand why people seem to be taking the negativity so personally this year. This isn't a criticism--people are going to feel how they feel--just wondering why so many have dropped out.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


this summer has sucked for me because i no longer coach. last year i was devoting 6 or 7 days a week to coaching and now i'm not coaching at all. it's left a big void in my life. i didn't realize how much i'd miss it.

now my daughter is struggling. she can't field and she can't hit. she started out the season well but has fallen hard. she's been benched and it's killing her, which in turn is killing me. she's the kind of person that needs to feel wanted. when she makes mistakes, she dwells on them, and then she makes more mistakes. the coach isn't telling her the things she needs to hear to snap out of this. she's put so much pressure on herself to succeed, that she's getting worse. she's so afraid to make mistakes that she's lost all her aggressiveness, which is causing her to make more mistakes. i keep trying to get her to just relax and have fun the way she used to but she can't. she's stiff. she's tense. you can see it in her body language.

plus, we're broke. i've lived much of my life broke, but this is worse than ever. i just can't seem to get out of this rut.

my kids are never home anymore. they spend the night at friends or relative's houses all the time. my youngest daughter was up north with the in-laws for 10 days. we never see them anymore. all i want is to get us all together and leave for a while and be a family, away from all the bullshit, but i can't. i have no money. nothing.

on top of all of this is the upcoming world series. my daughter's coach is hellbent on going back this year. to get in you have to finish 1st or 2nd in a USSSA sponsered tournament. up until this weekend, we hadn't come close. we just aren't that great a team. then something odd happened this weekend. we finished 3rd in a tournament. 3rd isn't enough to get us in, but the team that won it already qualified earlier in the year. so the powers that be are kicking around giving us the other bid.

it's stupid. it's going to cost us a shitload of money and time to get back to the world series, and for what? to get massacred again? why put the kids through that? if we were a dominant team, i'd be all for it, but we're average at best. in the 7 games we played this weekend, we won 4, and that was against some really bad teams. there won't be really bad teams in the world series. the team that won the tournament beat us 10-0. it could have been a whole lot worse if not for the slaughter rule. that team probably won't even place in the W.S.

so now i'm faced with trying to raise money to send my daughter to a series that she may not play in, on a team that has no chance of winning, and i won't be able to go, because i don't have the money for it. all to appease our coach, who has lost his fucking mind.

[alpha]

For me it will always be
A) playing like we were last season, having a comfortable lead throughout the season.
B ) playing well and in 1st or 2nd
C) playing like we are now and still being only 3.5 out.

































D) being completely out of the race this early in the season

[Lance]

Sorry to hear that, Tommy. When kids reach that adolescent stage, most of them want to spend more time with their friends and less with their parents. It's no reflection on you--it's just the way it is.

Funny you should mention the situation with going to the softball world series, because I had the exact same thing with basketball. My son's team qualified for the nationals--but that meant a week at Myrtle Beach at a cost of at least $1000 per family. No way could we have raised enough money to make a serious dent in the per family cost. On top of that, they are good--but not that good. They would have no chance to compete for the national title. They've played good teams, so I have a pretty good sense of what would happen in that venue. And if they had gone, my son might have played for a minute in each game--he'd be the last guy off the bench. Fortunately, they decided not to go.

[Butcher]

Damn, tommy. If there's something I could to to help, I would. That sucks.

If only the Cubs could pull their shit together, everyone on this board would be so much happier. Just one World Series is all it would take.

It's a shame that so many of us place so much emotional stock in the outcome of a bunch of spoiled, overpaid millionaire athletes playing a kid's game. Not a single member of the Cubs gives a flying fuck about any of us.

[veryzer]

<!--quoteo(post=47016:date=Jun 29 2009, 11:34 AM:name=Lance)-->QUOTE (Lance @ Jun 29 2009, 11:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Sorry to hear that, Tommy. When kids reach that adolescent stage, most of them want to spend more time with their friends and less with their parents. It's no reflection on you--it's just the way it is.

Funny you should mention the situation with going to the softball world series, because I had the exact same thing with basketball. My son's team qualified for the nationals--but that meant a week at Myrtle Beach at a cost of at least $1000 per family. No way could we have raised enough money to make a serious dent in the per family cost. On top of that, they are good--but not that good. They would have no chance to compete for the national title. They've played good teams, so I have a pretty good sense of what would happen in that venue. And if they had gone, my son might have played for a minute in each game--he'd be the last guy off the bench. Fortunately, they decided not to go.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


there are two scenario's that can bail me out of this:

1. we're still going to the big iowa tournament (which to me is a world series, without the world series sponsership). that one is the weekend of july 17 thru 19. the world series starts immediately after. if we good to iowa and get trounced, they may just decide the the world sereis isn't a good idea. this is a very real possibility. the iowa tournament is big time with big time teams. we don't have a chance in hell of doing well there. our coach is a lunatic though, so who knows?

2. they decide not to give us the invitation because the rules state that you have to come in 1st or 2nd in a sponsered tournament. we came in third, barely. hopefully they won't give us the bid.

[Destined]

As much pain as we get from this team, coupled with the people that find it odd that we invest so much time, energy, and emotion into the Cubs, I honestly think the board is the only place where people can talk to others who can perfectly relate. Many of us are not in Chicago, and naturally don't have people to talk to about the Cubs. Those who are in Chicago surely get annoyed at the half-assed fans. Guys, we are the real fans, and this is the place for understanding. Bitchiness or not, this is all that a lot of us have to spend time around the team, and the game we love.

[dk123]

I'm sorry to hear that Tommy. I also agree completely with the premise of this thread. If that makes me a shitty fan, so be it, but after yesterday's game, I couldn't help but feel like a total sucker for devoting so much time to this team.

[kbwsb]

I think the reason this year's version of the Cubs hurts more than usual is the expectation level.
Previous to this year, 2004 was about the worst season I recall enduring, and for the same reasons. Last year was so damn pleasant; we were good, and we won a lot. The playoffs were tough, but playoffs are a weird thing.

One thing about this year, though: I haven't given up hope. I'm continually astounded that we're still so close to the top of the division. I mean, practically everything has gone wrong, and we're still in the race.

As you all know, I am the<i> last</i> guy to sound like a pollyanna, but we do have some things to look forward to in the 2nd half: Aramis, our best player by far, will rejoin the team. It would be almost impossible for Soriano and Bradley, two excellent baseball players, to play as horrifically in the 2nd half as they did in the first. Lee and Fuk, two guys I had 100% written off, have played surprisingly decently, and it's possible that it will continue. The SP hasn't really clicked, but it's actually been OK; we have some very good pitchers who are kind of underperforming, and it would not shock me to see them perform better in the 2nd half.
I see us as at least being <i>in</i> the race this year. Considering all the 70-win seasons I've suffered through as a Cub fan, to me, it's not bad. Not good. But Ok.