Andy

What are Holliday's splits away from Coors? I'm intrigued by him but I think I remember hearing he was much better in Colorado.

frankly, all the "my conference is better than yours" talk is getting pretty old. who cares? Makes being an independent sound pretty good, eh? :wink:

The 2008 Cubs team were my favorites in the short time I've been a fan, and they still are.

2004 hurt you more then 2003? Seriously? That was such a miserable team that by the end I didn't even care. I was 17, so I didn't realize until later what a bunch of dunderheads they were. It's not like 2003 was a band of wonderfully likable guys anyway, we just didn't know they were idiots until 2004. And 2004 was a much better team. So yes, it hurt me more.

2004 hurt more than anything, because 2003 was the first one. I was a dumb kid who figured we'd be back in 2003. And unlike even this team, I was absolutely certain the 2004 team would win it all if they made the playoffs. 2003 is a distant second to 2004, with 2008 not far behind. 2007 is barely on the radar screen compared to those three.

The worst part is that no one will remember the 2008 Cubs as the best team in the league because they didn't get it done when it mattered. It's that very few Cubs fans will look back at the 2008 season the way the first 161 games went, they'll look at the last 3. The worst part is that the same team that inspired us to say, so many times, "I love this team!" did nothing to inspire it when it counted.

Just stopping in to say Go Bears! I think you guys will get it done this weekend, and hopefully you do, it would help us out.

Purdue, IU, and Michigan are all horrible. Northwestern is pretty good, but hasn't really played anyone yet either. Same for Minnesota. Illinois is probably not as good as they've appeared to be, but I'm willing to wait and see on them. Wisconsin has lost their only game against a good team (Fresno lost to Hawaii at home, which really puts a damper on Wisco's win there) plus blown the lead against UM. The Big Ten has a few good teams (Ohio State is still pretty good, and MSU is probably better than people are giving them credit for right now, and Penn State is obviously quite good themselves), but it's still not a very good league this year. Probably better than last year, but not very good.

Don't worry, only half of that will be true next week. MSU is going to clobber Northwestern (sorry Jon).

The Panthers won 34-0 with two makeshift guys starting at tackle because their starting tackles were both injured...DeAngelo scored 3 times, Delhomme was fantastic, Smith was great...color me pleased. Next week's the big one though...huge game at Tampa. If the Panthers can win that one it's going to be very hard to keep them from winning the division.

Notre Dame will have to play their best game of the year to beat UNC. They looked fantastic for 3 quarters yesterday but fell asleep in the driver's seat in the 4th. That will not fly vs the Heels. They also may want to think about having someone on the roster who can find that spot between the yellow sticks on field goals (they are commonly called "uprights"). Ball State should have another easy win on their hands in their debut game as a ranked team.

Notre Dame is usually playing really good teams early in the season (or teams people think at the time are really good), so normally being 4-1 is something of a feat. This year their best win is over Michigan, and they don't have a road win. That's why they're not getting votes. Not that difficult to figure.

The NFC South might just be the 2nd best division in football right now... Carolina's 4-1, Tampa's 3-1 and in progress, Atlanta's 3-2 and New Orleans is 2-2 with a chance to go 3-2 tomorrow night.

Top 25 games ----------------- (5) Texas at (1) Oklahoma (12 pm, ABC) (4) LSU at (11) Florida (8 pm, CBS) (17) Oklahoma State at (3) Missouri (8 pm, ESPN2) (6) Penn State at Wisconsin (8 pm, ESPN) Nebraska at (7) Texas Tech (3 pm) Arizona State at (8) USC (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) New Mexico at (9) BYU (6 pm, The Mountain) Tennessee at (10) Georgia (3:30 pm, CBS) Purdue at (12) Ohio State (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) (13) Vanderbilt at Mississippi State (2:30 pm) (14) Utah at Wyoming (2 pm, The Mountain) (15) Boise State at Southern Mississippi (8 pm, CSTV) Colorado at (16) Kansas (12:30 pm, ESPN2) Arkansas at (20) Auburn (5 pm, ESPN360) Clemson at (21) Wake Forest (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Notre Dame at (22) North Carolina (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) (23) Michigan State at Northwestern (3:30 pm, ESPN2) (25) Ball State at Western Kentucky (7 pm) Other games of interest ------------------------------ Louisville at Memphis (8 pm Friday, ESPN) Iowa at Indiana (12 pm, Big Ten) Toledo at Michigan (12 pm, Big Ten) Minnesota at Illinois (12 pm, ESPN) Syracuse at West Virginia (12 pm, ESPNU) South Carolina at Kentucky (12:30 pm, ESPN360) Miami (OH) at Northern Illinois (4 pm) Iowa State at Baylor (7 pm) UCLA at Oregon (10:15 pm) Brown at Holy Cross (1 pm) Indiana State at Southern Illinois (2:30 pm) Illinois State at Northern Iowa (5 pm) Southern Utah at UC Davis (9 pm) Other nationally televised games ----------------------------------------- Troy at Florida Atlantic (8 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) UAB at Houston (8 pm Thursday, CSTV) Eastern Michigan at Army (1 pm, ESPN Classic) TCU at Colorado State (3:30 pm, CSTV) Central Florida at Miami (3:45 pm, ESPNU) Utah State at San Jose State (7:30 pm, ESPNU) Winston-Salem at Florida A&M (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPNU)

Carolina is absolutely dominating right now. The Chiefs have 5 offensive yards and the Panthers lead 14-0.

Ball State is ranked! :D

My favorite moment was receiving my money back for my Game 5 NLDS ticket.

"At least 101 takes longer to say"

Not quite as depressing as I expected. Can't fault him too much, though. This whole thing would've happened with or without his screwups and he did pretty well besides that.

The really crappy part is that this team probably won't be all that good in 2009.

I'm in this boat. I'm more frustrated than I was on Thursday when I was trying to play the "I love this team" game, but I'm not nearly as mad at everyone (except, for some reason, Ryan Theriot) as most Cubs fans probably are.

The Cubs handed LA one fewer run in the 2nd inning of Game 2 than they scored in 27 innings.

I've been unemployed for five months (well, I have a 'job', but it's pulling orders in a warehouse) since I graduated, and these guys kept me sane that whole time more than anything else could. I think that more than anything is what I take from this season...that during a really crappy time in my life, the Cubs helped. This wasn't the year. You know what? Some other year will be.

Thanks for the fun year, NSBB. See you back in the game thread forum in six months. ...

Wow, that's almost borderline mean. Pat must be taking this hard.