Sammy Sofa

As a kid we seemed to mostly end up going to games against the Reds at Wrigley, to the point that I remember being surprised when I finally realized that other teams' fans didn't fill the place up like those Reds fans do. Of course, it seems like they're mostly sending in old folks as opposed to drunken goons, so I ended up just ignoring them. The Reds tended to have players I liked, so outside of their criminal notion of how chili should be made and the general existence of the Brennamans they never have bugged me too much. I feel like this feels that way for me too. I mean, the unbalanced division thing is a big part of it. I feel like every game I go to is a Reds or Pirates game. Yup. Looking back, it feels like for the first, like, 20 years of being a Cubs fan I went to 60% Reds games and 40% Pirates games. The Cubs might as well have not played anyone else.

I've hated the reds my entire life. Not really sure why specifically, but they've always been right there with the Cardinals in terms of opposing team I hate. And when I was a kid they weren't even in the Cubs division. As a kid we seemed to mostly end up going to games against the Reds at Wrigley, to the point that I remember being surprised when I finally realized that other teams' fans didn't fill the place up like those Reds fans do. Of course, it seems like they're mostly sending in old folks as opposed to drunken goons, so I ended up just ignoring them. The Reds tended to have players I liked, so outside of their criminal notion of how chili should be made and the general existence of the Brennamans they never have bugged me too much.

Oh yeah; there's lots of one-sided hating out there. Brewers fans seem to hate the Cubs and their fans, too, but nobody else actually cares.

As I said, in the South you kinda have to cross state lines or go great distances to find your rivals. An equivalent to the French Quarter isn't walking distance from Wrigley. Make no mistake, it's a genuine rivalry and can get really ugly. Oh, I'm not saying it's made up; it's just one of those things where you have the really infamous rivalries that everyone knows of, and then ones like this where it's, like," huh; I guess that's a thing." And whole it's no French Quarter, this kinda feels like we're underselling the awfulness of Wrigleyville.

that's a very weird rule by this definition, the Dallas Cowboys don't have a rivalry with anybody in their division Well, yeah; everyone is the rival of the Cowboys.

As an outsider, this always seems like one of the most forced "rivalries." Like if somebody was REALLY invested in the Cubs and Pirates clashing simply because they technically played in the same division. Absolutely not forced. I hate Atlanta, and I can promise you that everyone around me at the bar last night was cheering for the Pats almost like they were the Saints. It's the fans. Every time they come to town they are the most obnoxious, trash talking bunch of derelicts of any fan base. There are always fights in the Dome with them. The city poses as some LA of the South-the exact opposite of New Orleans. All faux glitz, no substance. Atlanta and their fans are the worst. The hate goes back to the NFC West days. Like I said, looking at it as an outsider it seems forced. By my own arbitrary rules, at the very minimum a good rivalry needs to be between teams who share the same state, or are in states bordering each other. You start skipping states, eh, it feels like reaching. And the fans thing, to this I also say "eh;" Reds fans flood Wrigley, but it feels more like annoyance as opposed to "YEAH, horsefeathers THE REDS." Any rivalry there feels more like a technicality than anything else. Obviously, that's not to say it's not an actual rivalry; it just feels like here in DC when I hear locals talking about the Redskins and the Giants like it's this heated, storied vendetta, and all I can think is, "aw, that's nice." And, as usual, it doesn't matter if any of this applies to college sports, because college sports are dumb.

As an outsider, this always seems like one of the most forced "rivalries." Like if somebody was REALLY invested in the Cubs and Pirates clashing simply because they technically played in the same division.

Hah-hah! Trump apparently bailed well before the game was done and took off for Florida.

So between LeBron, Trump and now this debacle, do we have to just finally admit that the Cubs are actually evil?

http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-legend-of-danny-goodwin/ Expected to be a power-hitting catcher, but messed up his shoulder on his throwing arm and basically wrecked him as a catcher. Sucked defensively as a 1B and never panned out as a hitter in the bigs and that was that.

Is there anything about the McCaskeys that doesn't suck? Am I reading that wrong? It seems that's an Illinois state bill, not a national one. Right; the "more teams" part is referring to other teams based in Illinois. This wouldn't just impact football.

Obviously this applies to more teams than just the Bears, but WTF: http://deadspin.com/nflpa-to-steer-players-away-from-bears-if-illinois-pass-1792002975 Is there anything about the McCaskeys that doesn't suck?

It's probably the general idea, fair or not, that so many players or coaches look good in NE and then magically aren't once they end up elsewhere on much worse teams with much worse coaching staffs and front offices. I get that, but he was highly thought of coming out of college. And just because some QB's look good coming out of NE and suck afterwards doesn't mean that they're going to suck away from NE. Sure, it's obviously not a lock, but the guy has really limited playing time he had was as part of a truly phenomenal offense under a great coaching staff. That doesn't mean he's an illusion, but any hope for future success with a team like the Bears is little more than a wish and a prayer. Regardless of how injuries sidetracked everything this year, the Bears are still potentially stuck in cycle not conducive at all to developing QB talent; if they stink again next year, you're likely looking at more coaching (and possibly FO) turnover yet again. Sure, if they were smart they ride out Cutler next year, especially if things go south in a hurry yet again, but how likely is that? If they go get Garoppolo do you really see them not trying to get him in there ASAP? Basically I don't trust the Bears not to screw it up.

It's probably the general idea, fair or not, that so many players or coaches look good in NE and then magically aren't once they end up elsewhere on much worse teams with much worse coaching staffs and front offices.

The Bears are very bad and usually end up wasting/dragging down most promising offensive talent they stumble across. The movement to have them relocated to St. Louis starts here.

The Bears going after him is pretty damning. Actually ending up on the Bears might as well be an ancient Sumerian curse carved into his chest by a sea hag.

My new status should be "sucks handsomely."

It is now.

Man, the initial purge of 40 of these goons freed about 1,000 tickets? horsefeathers these pricks.

Hahahahah!

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LOL. I haven't seen that yet. That's just horrible. He's underrated IMO. Closest guys I can think of in that era would be Bernard King or Alex English? Dominique Damn, good call.

Long time.

As impressive as it was to see LeBron lay waste to Barkley like he did, it's lead to me seeing more than a few times now people not only tagging Barkley as an overrated player, but, even more ridiculous, his era's "version of Carmelo Anthony," which is just...no. That's a bad, bad, bad take.

[expletive], this thread makes me want baseball so bad. That catch is amazing, even though I thought Heyward might be crippled for a split second.