Soul

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries? To some extent, yes. Injuries are part of the game. If you staff your bench with Perez and Macias, and if you staff the bullpen, which is basically a pitching bench, with the likes of Bartosh, Novoa and Remlinger, you deserve the results you get. How many games did the injuries really cost us? Perez for Nomar, maybe a couple of games. A healthy Wood for the collection of garbage, maybe another couple. It's still a .500 team. Burnitz, Hollandsworth, Maddux, etc. Like I said, I think it is fair to say that Hendry has done a bad job of allocating resources. Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin. I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card. Garciaparra is made of glass. You knew Remlinger was done before the season---that's your big "lefty" out of the bullpen, nice :roll: Everyone knew Woody was an injury waiting to happen. Showed it last year. Prior, I'll give you that: it was a freak injury. I predicted Prior would be injured this year but not like that. I still think there's something fundamentally wrong with a player who's body can spend 5 months 'recovering' and then pull up with major injuries from doing nothing. It wasn't that hard to predict these injuries. And besides, the bench is insanely weak---has been all year long. Hendry did just absolutely nothing to improve it. No closer. Always nice to blow game after game at the beginning of the year while your bullpen tries to "find itself." Meanwhile the Cardinals move further & further ahead. Again----how many years is this going to happen? Shall I continue? The great Hendry has had a worse ballclub every single year he has been in charge. He's overrated. Everyone wants to worship this guy. I don't get it. I understand the excitement over 2003. I was excited too, believe me. But you know what? We ultimately did NOT get the job done, and it's been downhill ever since. Hendry has been a huge part of that failure.

Because after so many innings watching this team, Hughes needs a bucket to puke in.

Atta way, run up those numbers boys! Let's feed the stat-hounds. "Hey our offense wasn't that bad!" :roll:

"Game over, man. Game over!" "What are we gonna do now, huh?" "Why don't we start a minor league system, build up some players?" "That little Twins team does better than us with no stars, and NO PAYROLL!" "Why don't you put them in charge?!?" "Oh yea sure, with those Cardinals and Astros in our division? You can count us out!" "I guess we can just count the Cubs out of everything, is that it?" "That's right man. You go out and win with Dusty. You go." ](*,)

"Jesus, Ace where are you?!?" "I'm in SUCKSVILLE and Dusty's the mayor!" "You have to commit me......" "I seem to have some trouble letting go of the game." "That's why Kerry Wood's arm is dead! He found Mr. Dusty!!!" 8-[

Screw it. Lets see how badly the Cubs can get beat tonight. If they want to play like clowns, then don't be upset when Cub fans treat their games like a Circus.

More like: Welcome to Sucksville, Dusty. Population: You! Sigh, I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue... LOL :lol:

Welcome to sucksville U.S.A Cubbie fans. Oh Yeah....Uh-Huh, that's right.....it's YOUR Chicago Cubs!! :roll:

Bad statement. Sounds like he is just a frustrated fan who has a microphone that reaches tons of listeners. Still though, gotta watch what you say a little bit when it's your profession and everything. There are plenty of other ways he could have stated his frustration with just as much edge, yet not offended anyone. The guy is a radio host, so alot of this is planned in advance. He should have planned it better.

XZ, I agree we would be a much better team without all the injuries and mismanagement. Trouble is, we knew Dusty's shortcomings before the season started, and we pretty much knew there would be alot of injuries. You had to figure in the contingencies. Most teams would be significantly better if everything went perfectly. The trick is, what obstacles will appear for that team and how badly will it hurt them? In the Cubs' case, the obstacles in terms of injury and poor management were likely to be pretty massive. And most of them materialized, unfortunatley.

Didn't have Dempster all year.....he's good now though, although he doesn't get many opportunities lately. Maddux: you're talking Maddux in his prime. Now, he's only good some of the time. Prior is fine, but hasn't been here all year. We really have had Z, a terrible middle relief staff, and part-time contributions from Prior, Dempster, & Wood. Doesn't sound as great now, does it... It's a .500 ballclub.

Unfortunately, they aren't even playing .500 ball right now. That's how bad its gotten. True ](*,)

As opposed to getting hurt again in the field? How do you handle a player made of fine China? Play him every day?

They are playing like a .500 ballclub because that's what they are.

how can you not believe a word canseco says? he was the first to say that palmeiro juiced, and we've recently found out that he has. ESPECIALLY when you realize that the specific chemical that Jose claimed to have injected into Raffy is the same one that has leaked out as being the one Palmeiro tested positive for. Gotta love how Gene Orza is upset that the truth leaked out about Palmiero. Yet, not a word of disappointment that a supposed "hall of fame" ballplayer was actually a cheat. The players' union are truly enemies of the truth.

Hmmmm......seems strange that, right after everything Canseco said about Palmiero has been proven to be absolutely right on the money, folks come out and refuse to believe anything he says. This sounds a little like the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. Some people just don't like Canseco. Even if he was screaming at someone on railroad tracks to move out of the way of an oncoming train they STILL wouldn't believe him because he's a "slimeball." Well, slimeball he is. But he's also been proven to be telling the truth about Palmiero. I, for one, will be taking his words on who was using steroids more seriously from now on. Let's not forget he also said he & McGwire personally injected steroids together, and a short while later Big Mac---looking like a deflated baloon--was before Congress refusing to answer questions from Congressmen & women. Oh, BTW---the Canseco saga is not over. He's going to be writing another book detailing many more people behind the scenes who were involved in Steroid-gate.

No, it is your version of reality that says that the Cubs are a team that continues to lose. I want fans to believe in a team that has shown that can follow a cold streak with a hot streak. I want fans to believe in a team that has the roster to put together a great run and get back in it. Whether they will or not, no one knows. So why are you acting as if you know already? OK: 1) We don't have the roster to put together a run and "get back into it." 2) This team has not put together a hot streak all year long that wasn't immediately followed by a losing streak. 3) I have said this before, and will say it again because folks just don't seem to get it: you can't catch a team that doesn't lose, and the Stros aren't going to collapse. I'm not "acting like I already know." I'm telling you I've seen this movie over & over in almost 40 years of watching the Cubs. You are certainly entitled to believe whatever you want to. What caught my eye was when you said you cared if everyone *else* believed in the team. I'm a Cub fan forever, but that doesn't mean I have to continue to "believe" in this version of the Cubs.

Whereas I agree that you have a lot of very good reasons to have that opinion, it is still just an opinion. To call it a fact, and a simple one at that, is just inaccurate. It's a fact. So basically what you are saying by being contradictory is, " Hey, you, stop balancing out my negativity with reality." Sorry, no, I won't stop. Feel free to ignore reality if you like. But I won't stop meeting overly-negative, pessimisitic reactions by reminding them of what the reality of the situation is. Rightly or wrongly, I care about whether Cubs fans believe in their team or not. Thats just me. Why? You want fans to believe in a team that continues to lose? So basically, you are saying fans of a team should blindly believe in their players even after it's clear they are incapable of delivering a championship?

Oh I can separate the two (Hendry & Baker). I can see firing Baker as a fresh start, and bringing someone in with some fresh ideas instead of this tired, old, "veterans club" kind of management that frankly we've been watching through both the Baker & Baylor campaigns. For once, I'd like to see young guys given a position over veterans if they actually play better. Still though. With this Cubbie team, it's such a fragile bunch I don't know if a different manager would have gotten us to the playoffs. Maybe closer than we are right now, sure. But look at the sheer number of crippling injuries our "top players" suffer. There's never going to be any consistency on this club until you can find a group of guys who can handle a 162 game season without having to hit the DL for half of it. And that's only part of the problem. Few teams win without some consistency out of the bullpen. And we haven't had it---even in 2003 it can be argued that was a weakpoint of the team. Hendry has never been able to succeed in that regard. And it will continue to kill us until we find some solid arms to rely on. The laundry list goes on but everyone here has heard it over & over so I won't rehash it.

It's over. Well, not really. But it's pretty hard to imagine us jumping back in the race.

Which should mean we wont be losing for long. NO reason to accept it now. This year has taught us it wasn't Sammy putting people in the seats. People come to Wrigley just because. Just because. And they always will until the place finally implodes.

How do you catch a team that doesn't lose? I must have missed that in statistics class 8)

The Stros always were better than us. It took them awhile to get going, but we've seen them do this before. Occasionally they'll flame out a little in September (like in '03). I don't think we'll be anywhere near them when those final games are played head to head though.

But aren't you implying that Ryno was a hero, because many Cubs fans definitely treated him like one? Look, there have always been a few clean guys in baseball, guys who really are or were heroes. The same is true today. The only difference is that there is now a testing policy that attempts to weed out the liars and cheaters, so they appear more visible than they really are. No, I don't think the implication that Ryno is a "hero" is there. Honestly, how do you think Sandberg would react if you went up to him and said "you are my hero"? I betcha he wouldn't really know what to do. He probably would feel rather uncomfortable with it. Payton would probably be the same way. This is such a confusing topic as far as I'm concerned. Everyone attaches different definitions to the words that are being bandied about: Hero, Role Model, Criminal, Cheater, Good-Guy, Bad-Guy. And the definitions keep changing, too. How does Pete Rose look now? Before he was the Universal Criminal of all baseball history---the leper, the outcast, the poster child for crash n' burn. Now you've got guys like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmiero ready to be launched into the Hall of Fame. Who is the poster child for "cheating" now? Probably not Rose anymore. For me, a hero is someone who sacrifices his life to save others. And I'm sticking with it :) Yeah, that eliminates all sports "heroes" from the equation, but hey. There are plenty of other superlatives we can use for Hall of Famers like Sandberg. Okay, you have me there, I'll agree on the fact that baseball players and all professional athletes are not "heroes", but they certainly are role models. And from the days where Honus Wagner wouldn't let his baseball card be on something as disgusting as ciggarettes and then Ty Cobb who would punch fans to today when you have Raphy Palmiero juicing up and really good guys like Derrek Lee (IMO), there are always role models and villians. Nothing has changed as so many people claim. Yes, there still can be role models today in My opinion. We can only wish more youngsters would look to Ryno for guidance than Terrell Owens. Sadly, it isn't so...

But aren't you implying that Ryno was a hero, because many Cubs fans definitely treated him like one? Look, there have always been a few clean guys in baseball, guys who really are or were heroes. The same is true today. The only difference is that there is now a testing policy that attempts to weed out the liars and cheaters, so they appear more visible than they really are. No, I don't think the implication that Ryno is a "hero" is there. Honestly, how do you think Sandberg would react if you went up to him and said "you are my hero"? I betcha he wouldn't really know what to do. He probably would feel rather uncomfortable with it. Payton would probably be the same way. This is such a confusing topic as far as I'm concerned. Everyone attaches different definitions to the words that are being bandied about: Hero, Role Model, Criminal, Cheater, Good-Guy, Bad-Guy. And the definitions keep changing, too. How does Pete Rose look now? Before he was the Universal Criminal of all baseball history---the leper, the outcast, the poster child for crash n' burn. Now you've got guys like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmiero ready to be launched into the Hall of Fame. Who is the poster child for "cheating" now? Probably not Rose anymore. For me, a hero is someone who sacrifices his life to save others. And I'm sticking with it :) Yeah, that eliminates all sports "heroes" from the equation, but hey. There are plenty of other superlatives we can use for Hall of Famers like Sandberg.