What a game, the Angels looked pre 2004 sox esque at times, Jon Lester was fantastic, Jason (Manny who) Bay with the difference maker, the Angels are tough and winning game one for the Sox on the road w/ Beckett going in game three at home is huge.
On another note, why the fuck is TBS airing these games? It’s such a shame that after a long season you have to suffer through this abbysmal announcing in the post season… It’s almost as if these guys have no place calling beercan softball games.
^ I couldn’t agree with you more…I had to put up with Ron Darling, Tony Gwynn and Dick Stockton. Forget that. I’m trying to get Pat and Ron on WGN radio, but I don’t think I can get it inside. Only in the car.
What a tough game last night for the Cubs. Walks always come back to hurt ya. Especially in the playoffs. I know Dempster feels as bad as anyone. It’s time for Z to step it up tonight and even this series. I’m still extremely confident. Cubs have a huge advantage n Games 3 and 4 pitching wise. If they can win tomorrow I know they’ll at least get a split in LA and then Game 5 is up for grabs. I’d rather win the next 3, but I’d settle for a series win in 5. Go Cubs.
Dodgers vs. Rays
I don’t see how The 83 win Dodgers make it
^I have Dodgers/Sawks myself though I’ll be pulling for the Rays too.
Well, we saw #2 in FULL effect last night. Best pitcher on the mound…got a two-run lead. And just like Manny being Manny, we got the Cubs being the Cubs. Sorry, to rub salt in the wound but I was scarred by living with a Cubs fan for a semester…easily one of the most obnoxious fans I’ve ever heard from and I’ve heard plenty of similar stories. I can’t help but pull for the Dodgers.
Nice of the White Sox to take care of business on Monday too. I think the Metrodome and their cement field should be banned from the playoffs anyway.
And I laugh at all the folks picking the Angels to go all the way. I would pick that in most years but they’re playing the Sawks. They NEVER beat the Sawks. EVER. Grass is green, Sky is blue and the Sawks beat the Angels.
Stevo
I would like to point out that the beat the team with the best record in the NL in their home stadium 7-2 last night.
the regular season is over. All that counts is getting hot now and the Dodgers are on the way.
You are of course right, anything in the playoffs…I guess after manny and Lowe I’m just not that familar w/ the Dodgers.
Well, we saw #2 in FULL effect last night. Best pitcher on the mound…got a two-run lead. And just like Manny being Manny, we got the Cubs being the Cubs.
[/quote]
That’s just low Stevo. How can one semester of an obnoxious fan bring that much hatred? Well anyways I wouldn’t call Dempster our best pitcher? He’s solid at Wrigley, but you think he’s better than Zambrano or Harden? Let’s be real. Anyways it’s one game. The Cubs being the Cubs please. This team is far different and I guarantee the Cubs don’t lose to the Dodgers. As long as we win tonight’s game it’s on. Games 3 and 4 are huge advantages for the Cubs in the pitching matchups. They are virtually assured of winning at least one in LA and then if we get a Game 5 in LA it’s over. Last night’s lost allows the Dodgers a little more time in their season.
^ yeah sorry about that…I suck at the internet…I struggle with quoting, but nevertheless that’s your quote up their Stevo.
No piling on guys…I’m going through enough…I still haven’t thrown in the white towel yet as I like the Cubs matchups in Games 3 and 4…Go Cubs!!!
Dodgers 2-0!
GO PHILS!!!
LOL! I like reading this right after reading your post right before then. Different team, huh? Let’s just say the fine number of errors in the 2nd by a normally good group of infielders is all the evidence I needed. Nice to see Manny continuing to mock NL pitching (though Zambrano did fairly well).
And for fans of Jim Rome…hey, CC Sabathia…“BOOM, outta here…”
Stevo
4 Errors!
Pathetic.
They played with absolutely no urgency or desire.
It ain’t over yet for my Cubbies, but they have a tough road ahead.
GO DODGERS!!!, THINK BLUE!!
CUBSCOUTS BABY CUBSCOUTS
LOL
This about sums it up for me.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Cubs’ latest failure is worse than ever
By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com
It wasn’t a collapse. “Collapse” is too nice a word. A collapse would mean the Chicago Cubs actually showed up for the National League Division Series.
It wasn’t a choke. A choke is what happened in 2003 when the Cubs were exactly five outs away from their first World Series in seven decades. A choke is when you blame someone sitting in Section 4, Row 8, Seat 113 of Wrigley Field.
No, in some ways this latest Cubs playoff zombie film is worse than 2003’s, and it’s definitely worse than last year’s October three-and-out. The 2003 choke produced anger and tears. The 2007 postseason losses produced disappointment, but with them came a weird, wait-'til-next-year optimism.
Next year just came and went. The Cubs have become playoff-irrelevant, which is the cruelest thing you can say about a team. They simply don’t matter once the leaves change.
Nine postseason losses in a row. Nine. The Cubs haven’t won a playoff game since Oct. 11, 2003.
The Los Angeles Dodgers just eliminated them in three games. Check that. Only one of those Dodgers-Cubs games – Saturday night’s 3-1 loss – was actually competitive. The first two were embarrassments for the Cubs.
[We pause here to give the Dodgers their every prop. They bear-hugged the playoff moments.
A little more than a month ago they were five games below .500 and losers of eight in a row. Now they’re drying out their swim goggles and unis from the champagne and beer clubhouse showers. Their right-handed starting pitching Saran Wrap-ped the Cubs’ predominantly right-handed lineup.
So now the Dodgers advance to the NLCS. Nothing against the remaining playoff teams, but can you imagine what will happen if Manny Ramirez’s Dodgers, led by a former New York Yankees manager, somehow face the Boston Red Sox, the team Manny couldn’t wait to leave, in the World Series? Just think: At least two games, possibly four, of Manny back in Fenway?
We now return to our previously scheduled skin peel of the Cubs.]
The Cubs deserve every rip job they get. Winning 97 games during the regular season means zilch if you lose every time you reach the postseason. It means less than zilch (negative integer zilch?) if you waste the precious home-field advantage in a best-of-five NLDS. At least in last season’s playoff sweep to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cubs started the series on the road.
The Dodgers had a lot to do with what happened earlier in the week at Wrigley and Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium. To mention Billy Goat curses, black cats and priests sprinkling holy water in the Cubs’ dugout is to insult what Joe Torre’s team did in the NLDS.
But there is a 100-year weight (and wait) around this franchise’s neck. It isn’t what made Alfonso Soriano finish the Dodgers series 1-for-14. (Fittingly, his check-swing, Game 3-ending strikeout came on a toe-high pitch.) It isn’t what made Aramis Ramirez finish 2-for-11 or Geovany Soto 2-for-10.
But the failed history of the Cubs, combined with the expectations for this postseason, overwhelmed them. If they couldn’t deal with the past, how were they going to deal with the present?
Torre said afterward that the Cubs felt the pressure of opening the series at Wrigley. If so, these Cubs are exactly where they belong: out of the playoffs.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella can pretend the 100-year World Series drought isn’t a factor, but the numbers say otherwise. The Cubs reach October and suddenly need barf bags. Seven walks issued by Ryan Dempster in the Game 1 loss to the Dodgers. Four Cubs errors in the Game 2 loss. Rich Harden’s lasting only 4 1/3 innings and the Cubs’ leaving nine runners on base in the Game 3 defeat.
The Cubs were outscored 20-6. They might as well have been waving rhythmic gymnastics ribbons at the plate. By the way, Soriano and the holes in his swing are signed through 2014. Enjoy.
Some of Piniella’s decisions deserve scrutiny, too. He started the struggling Kosuke Fukudome in right field for the first two games and got an 0-for-8 out of him. He slotted Ted Lilly, who had won his last four starts in September, in the No. 4 spot of the playoff rotation. Lilly never threw a pitch. Piniella also tinkered with the lineup.
None of it worked. And almost none of the Cubs produced, not even against Game 3 Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda, who was making his first playoff appearance after 11 years in the Japanese leagues and one year in the majors.
Strange. The Cubs are done, but former Cubs Greg Maddux and Nomar Garciaparra play on for the Dodgers. I wonder whether they sneaked a peek into the Cubs’ dugout during the celebration.
Before this series began, there was a rally in downtown Chicago for the Cubs. A documentary film crew was assigned to follow the Cubs during the postseason. Back in 2004, another year the Cubs were favored to reach the World Series, an MLB film crew shadowed the team. The Cubs had a meltdown and missed the playoffs.
Nobody at that rally, including White Sox honk Mayor Richard Daley, thought the Cubs’ last game at Wrigley would be played Oct. 2, nor that the season would be done by Oct. 4. But it is. Wrigleyville is a quiet, subdued place today.
“It’s Gonna Happen.” That was the unofficial slogan of the Cubs this year. And it did. Another failed October. Another sweep. Another long, cold winter of what-ifs.
Maybe next year?
GO PHILLIES!
Shit, Sox better get it done tommorow cause they just let the Angels off a big hook…Sox loose if his thing heads back to Aneheim