Andy

The sign that said "The geeks will inherit the turf" was awesome Yeah, that's gotta be Gameday sign of the year so far

I was going to point out how they're only 5-0 now, but then I realized they play Mississippi State next week. Haha, I was mistaken originally, but yeah, they probably will. Mizzou has scored a TD on every single first offensive drive this year...that's a nice little pattern.

How freaking awesome must it be to be a Vandy student right now? I mean apart from the insane amount of homework they probably have to do. I would love if they kept winning, even though the odds are heavily stacked against it.

Picked off! Vandy will go 6-0!!!

Wow, Vanderbilt almost colossally choked. Got the fumble back. I have a bad feeling if they don't get the first here. I'm really hoping they can stay unbeaten.

I'm keeping my stuff I've had on all day...no Cubs stuff. Changing it up.

So between Stanford's players trying to start brawls with us, tackles mouthing off to the paper about how bad our defense is for only having 1 sack through 4 games (how does four taste, Chris Marinelli?) and about how he hates playing at ND, Jim Harbaugh losing his mind on penalty calls against Stanford, and the Cardinal band being such jackasses that they somehow got banned from the campus, I have no idea why this series continues. Stanford is completely irrelevant and there's no point playing them anymore. But thanks for letting Jimmy have a career day when we couldn't even run the ball. 4-1. Ball State - no games under 35 points this year - leads Toledo at the half, but by a 3-0 score.

I may not be on here to get this in before the game starts tomorrow: Let's freaking do this [expletive]. These Cubs have gotten up off the mat before, and they sure as hell can do it again. We have the single most unhittable pitcher in baseball ready to roll tonight, and a fly ball pitcher who's been awesome recently waiting to go tomorrow. There is no reason we can't play just as well in these games as we have badly in the first two. Go Cubs. We're not done.

No idea how much I'll be around tomorrow to post this so I'll do it now. The Rays try to eliminate that other team in our fair city and move on to the ALCS for the first time in team history. They'll have to do it against the guy that helped pitch the White Sox into the playoffs in the first place. This should be interesting. Let's get it on.

I'm hopeful that going to the Notre Dame game tomorrow will cheer me up more regarding the Cubs. It's gonna be football weather - way colder than it's been through September. I'm looking forward to it.

DeRosa's blog I know it means utterly nothing to anything in terms of the Cubs' chances, but I really love Mark DeRosa. Dude really seems to love being a Cub and I know he's certainly not alone, but he seems to take this stuff hard. Get 'em tomorrow, Mark. We can do this.

Me too. I don't know why. I knew we were done after 2-0 last year and barely even bothered watching Game 3 in favor of college football, and this year I know we aren't done. Gotta be something to this, right?

Samardzija has an NTC.

Dick Stockton said that Edmonds told Tom Verducci he was fine. It was precautionary.

I was going to post something like this in the game thread, basically calling for a moratorium on any "this team is different" type posts, of which I made many myself this year. Because clearly, being different doesn't mean jack in the playoffs.

Win this for the players. Much as I grow frustrated with Derrek Lee's DP's Kosuke's suckitude, Zambrano's occasional meltdown, Theriot's inability to make the routine defensive play, Cedeno's inability to make the routine defensive play, Soriano's inability to stop swinging at junk, and everything else, I love every single one of those guys. They gave me the best six months of my sports-fan life this year, and will be worthy champions if they can rise from these ashes. Win this for my mom, who knows jack crap about baseball but is trying to follow it because she, a die-hard Notre Dame football fan, wants to see Jeff Samardzija succeed. Not long ago, she asked me if Jeff could re-enter a game once he is taken out. She asked me on Wednesday night if Game 1 of the NLDS was a big game. She knows nothing, literally. But since my father walked out on our family at age 10 and has tried to destroy it ever since, she has been my hero. I want to see her celebrate, even if it's something she has no idea of the significance of achieving. Win this for every Cub fan that was born, lived a life, and died without ever seeing a World Series title. And for the ones that never saw a pennant. Win this for Ron Santo, who may never live to see himself elected into the Hall of Fame due to a bunch of jackassical cronies. Give him something to smile about. Win this for us. We want it bad. Any glimpse at a game thread tells you that.

I have all the belief in the world we can win the next three games, but if we don't I'm not confident at all in 2009. Derrek Lee is not a good hitter anymore, certainly not for a first baseman. Theriot's magic might be up. Edmonds and Dempster have no chance to repeat last season if they're even Cubs at all. Reed might not either. Fukudome is all but done. Soriano is injury-prone (I don't believe in curses but it's pretty ridiculous this was never the case prior to two weeks into his Cubs career). DeRosa won't repeat this year. Harden is still a health risk, as is Wood. Never know what to expect from Marmol and Z because of overuse (though I'm not as worried about Z as I once was). There's a lot that could go wrong this year. Soto and Aramis are the only guys I'm stone cold confident in for 09.

SD offered Fukudome more money than we did.

And, yeah, we're gonna shut this turd burglar up, too.

I have been taking a lot of incredulity from people (in-person and on NSBB) because I've been saying since late Wednesday night that we will win both games in L.A. We will win both games in L.A. I thought that Wednesday, I thought it last night, I think it today and I will think it Saturday. And I will think it Sunday too. This season is not over yet, Cubs. Don't play like it is and we can damn well beat these guys.

Your optimism is seriously borderline annoying now. It's not even optimism. I just don't want to hate my own team. Most of the rest of you can it looks like. And that's fine. I can't.

He was asked about Fukudome, interrupted the question halfway through and said "I don't want to hear about Fukudome. It's gonna be Fontenot or somebody else out there. The kid's struggling, no use sending him out there anymore."

holy god. Lou just destroyed Fukudome. Wow.

I want to hate this team. But all that stuff I posted in NSBB over the course of the year about them being so damn lovable, and this being my favorite sports team ever, and this being the BEST sports season I've ever followed... After all of this, it's still true. I love these guys. And I am not willing to throw them under the bus.