Merry Christmas, Everyone (With Thank-Yous!)/Imai Christmas Gift?!

[Guest]

Hello, NSBB. I want to say “Merry Christmas” from the bottom of my heart, and I thank you for helping me during these times. I can confidently say that this forum was an early Christmas present, and that it was the best coincidence. (Right, IMB?!) I’m really in a thankful mood today!

My introduction to this forum was a rough start, but I think that we can all move forward from that and have fun talking about the Cubs. With tensions arising because of Imai, the offseason trailing on, and new contracts being considered, this forum has plenty to talk about, and I’m glad that I could contribute to some of those conversations in a meaningful way. I am also thankful for all of you guys having entered my life–as I say in all my forums, I think that it was meant to be. I couldn’t be more happy as I write this message.

I do want to give some special thank-yous to members who have helped me navigate this new forum. I hope that all of you have especially merry Christmases and that I am thankful for the help. In no particular order:

@Hot Sauce, you were the first to joke around with me. I appreciate your comments in my analogy thread, giving me a second chance and appreciating my uniqueness while acknowledging my intense new passion for Cubs baseball. I hope that we can have fun new conversations! You helped me make the decision to stay.

@ToolDRT, thanks for the earlier comments even though you thought I was possibly a bit. I enjoyed your comment about me being so fun to be around right after you dismissed me as a bit. But after that, we got into a serious discussion about baseball and continuity/change! Thanks for that warm introduction! 

@imb, I laughed when you made the comment that I cook up random horsefeathers each day. To an extent, that was true until I’ve gotten back into baseball. But thanks for giving me some confidence in the earlier part of that message. I know I’m weird, and I guess I’ll embrace it as I move forward in life. For someone who doesn’t usually give compliments, I’m honored.

@matto1233, thanks for engaging with me and reading the entirety of the first chapter of 1908 and giving me such stellar comments. I appreciate your reading and your willingness to make me persevere despite my adversity on the forum. Cheers to 1908 and more baseball history threads!

@BigbadB thanks for giving me detailed responses on how to be better on this forum despite the adversity I was talking about earlier. Your essay-like responses, filled to the brim with detail, helped me analyze the situation and think about my moves–how to thrive in a room full of 300-year-olds who bicker with each other about baseball. (Just kidding.) But on a serious note, you’ve helped me a lot and I thank you for being attentive and meticulous.

There have been two special people who have extremely helped me during my introduction to the forum and whom I am very grateful for; their advice was the strongest and their patience for me was extreme. We need more of these people in this world. In no particular order:

@Jason Ross, I have one word: Wow. In the beginning, you were the absolute first to interact with me, and you provided me with very thoughtful messages and talked to me calmly about talking about myself versus the topic at hand. It just demonstrated your willingness to engage with people who were being jeered, accused of being a troll, etc. And I appreciated your comments in that first analogy thread, each of which gave me advice and answered all of my annoying questions. But when I challenged a certain comment for absolutely no reason at all except because I was mad, I gave you grief that you didn’t deserve; I feel extremely sad and sorry for that nonsense. But despite that, when I apologized, you gave me insightful advice about how to continue on this forum and congratulated me with the progress I made in listening more rather than speaking all of the time and trying to dominate the scene. I just appreciate the way with which you approached everything, and I can’t wait to get into more essay-like paragraphs in the future about the Cubs! I hope that you and your family have a very merry Christmas and happy holidays!

@Brock Beauchamp, I am extremely, extremely grateful for all of the work you have done to help me assimilate. As you said, NSBB can be a tough crowd, and it can be a little hard to crack ‘em. But on a more serious note, thank you for helping me navigate this community. Your advice about listening more, carefully crafting my responses, and staying calm despite high emotions were invaluable, considering I have to learn this again and again when I join new forums. But unlike other site managers, who have, many times, encouraged me to leave, you encouraged me to stay and to be patient as I wait for engagement on my first chapter of 1908. The entire time I’ve been talking to you, you’ve always been very thorough in your answers; your tone has always been thoughtful and collaborative rather than condescending and rude, which is a rarity these days with moderators and site managers. Last but not least, you’ve helped me rebuild my reputation little by little. Your comment on my blog post meant more to me than you could have thought of, and I thank you for reading the entire chapter (despite the long paragraphs). I truly poured ounces into that work, and you acknowledged that and encouraged the community to accept me. You may have been the best site manager I’ve ever talked to on any forum at all, and I’ve had a lot of forum experience. Thank you so much, and merry Christmas/happy holidays to you and your family!

Again, I want to extend my gratitude to the entire community for, on an aggregate level, helping me rather than saying I’m a nuisance on this site. Again, this is sort of a “tradition” to me, but I want it to be a tradition to all of you. If you want to, you can thank other members in the space below and wish them a merry Christmas/happy holidays. 

And, I think I can speak for all of us when I am wishing for a very particular Christmas present. Tatsuya Imai would prove to be an invaluable gift to the Cubs; his pitching prowess excels, with velo over 90 and a diverse repertoire of 5 distinct pitches that pave the way for more strikeouts and explosiveness. I have enjoyed all of my conversations about him, and I dearly hope that he will be the Cubs’ newest addition! So let’s ask those Scrooges to sign the contract, even if it goes beyond eight figures! Don’t bah-humbug Imai! (Haha.) But I am looking forward to the 2026 baseball season, and hopefully I can catch more games–which hopefully contain Imai on the North Side, not on the East Coast.

Have an awesome Christmas, holidays, and a happy New Year!

[Hot Sauce]

Merry Christmas, Cubs Dude. I'm glad you decided to stay. You add flavor to the forum and that is something that I will always embrace. 

[CubinNY]

The flavor is black licorice. 

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

The flavor is black licorice. 

I dislike black licorice and avoid it. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I dislike black licorice and avoid it. 

Merry Christmas, @Rcal10!

[Bull]

19 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

Merry Christmas, @Rcal10!

Thank you for reducing the length of your signature. Posts are next.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bull said:

Thank you for reducing the length of your signature. Posts are next.

I'm workin' on it!

[ToolDRT]

Merry Christmas @The Cubs Dude Hope you have a great Christmas and an amazing new year as well! 

[imb]

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would've liked to known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

[Sammy Sofa]

[cl smooth]

...so what did he do to get the boot?

[Brian707]

Maybe someone had a burner account 

[17 Seconds]

🎵 where are yoooou, and i'm so sorry 🎵