Alert the media: I am officialy "concerned"

[Wes Mantooth]

Dear Mr. Jersey

If we would ever meet I owe you a beer. You have summed up my Cubs fan attitude perfectly.

Thank you.

[davearm]

I never have, and hopefully never will, embrace the okay-ness. Sorry, none of this resonates.

 

I'm glad they are still in the race, but I'm still very disappointed at what a poor job the front office has done over the past several years, when they had every opportunity to construct a truly great team and chose to blow it on crappy veterans who don't fit the profile of player they actually needed.

 

When I go to the game, I can enjoy myself. When I sit back and think about the season as a whole, I have a little hope they can make the playoffs and get lucky. But I'm still disappointed I have to hope for luck.

Having read this post, I can't help but wonder how you would've viewed the 2006 season if you were a Cardinal fan.

 

That Cards team was every bit as flawed and disappointing as this year's Cubs, and probably moreso (as 2007 is proving): overpaid, underachieving players; questionable managerial choices; finger-pointing at the GM; infighting; and horrific play late in the year that nearly led to a historic collapse.

 

I wonder if, as a fan, their October success would have been enough to overcome all of that suffering and disappointment, or whether you would've remained miserable to the very end, frustrated that a run of good luck, and not dynastic superiority, was the key to success.

 

You don't seriously want to compare them do you?

 

The Cardinals regularly fielded great teams that came up short in the playoffs. Then they got lucky with a mediocre team that finally won. I'd have been happy as hell if the Cubs went on the kind of run STL went on from 2000-2006.

 

If the Cubs won 95+ games 4 out of 6 years (93 and 85 the other two), I wouldn't be in anywhere close to the same frame of mind about the Cubs.

 

You can't seriously be trying to compare the situations. My lord, how ridiculous.

I'm just comparing the Cardinals' 2006 season to the Cubs' 2007 season, and seeing many similarities. You're telling us that this year has been predominantly disappointing, so it would stand to reason that you'd have been disappointed last year as a Cards fan too. You say you'll be satisfied with nothing less than greatness, and the Cards were not great last year.

 

I didn't think such a comparison would depend at all on years prior.

 

Implicit in your dismissive respose is the conclusion that apparently your ability to find any enjoyment or hope in this year's Cubs season has already been destroyed by the failures of past Cubs teams. That begs the question of why you bother yourself with it in the first place, if your disappointment is already preordained.

[Cynosure]

I don't think I am known as someone who does the "chicken little" thing around here, but the lack of offense over the last few days officially has me very concerned. It's starting to look like the beginning of the season when Lou was playing with the lineup each day hoping something would work. This is most disconcerting in light of the fact that the pitching has been good and the Brewers have been equally as bad lately (thus we have blown a golden opportunity to go up on them by a couple of games).

 

Just venting my concern.

 

One of the reasons I left the cubs.com message boards is because anytime anyone made an honest post like this, they were spammed with "OK LEDGIE JUMP OFF THE LEDGE". But I agree. We are EXTREMELY lucky that the Brewers have been losing or we could very easily be 3-4 back by now.

[jersey cubs fan]

You're telling us that this year has been predominantly disappointing, so it would stand to reason that you'd have been disappointed last year as a Cards fan too. .

 

No, I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you I'm not about to embrace the okayness.

 

I'm moderately pleased with what has transpired so far. I'm ecstatic that they have a chance. I'm not ecstatic that this is all we've got.

[SaorsaDaonnan]

I am a Cubs fan. I am also a fan of high quality baseball. When the Cubs do not enjoy periods of sustained success, my overall enjoyment of baseball is dramatically diminished. When the quality of baseball is low, the fun of watching successful Cubs teams diminishes. Others have mentioned the Cardinals' victory last season: I say that if the Cubs' 2007 were to mirror the Cards' 2006, the victory would be somewhat hollow. I am not impressed with success alone: whoever said that he'd rather be lucky than good was, to my mind, a great fool. If the Cubs win without deserving it, it would be, to be sure, less depressing than yet another failure, but it would fall well short of being completely satisfying. Baseball is not football: better teams lose short series all the time. If we know in our hearts that we were not the best team, how could we justify the joys of celebration? If an inferior team wins by the force of luck alone, it is not much to be proud of.

 

As a fan, I will not be satisfied until and unless I see a consistent pattern of intelligent baseball decisions, comparable to or better than those made by than the best front offices in baseball, and supported by a system of scouting and coaching designed to discover and instill the best available baseball strategies in players and managerial personnel. I will not be satisfied until the Cubs can be reasonably be described as industry leaders in at least some phases of this game, nor until the team has eliminated from its baseball decision procedures all remnants of its current antiempirical philosophy. I will not be satisfied until the organization demonstrates a robust conceptual understanding of the ideal value of baseball players and consistently implements strategies derived from this understanding. I will not be satisfied until the team comes close to maximizing its chances of winning.

 

I am pleased that the Cubs are in contention this year. I will be pleased if they make the playoffs, and it is even possible that you would see tears in my eyes if they were to win. I want to win. But I will not be satisfied until I see a team that correctly positions itself for victory. I do not like, and cannot fully support, a team that does not deserve the success it enjoys. I grew up watching Michael Jordan and the Bulls, and Ryne Sandberg, and to my mind, that is the standard of success. I say this: if you do not strive for excellence, you do not deserve my respect as a fan. If the Cubs do not strive for excellence, they do not deserve the loyalty of the fans who love them.

 

 

Edited for minor grammatical problems

[Electron Blue]

You're telling us that this year has been predominantly disappointing, so it would stand to reason that you'd have been disappointed last year as a Cards fan too. .

 

No, I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you I'm not about to embrace the okayness.

 

I'm moderately pleased with what has transpired so far. I'm ecstatic that they have a chance. I'm not ecstatic that this is all we've got.

 

Surprisingly, I can't disagree with a thing there.

[jiml60]

I cannot for a second support this "It's better than what we've seen in the past so let's just be happy" mindset. I couldn't support the "back to back .500 seasons was awesome" mindset either.

 

I'm not sure what you mean. I was posing a perspective: that we're in a good position at this point in the year. The fact that this situation is uncommon for us cubs fans, I understand, won't be shared by all. But why not live in the moment? I think you try and look at the big, pessimistic picture too often (I'm thinking of the JJ comments in the other thread). Right now things are okay and we would enjoy the season if we embraced that Okay-ness, IMO.

 

I can't agree with this stance either. All it's doing is setting us up for a big letdown in September or October. This team is not constructed well enough to get past the Mets, Phillies or the Padres if they should meet in the playoffs.

 

How are we set up to be letdown? If anything, a more negative view is setting you up to never enjoy the season, if you think they're not good now, and aren't likely to make the playoffs. Again, embrace the positive -- not only is it more logical, but I think it's more fun :)

 

I was enjoying the last two months but then mediocrity caught up to this team and we are now sinking to the expected level this team was built for.

 

I was excited in 2003 when we were 5 outs away from finally making the WS. If Hendry and DFB were doing their jobs, the bullpen would not have been woefully undermanned and might not have crapped in their collective pants in that 8th inning.

 

I've been a fan since 1968, so I think I know when a Cubs team is setting us up for a late season letdown. I'm tired of this organization putting a team together that they hope will catch lightning in a bottle.

 

For once I would like to see a Cubs team built for sustained success but there is a silver lining to the dreck we've seen the last 3 days; if it continues Hendry will be out on his butt once the sale is complete and he can take his place along with the likes of Salty Saltwell, Bob Kennedy, John Holland and Larry Himes.