According to ESPN, Cubs SOS is 29th in MLB

[Sammy Sofa]

When my only other decades of personal reference are half of the 80's and the 90's, it's pretty clear I'm not "lying," you lunatic.

 

Nobody is stopping you from being a misanthrope, gooney.

[UMFan83]

Just about every season in the decade I went in with playoff/championship hopes.

 

I think you might be misremembering. There's no way you had championship hopes in 2000 or 2001. Nobody even thought 2003 was going to be special until June.

 

I would bet the only seasons people went into with legit championship hopes were 2004, 2008 and 2009.

 

That's why I said just about. I felt good going into 2003. I didn't think we'd make the playoffs, but I wouldnt have been shocked if we were competing come September. I felt like things were improving with Prior, Choi, Hill, Zambrano, Cruz, etc.

[jersey cubs fan]

When my only other decades of personal reference are half of the 80's and the 90's, it's pretty clear I'm not "lying," you lunatic.

 

Nobody is stopping you from being a misanthrope, gooney.

 

You may not realize you are lying, but you are. There were a handful of great seasons but the decade was not great. Just stop pretending it was.

[Sammy Sofa]

When my only other decades of personal reference are half of the 80's and the 90's, it's pretty clear I'm not "lying," you lunatic.

 

Nobody is stopping you from being a misanthrope, gooney.

 

You may not realize you are lying, but you are. There were a handful of great seasons but the decade was not great. Just stop pretending it was.

 

I'm not. Once more, the point is that it's "great" IN COMPARISON TO THE SUCKFEST THAT WAS THE 1990'S.

 

How are you not grasping this at all?

[UMFan83]

I feel like you are giving impressions on seasons looking back right now, and not how you felt during the seasons.

 

2001 was all kinds of awesome as it was happening. I doubted all spring, and when July came and they were still in first, I started to get excited and started ignoring some obvious signs that things would go south. I had a lot of fun...any time the Cubs are in first place in July, it's fun.

 

2004 was a lot of fun. Yes it was also annoying, and the actions of the team left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but we were still competing for a playoff spot every day until the end. We were relevant, and everyone had the idea that if we could only slip into a playoff spot, our pitching will give us a shot. Misguided or not, that was the prevailing thought at the time. If we had won a couple more games during that last week of the season, people could have remembered that season a lot differently.

 

2005 and 2006 were two of the most miserable years I've ever experienced as a sports fan. 2005 was just a steady run of mediocrity. When Neifi Perez and Glendon Rusch are the 2 things I remember most about that team, that's not good. But what really put a dark cloud over those years were the White Sox and Cardinals winning the WS while we couldn't get out of our own way.

[jersey cubs fan]

When my only other decades of personal reference are half of the 80's and the 90's, it's pretty clear I'm not "lying," you lunatic.

 

Nobody is stopping you from being a misanthrope, gooney.

 

You may not realize you are lying, but you are. There were a handful of great seasons but the decade was not great. Just stop pretending it was.

 

I'm not. Once more, the point is that it's "great" IN COMPARISON TO THE SUCKFEST THAT WAS THE 1990'S.

 

How are you not grasping this at all?

 

Because that is not what JR is saying. And regardless, it still wasn't great. It was better. It was less sucky. There was less disappointment, but the majority of seasons were major bummers or disasters, they fell way short of expectations that most people had going into the decade.

 

There were more enjoyable moments and seasons than in any previous decade we've seen, but it wasn't close to great.

[jersey cubs fan]

Just about every season in the decade I went in with playoff/championship hopes.

 

I think you might be misremembering. There's no way you had championship hopes in 2000 or 2001. Nobody even thought 2003 was going to be special until June.

 

I would bet the only seasons people went into with legit championship hopes were 2004, 2008 and 2009.

 

That's why I said just about. I felt good going into 2003. I didn't think we'd make the playoffs, but I wouldnt have been shocked if we were competing come September. I felt like things were improving with Prior, Choi, Hill, Zambrano, Cruz, etc.

 

You said just about every season in the decade, presumably that means 8 or 9 seasons. I don't see how it is possible that you had championship hopes in 8 or 9 seasons of the 2000s.

[Sammy Sofa]

Because that is not what JR is saying.

 

Actually it is:

 

They were great years. Maybe not great in terms of keeping Jim Hendry in a job, but definitely great in terms of J.R. enjoying the respective seasons.

 

Do you need that repeated? That's what we're talking about: people are saying it's "great" in terms of enjoying the seasons as they happened. Yeah, the endings didn't work out, but compared to a decade like the 90's it was great when it came to just being to sit back and enjoy the Cubs playing good or at least competitive baseball throughout most of the regular season. I was able to do that for 5 seasons in the 00's. I was able to do that once in the 90's. In that regard, yes, the 00's were great. Does that mean they actually played great baseball? No. There's a clear difference, and you're being willfully obtuse by arguing a point that nobody is making. Nobody is saying the Cubs were actually playing great baseball or putting great teams on the field in the 00's. It was just "great" in terms of having that many seasons in a decade where the Cubs were in it when we'd never been able to experience that before.

[jersey cubs fan]

Do you need that repeated? That's what we're talking about: people are saying it's "great" in terms of enjoying the seasons as they happened.

 

Again, 2000 sucked, 2001 was better than expected, but still not close to great. 2002 sucked, 2003 great, 2004 started great but went crappy in a hurry. People said for half a season that they hated the team and things sucked. To pretend like 2004 was somehow great is a huge stretch, but go ahead and take that if you insist. 2005 sucked, 2006 sucked. 2007 was surprisingly good, but there was very little great about it until the end when they backed into the playoffs. 2008 was great, 2009 sucked. 2 legitimately great seasons, maybe 3.5 if you really push it. The rest were either disappointing or absymal.

 

If you want to say they were better than the 90's, you get no argument. But the fact is they were almost a mirror image of the 80's, and as far as the decade as a whole is concerned, they were not great. They can't be great when half the seasons were torture. It's just pointless to pretend otherwise.

[Sammy Sofa]

This whole argument is pointless. You're acting like there's some set way that people have to remember those seasons or have experienced them. The point, for me, is that I really enjoyed most of 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and even 2009 as they occurred. That's it. It's not a matter of me being "wrong" or "lying." I, and others like J.R., just have a different memory of those seasons than you. Compared to the other decades I experienced, the 80's and 90's, it was great in the sense that more often than not I was invested in watching a Cubs team that was managing to be competitive.

 

If you want keep up this completely one sided argument where you think anyone is actually saying that the Cubs were truly great in the 00's, go right ahead. Nobody is actually saying that, yet you're showing zero sign of realizing that.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Sammy Sofa

[jersey cubs fan]

This whole argument is pointless. You're acting like there's some set way that people have to remember those seasons or have experienced them. The point, for me, is that I really enjoyed most of 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and even 2009 as they occurred. That's it. It's not a matter of me being "wrong" or "lying." I, and others like J.R., just have a different memory of those seasons than you.

 

If you want keep up this completely one sided argument where you think anyone is actually saying that the Cubs were truly great in the 00's, go right ahead. Nobody is actually saying that, yet you're showing zero sign of realizing that.

 

That's because while you have been saying that, JR was not. He backed off his initial claim eventually, but that is not what he was saying.

 

 

And I'm sorry but no way you really enjoyed 2009 as it occurred. No way.

[Sammy Sofa]

And I'm sorry but no way you really enjoyed 2009 as it occurred. No way.

 

Why not? It sure as hell wasn't ideal, but the Cubs were in the race for most of the season. I enjoyed it from the perspective that for most of the season I was following them with the idea that with just a bit of a push they might be able to sneak in. Obviously, that fall apart at the end, but I was truly invested in the team for that summer. I think I just enjoy baseball differently than you do.

 

And why don't you just ask J.R. what he meant? You created this whole tangent off of a single post that doesn't express anything like what you keep acting like he did. You're basing this whole thing simply on the word "great" being typed.

[J.R.]

J.R. will stand by everything he said in this thread. At no point will J.R. back off his claims of enjoying the hell out of following the Cubs in the 2000s despite the lack of a pennant, nor his stubborn attachment to the 2010 team and hopes for their eventual success.

[UMFan83]

Just about every season in the decade I went in with playoff/championship hopes.

 

I think you might be misremembering. There's no way you had championship hopes in 2000 or 2001. Nobody even thought 2003 was going to be special until June.

 

I would bet the only seasons people went into with legit championship hopes were 2004, 2008 and 2009.

 

That's why I said just about. I felt good going into 2003. I didn't think we'd make the playoffs, but I wouldnt have been shocked if we were competing come September. I felt like things were improving with Prior, Choi, Hill, Zambrano, Cruz, etc.

 

You said just about every season in the decade, presumably that means 8 or 9 seasons. I don't see how it is possible that you had championship hopes in 8 or 9 seasons of the 2000s.

 

I had playoff or championship hopes. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. 8 seasons I went into the season thinking we had a shot at the playoffs.

[bcl412]

And I'm sorry but no way you really enjoyed 2009 as it occurred. No way.

 

Why not? It sure as hell wasn't ideal, but the Cubs were in the race for most of the season. I enjoyed it from the perspective that for most of the season I was following them with the idea that with just a bit of a push they might be able to sneak in. Obviously, that fall apart at the end, but I was truly invested in the team for that summer. I think I just enjoy baseball differently than you do.

 

And why don't you just ask J.R. what he meant? You created this whole tangent off of a single post that doesn't express anything like what you keep acting like he did. You're basing this whole thing simply on the word "great" being typed.

 

There were quite a few things to enjoy about 2009 and had it not occurred after 2008 I don't think it would be viewed upon as that disappointing.

 

There were some fun walk off moments, the 7 run deficit that we came back from vs Cleveland and they were in the race fairly late in the season.