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EIGHTY-TWO YEARS AND WAITING
Losing Ain't CuteWhat can you say to salve the wounds of Chicago Cubs fans? There isn't an honest one amongst them who would deny that their team's June swoon was directly the result of the humiliating three straight losses handed them by our Chicago White Sox. The Glorious Sweep was their worst nightmare, one which they have yet to recover from. For us Sox fans, it was the affirmation of the most basic tenet of our allegiance to the White Sox: Winning is what it is all about.How cruel it is that our child-like neighbors must now confront this absolute truth, which we Sox fans have always known. The scoreboard relic doesn't matter. The shrubbery and wall weeds are of no consequence. The beautiful half-dressed ladies in the bleachers are only a diversion for a short while. Baseball is played to win. Oh sob, even inside Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs fans can not escape the ugly truth. This bitter lesson was learned on June 13 when Mike Caruso's two-run homer landed in Wrigley's outfield basket to complete the sweep and embarrassment of the Cubs and their fans. The Evil of Cubs fandom fully revealed! The Cubs suck and their future prospects are bleak. Make no mistake, the 1999 Chicago White Sox won't win anything of importance either. The Glorious Sweep will likely be the highlight of our entire season. The Kids still have much to learn and Sox management must cultivate or trade for much more talent before our team will compete for a championship. We Sox fans know this and accept this. How uncharacteristic of Cubs fans to know and accept this of their team, too! That's what makes this Cubs vs. Sox series at Comiskey Park such a study in contrasts. Cubs fans spent the days before the June series doing what comes naturally to them -- being optimistic. Hadn't they swept us in 1998? Weren't they the National League's defending wild-card champion? Who but a Cubs fans would even trumpet such a pathetic title? Now they join us in knowing pain awaits before glory. No such revelation is necessary for Sox fans. Winning is all that ever mattered to most of us. Good food, exploding scoreboards and fireworks nights have never defined us the way Wrigley's accouterments have defined Cubs fans. We want to win and expect to win, nothing more. Right or wrong, the media assails us for not showing more support in lean years when winning comes hard. What the media overlooks is what separates us from Cubs fans. The Sox's 82 year championship drought is precisely what defines us as Sox fans. That's a long time to endure failure but keep expecting success. It is not as long as the 91 years that the Cubs have gone without a championship, so doesn't that mean Cubs fans have suffered more? The answer can not be shouted loudly enough, "OF COURSE NOT!!!" They love it. The most perverted and demented bit of a Cubs fan's psyche allows them to embrace failure as a twisted masochist virtue. It's only Sox fans who have known and lived with their team's death year after year after damned stinkin' losin' year. Our team keeps losing and losing and we are still behind them, cursing our luck and determined to see it through to the bitter end. For most Sox fans the bitter end comes with us pushing up daisies -- and the damned team is still losing. Worst still, we know and accept this! As Jean Shepherd pointed out, the bravest soldiers must be Sox fans because only we have known death every day of our lives and still it holds no terror for us. So now Chicago's sports talk radio airwaves are filled with Cubs fans venting their spleens about the team's pitching, catching, fielding, hitting, managing, and general managing. Nobody associated with the team or its ownership is safe from the withering cascade of second-guessing and anger amongst Cubs fans. Losing is cute for just so long. These infant-like Cubs fans are having their first eye-opening look at the real world it's an ugly and scary experience. No newly-unvieled statue to Harry Carey will quench their thirst for victories and a championship. To you Cubs fans I offer congratulations. Your lives are infinitely
improved now that you've recognized your problem and have admitted to your
delusion. Bravely take the next step and join with those who would
cuss and swear at every misstep and miscue, but always soldier on to see
the thing through. A heartfelt "Welcome"
to you new Sox fans. Now you are us.
Read what your other Sox Fans have to say about
Dan Helpingstine
Cubs Suck Newsletter, by Rich O'Connor CUBS SUCK REPORT 2
Congratulations to Jose Hernandez with his league
And of course we couldn't forget the greatest
HOW ABOUT THOSE CUBBIES.....
how about that awesome pitching staff??
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The fun begins Friday night at Comiskey as the Sox look to sweep the
Cubs
Once a Sox Fan - Always a Sox Fan - regardless or where you may roam!!
The
Losing Ain't Cute? You Can Put it on the Board -- Yes!
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