CUBS.....lose :( typical....

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

The year was 1908, it is a good year for the Chicago Cubs because they have won the World Series. Not only that, they won the year prior, in 1907, they seemed like a true A-team. At that time I'm sure people looked to the future believing the Cubs would become a very great Ball Club. It turned out that 1908 would be the last year to date that the Cubs won a World Series. They made the World Series 7 times afterward, the most recent time being in 1945. The year 1945 is significant in Cubs history because it is supposedly the year the franchise became cursed. The Cubs were winning the series 2-0. During Game 3 of the World Series, played in Wrigley Feild (the home Ball park for the Cubs in Chicago) a man named Billy Sianas was asked to leave the park due to his goat's odor bothering other fans. Enraged that he was forced to leave the game, he said, “Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more.” thus the “Curse of the Billy Goat” was set in motion. Oddly enough the Detroit Tigers rallied during Game 3, and went on to win the next 4 games afterward. Since then the Cubs have never made it into another World Series.

Over the years there have been many attempts to lift the curse, which is interpretated in many ways. Some people say the curse means simply that the Cubs will never make it into a World Series, some people say the curse means they can make it in, but never actually win a World Series... the theories go on and on, most can be found here, along with attempts to break the curse: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Billy_Goat

Now the one year I do recall was in 2003, the Cubs were so close to making it into a World Series, but during Game 6 the infamous “Walkman guy” is blamed for causing the Domino effect which made the Cubs lose their chance to make the World Series. Due to laziness, rather than writing the whole description I will simply quote it from a Wikipedia article.

After losing an extra-inning game in Game 1, the Cubs rallied and took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Wild Card Florida Marlins in the NLCS. Florida shut the Cubs out in Game 5, but young pitcher Mark Prior led the Cubs in Game 6 as they took a 3–0 lead into the 8th inning and it was at this point when a now-infamous incident took place. Several spectators attempted to catch a foul ball off the bat of Luis Castillo. A Chicago Cubs fan by the name of Steve Bartman, of Northbrook, IL, reached for the ball and deflected it away from the glove of Moisés Alou for the second out of the 8th inning. Alou reacted angrily toward the stands, and after the game stated that he would have caught the ball.[14] Alou at one point recanted, saying he would not have been able to make the play, but later said this was just an attempt to make Bartman feel better and believing the whole incident should be forgotten.[14] Interference was not called on the play, as the ball was ruled to be on the spectator side of the wall. Castillo was eventually walked by Prior. Two batters later, and to the chagrin of the packed stadium, Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez misplayed an inning ending double play, loading the bases and leading to eight Florida runs and a Marlin victory. Despite sending Kerry Wood to the mound and holding a lead twice, the Cubs ultimately dropped Game 7, and failed to reach the World Series.

The "Steve Bartman incident" was seen as the "first domino" in the turning point of the era, and the Cubs did not win a playoff game for the next eleven seasons.[15]

What is the problem? I'm not a supersticious person but they seem like a cursed team! The Cubs suck! They could have made the World Series this year, but the Mets swept them! Is there a logical explanation for all the bad fortune that has befallen this ball club, are they “cursed”? I mean this year it's true they only had one really good pitcher, wereas the Mets had a lot of really goid pitchers. It also looked to me like the Cubs defense and offense just fell apart, especially in games 3 and 4. The Cubs just have trouble getting a good team together. Often times in the past they'd get good players, like Sammy Sosa, but they had big egos, they weren't team players. Whenever they'd get really good pitching in the past they'd oftentimes trade that top-notch pitcher for two mediocre players... the system was just all wrong. It also didn't help the the General Management, up until recently sucked just as bad as the team itself! COME ON CUBS, GET YOUR **** TOGETHER, CHICAGO WANTS TO SEE YOU GET IN A DAMN WORLD SERIES! Hell even a lot of Americans all over the country were bandwagoning for the Cubs. I guess all we can hope for is that somehow things work out and a really good team eventually gets formed. Until then, it looks like the Curse is still intact.

 

[Jamie]

Yes there's a logical explanation: they've not had a good enough team for 108 years.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Yes there's a logical explanation: they've not had a good enough team for 108 years.

They've had a few decent teams.

 

[Mr. Ister]

You said "The Cubs just have trouble getting a good team together." This has generally been true, but the Cubs this year are stacked, and natural career progression indicates the team should continue to improve. They have a very well-constructed team, although with some problems here and there as all teams do.

The MLB playoffs favor teams that get hot at the right time, regardless of regular season success or individual statistics. The Mets have been hot for awhile, and with Daniel Murphy imitating Babe Ruth, it ended up being a blowout NLCS. The playoffs are entirely unpredictable, but the Cubs should find themselves there with a chance for years to come.

Coming from a Cardinals fan, I worry the Cards' streak of 3 Central division titles in a row will be much harder to continue with both the Pirates and the Cubs looking stacked, and the Cards potentially having trouble keeping up with an older roster, especially if we don't re-sign Heyward.

 

[Jamie]

You said "The Cubs just have trouble getting a good team together." This has generally been true, but the Cubs this year are stacked, and natural career progression indicates the team should continue to improve. They have a very well-constructed team, although with some problems here and there as all teams do.

The MLB playoffs favor teams that get hot at the right time, regardless of regular season success or individual statistics. The Mets have been hot for awhile, and with Daniel Murphy imitating Babe Ruth, it ended up being a blowout NLCS. The playoffs are entirely unpredictable, but the Cubs should find themselves there with a chance for years to come.

Coming from a Cardinals fan, I worry the Cards' streak of 3 Central division titles in a row will be much harder to continue with both the Pirates and the Cubs looking stacked, and the Cards potentially having trouble keeping up with an older roster, especially if we don't re-sign Heyward.

Can agree with this. The cubbies will likely be in the WS within the next few years. They have a good young core that's only going to get better.

 

[Jamie]

Also I'd like to say Daniel Murphy was imitating no one. That's how great he's been lately. It's historic, and he's not even a slugger.

 

[Mr. Ister]

True. It's insane.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Coming from a Cardinals fan, I worry the Cards' streak of 3 Central division titles in a row will be much harder to continue with both the Pirates and the Cubs looking stacked, and the Cards potentially having trouble keeping up with an older roster, especially if we don't re-sign Heyward.

I admit at one point a few years ago I started rooting for the Cards. They won atleast 3 World Series' in the last 10 years. Honestly I was suprised the Cubs even beat them.

Anyway I hope you are right about the Cubs, see you don't actually get the fustration unless you are a die-hard fan who was born on the Northside of Illinios. I've gotten my hopes up many times, and they were crushed...

 

[Djinn]

And they decided to bring tradition back after all!

It's still weird to me to think of the Cubs as anything other than the worst team, they are just synonymous with being terrible. So hearing about them making it to the playoffs was just...weird. I never really thought it was possible.

 

[Disasterbate5k]

Cubs still rocked this year. Now I'm from the Portland, OR area so all we have is the Mariners. People like to poke fun at the Cubs, but man, are the Mariners pretty lame too. This was pretty much the best team comeback I've seen in a long time. It's a shame they didn't make it to the World Series, but the Met's put up a good fight.