We shouldn't get too excited about it though. The Cubs are still the Cubs and they still haven't won anything of substance in any of our lifetimes, so there is no reason to go down there and start waving a W flag around like they won the World Series.
This is why every other team makes fun of Cubs fans.
(h/t Rice Cube)
Seriously, why do Cubs fans insist on bringing ridicule and scorn on themselves (and me by association) every time some crap team manages to win a couple of games?
This is why everyone hates Cubs fans. It is why I hate being lumped in with this shit. They won a game against a team that has lost series to just about every sub-.500 team they have played recently. Whoopee. Let's remember that if the Cubs suffer one more loss before the end of the year they are guaranteed a losing record to break their three-year string of being at least .500. Three years. That is the staggering success we want to parade around in rival ballparks?
We go around acting like immature jerks over a meaningless win or two when our greatest sustained success in my lifetime is the past three seasons of being over .500 and then not winning a single post-season game. That is really something to be proud of.
Why can't we just enjoy the wins? Why can't we just enjoy the series for what it is and be happy that the Cubs aren't letting the Cardinals stomp all over them as they usually do?
Why can't we just let the St. Louis media insist that it doesn't bother anyone in St. Louis to maybe get swept by a shit team because the Cardinals and the fans just don't care? Wouldn't seeing Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Dispatch write this to kick off tonight's game preview be fun enough?:
THE STAKES: The Cubs are trying to sweep the moribund Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Normally that would get a rise out of The Home Team, but these guys have been finished for a couple weeks now.
I get it.
"If we don't hear it or see it or talk about it, it didn't happen!"
Seriously, this one link (brought to my attention by Kris) has enough comedy gold in it to last awhile without having to make asses of ourselves by over-inflating the importance of this meaningless series.
Check out the comments. There were only three as I wrote this, but all three are awesome.
Orval says:
stop dwelling on what lopez has done in the past he is doing nothing now help him pack his bags so he don,t miss the last bus out of town
Let's forget the unwillingness to use capital letters, not knowing the difference between an apostrophe and a comma, and a seeming ignorance of any other punctuation marks. Let's just applaud his recognition that Felipe Lopez sucks.
Scottb says:
Too many bad decission by their leader for them to care. I thought the Girls basketball was a batter watch.
Orval is freaking Ernest Hemingway compared to this guy. He is repeating the meme that nobody cares and he wasn't paying attention anyway. Plus he seems to admit that he is the creepy guy in the stands at girl's basketball games that isn't related to the participants.
Craigm48 says:
It's a sad state of the Bird but I have been numb to it for several weeks now. The Cards will finish 10 games out at .500 for a much hyped season with no substance. Could the MVP or Cy Young have less meaning? It was a pleasure to have Albert but financial expectations just do not make sense for the future of a competitive team. As great as he is, he doesn't have the body type to play a long time
I haven't watched for 3 weeks now and prefer Andy Griffith episodes. They're more consistent.
This contains many correctly spelled words and some punctuation, so somebody obviously has earned their GED. Craig also doesn't care about a potential Cubs sweep since Pujols is probably gone soon anyway and that is good because he doesn't have the body type to stand at first base for long periods of time. How the hell did Pujols win all those MVPs by having such an awful body? Craig skips the girls basketball and prefers to fantasize about Aunt Bea instead of watching the Cardinals.
So Cubs fans, let's not act like the Cubs are suddenly awesome because they won a few games at the end of a losing season. Let's just enjoy the denial that is going on downstate and across the Mississippi and act like we've been there before even if we never have.
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14 comments:
Thanks for the shoutout, I've passed this blog post along, hahaha.
I'm usually on board with your views, but I think you're getting a little *too* angst-y now.
"The Cubs are still the Cubs and they still haven't won anything of substance in any of our lifetimes, so there is no reason to go down there and start waving a W flag around like they won the World Series."
Hell, they beat them. That was the whole point of playing, right? Are fan not allowed to be happy about anything once it's obvious they're out of contention? If so, there's no real point it ever being a fan of the Cubs. Seriously.
You must've enjoyed something about them given the fact that I doubt you bought your season tickets based on their long history of titles.
I don't see holding up the W flag at Busch as immature, worthy of ridicule or scorn. That's just my opinion, anyway.
I agree with Rich. I see nothing wrong with a family of Cubs fans bringing their W flag to Busch Stadium, or any other stadium for that matter, and displaying it proudly after a Cubs victory.
Maybe it's the only game that family could make it to this season, and they live in southern Illinois and can't make it up to Wrigley. Tell me what's wrong with that?
It shouldn't matter if it was their 90th win or 40th win. Cubs fans have the right to bring W flags to any stadium, just like Cardinals fans have the right to wear Cardinals gear to a Cubs-Pirates game, and cheer every time the Cubs make an out.
I have no problem with being happy, clapping and cheering for your team, but waving a W flag around an opponent's ballpark is rubbing it in, in my opinion, and we have no right to consider ourselves better than any other fanbase.
If I saw fans from other teams come into Wrigley and act the way Cubs fans act when they go to other ballparks, I'd be pretty pissed about it. Hell, if Yankees fans come in next year and act like that, I'll be pissed and they probably have earned the right to act like dicks.
I don't agree at all. The Cubs are about to plunge a dagger into the Cardinals collective hearts. In a lost season, this is the ONLY thing to cheer about. As a rule, I find the W flags a little too "Trixie and Chad" for my tastes, but this sweep means a lot to those of us who are still paying attention.
Rubbing it in?? What is this, 5th grade soccer? Who's bringing treats after the ballgame?
Last time I checked, they keep score in the big leagues, and there's a winner and a loser.
Waving a W flag isn't telling any fanbase "Hey, we're better than you". The W flag is a Cubs' tradition, just like Roll Call is a Yankee tradition, and Sweet Caroline belongs to Boston.
Wave those W flags proudly Cubs fans!
I'd say the L flag is a bigger part of Cubs' tradition, but that doesn't even matter, really. You are telling me you are cool with Yankee fans coming into Wrigley next year and dancing around after they win while displaying faux championship rings, or carrying around World Series trophies over their heads and singing "New York, New York?"
Maybe I can't take it, so that is why I am reluctant to dish that out.
I have a hard time taking stuff like that too, but I get too emotionally invested in my teams and I know that my wanting to punch a Yankee fan like you describe is irrational (...or is it??)
Anyway, I have a hard time equating displaying our W flag to dancing around with fake World Series trophies and rings.
A fan ought to be able to celebrate their team's win. "Fan" is short for "fanatic" after all.
I don't have a true example. Maybe when the Angels had all the stupid rally monkeys and thunderstix? Not that many other teams I can think of make such a production out of winning singular games.
We celebrate every damn win like it is some momentous achievement and that just wears on me and I believe it is why fans of other teams either hate, laugh at, or pity Cubs fans.
I think fans can do basically whatever they want, but the celebration is more meaningful when the win is meaningful. In this case, the game means more to the Cardinals (still contending, sorta) than the Cubs (who just need to win so Quade can keep his job, maybe). I think it's okay to celebrate, but it does seem like a bit of rubbing it in, since it's like "haha, we're out of the playoffs and we're talking you with us!"
I didn't really think too much of the W flag in STL myself, but I can sort of see where 424 is coming from.
I'm with Brady. Maybe this is a family that only gets to go to one Cubs game a year. If the Cubs go into Busch and win, fly the flag proudly. It's one game in a dismal season? Who cares. That win makes the Cubs fans in the stands happy for an evening.
We know the team has basically never won, but life's short and if you want to celebrate a single victory, have at it.
If you find fault in a few people showing their love for the Cubs (even in a bad season), you don't have enough to worry about.
So how do we feel about White Sox fans coming into Wrigley and singing that Na Na Na song ad nauseum when a Cubs pitcher is being removed, or the Cubs are losing/have lost?
That's their right, if it happens. I think that's perfectly fine.
The point is for your team to be good enough to prevent that from happening. "Nobody comes into our house and pushes us around", etc.
Beating the other team is the whole point of a rivalry.
Waving a flag as fans file out of a stadium is a little different than taunting players/fans in the middle of a game. But aside from that, I would expect to get some heckling if the Cubs were playing poorly. I would not consider it disrespectful if a kid (or adult, for that matter) held up a sign that said "Sox Win". That's essentially what the W-Flag is.
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