UMFan83

Went from starting Game 1 of the World Series to unable to make the freaking Phillies roster in 4 months.

holy hell please don't bump old threads about Schwarber that reference a tweaked knee on the most recent page.

Interesting instagram photo of Cutler today from Cavalari. Won't post link because NSFW

CRap, I have it set to record. Hawks game better not go long

This is awesome. seriously thank you!

I'm shocked.... ...it took this long

Take with a Spring Training sized grain of salt but here's an article suggests that Arrieta is having release point issues again http://www.cubsinsider.com/2017/03/26/pitchfx-data-arrietas-last-spring-training-start-shows-release-point-wild/

Did the Cubs get an affiliate in New Jersey?

Now confirmed by the Dayton AD, Archie has officially resigned to take the IU job. Great pickup for the Hoosiers.

Speaking of blue bloods, lots of smoke Archie Miller is in talks with IU

Billy and Ryne are both ambassadors for the Cubs so I suspect they will get rings like many employees will. I read an article about how Neil Ramirez and Federovic will be getting rings so I'm assuming everyone who appeared for the team will.

Since this is bumped...what the Cubs plan to wear for the home opener and ring ceremony game:

No, nor would we have this t-shirt: link to shirt?

I keep telling myself: Not all Chicago teams can be great at the same time. 2/4 ain't bad. Dammit I want a Boston where all teams have won a title in the last decade and are consistently in the playoffs 80% of each team's seasons.

Definitely not....Chapman probably does

I thought I read that SC had never even made a sweet 16 until this year For some reason it doesn't seem shocking or fresh if Gonzaga or Xavier make it (and 1 will obviously), probably because they are in the mix every year and have both made the Elite 8 in recent years. Boggles my mind that neither (especially Xavier) have made a F4

He did only pitch 11 innings in the series, but he was pretty damn good. I think if he came on in relief in game 7 and shut the Indians down to win the WS, he probably would have.

:( At least I saved you some writing?

Yes but that didn't take into account Oregons injury so I had no choice but to remain hopeful. Of course it also didn't account for Wagner to play his worst game since his freshman year

I mean, it doesn't guarantee that the Bears don't draft a QB in the first 2 rounds but it certainly seems less likely

Cubs won the World Series 2 killer offensive rebounds by Oregon that shouldn't have happened. Though when we took the 3 point lead with 2 mins left it was ours but just couldn't score those last 2 points. Tomorrow I'll be thrilled with the season but tonight I'm going to lament letting that one slip away Oh and Cubs won world series

That's actually kind of a rabbit hole I never thought of. How different the franchise would be today if the Cubs had won it in 03. Does the Tribune still sell the Cubs? If so, does the Ricketts family still buy them if they didn't have the historic drought anymore? Does the Trib Co authorize the spending spree that basically gave us 2 division titles in 07-08? Obviously its much less likely that Theo comes on board, etc etc etc You could make a fairly solid case that the Game 6 collapse was indirectly a net positive for the franchise. Because they got so close and lost an entire generation of Cub fans became thirsty for the elusive championship, attendance skyrocketed, increased fan interest and enthusiasm created the level of accountability that the Cubs didn't have to deal with as much in the past. (this is where it starts to become a stretch) There were a lot of other factors at play, but this increased demand probably played some small part in the value of the Cubs franchise increasing. Perhaps this value increase made it more attractive for the Trib to sell off when Zell and Co were going through bankruptcy, causing them to open the checkbook and bring a bunch of veterans in which led to 2 fun playoff seasons but no long term vision. Once that run ended the Cubs were baren of young talent leading to a situation where a large market team with a historic championship drought basically had to start from scratch. Enter Theo who was looking for a situation like the Cubs and the rest is history. You make it sound like losing game 6 caused attendance to go up. Attendance rises following playoff runs, because fans initially doubt the success as the year begins but the year after a run (99, 04, 08, 16) the excitement is there at the beginning and attendance goes up. There's no doubt in my mind that the Tribune still sells after WS victory. They were in a financial situation that demanded liquidation of non-core assets. The only question is if the new buyer would have held onto Hendry any longer and/or not gone after Theo & Co. I'd bet very heavily that a post 2003 WS appearing and maybe winning team would have been no better off by the time the team would have been sold, because of Hendry's terribly inefficient way of valuing hitting. They would have sold the team, the team would have been bad and the new owner would feel lots of pressure to make management changes. Losing game 6 didn't gain the Cubs anything. Fair rebuttal. The one thing I will say about attendance is that it did make a leap after 2004 but it looks like the trend really started after 1998. Before that they would hover around the 2.1m mark, 2.4ish if they had a good year. Between 98-2002 they were in a 2.6-2.8m range. In 2004, they started a run of 8 straight years over 3 million on attendance. Can you really attribute that to long term increased demand following a near miss title run and not a) general sports attendance trends, b) wrigley expanding bleachers and overall capacity, c) other things like better marketing, etc? Probably not all the way. My opinion was probably also shaped by my world view as the Cubs became a much bigger thing in my life in 2003 so to me it might have seemed like there was an increase in overall interest in the Cubs when it was only the standard marginal boost after a playoff run.

Yeah. Ultimately for the long-term future of the franchise, it's better that we won it under Theo/Jed than we would have been if we won a "lightning in a bottle" title under Hendry like the White Sox did, but there will always be a part of me that loves the 03 and 07/08 teams and wishes they would have won. That's actually kind of a rabbit hole I never thought of. How different the franchise would be today if the Cubs had won it in 03. Does the Tribune still sell the Cubs? If so, does the Ricketts family still buy them if they didn't have the historic drought anymore? Does the Trib Co authorize the spending spree that basically gave us 2 division titles in 07-08? Obviously its much less likely that Theo comes on board, etc etc etc You could make a fairly solid case that the Game 6 collapse was indirectly a net positive for the franchise. Because they got so close and lost an entire generation of Cub fans became thirsty for the elusive championship, attendance skyrocketed, increased fan interest and enthusiasm created the level of accountability that the Cubs didn't have to deal with as much in the past. (this is where it starts to become a stretch) There were a lot of other factors at play, but this increased demand probably played some small part in the value of the Cubs franchise increasing. Perhaps this value increase made it more attractive for the Trib to sell off when Zell and Co were going through bankruptcy, causing them to open the checkbook and bring a bunch of veterans in which led to 2 fun playoff seasons but no long term vision. Once that run ended the Cubs were baren of young talent leading to a situation where a large market team with a historic championship drought basically had to start from scratch. Enter Theo who was looking for a situation like the Cubs and the rest is history.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-sign-returnerrunning-back-benny-cunningham/ Interesting signing (Benny Cunningham)