Major League Baseball

[Nordy]

Anyone else here into Major League Baseball?? My team is the Chicago Cubs and no I'm not a bandwagon jumper. I've been a fan 33 years now. Anyone else??

[DJM77]

Yeah. Baseball is the only sport that I follow anymore. You wouldn't like my answer if I told you which team I'm a life long fan of, but you can probably figure it out without me telling you.

[opus]

I'm, at the moment, a somewhat ashamed Yankees fan.

[1960'sTVfan]

I like baseball, I follow the A's but they aren't very good so it's difficult to get excited about the season being a fan of a team that usually plays like crap and flounders below .500.

The problem with the A's currently is they have a cheapskate owner who refuses to pay high salaries, so what ends up happening is their better players always eventually get traded, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson, etc. This season, it wouldn't surprise me if Josh Reddick got traded before the trade deadline. I could see him getting traded to Baltimore, I know he'd love to play there.

So as long as the A's have this "trade em before they get too expensive" philosophy, it's obvious they aren't serious about winning or fielding a decent team. This sucks for the loyal fans who support the team.

As far as the Cubs go, their situation is completely the opposite. They now have ownership that will do whatever it takes and spend money on players to win a world series. I've thought for a while that 2016 was going to be their year (1908 + 108 = 2016.) If they stay healthy, I think they could win 120 games or more. All the pieces are in place, if they don't win it all this year they probably never will. Of course, anything can happen in the playoffs, after a long 162 game season, funny things happen sometimes in the playoffs best of 7. As of right now, Cubs look close to unstoppable. If the White Sox stay hot, maybe the Cubs will play the White Sox in the world series and the city of Chicago will go crazy. I moved from Chicago four years ago, I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

[Nordy]

Originally Posted by DJM77

Yeah. Baseball is the only sport that I follow anymore. You wouldn't like my answer if I told you which team I'm a life long fan of, but you can probably figure it out without me telling you.

Yeah I kinda figured it out. I got some pretty weird looks driving through Missouri this week with my Illinois plate #1 Cubs fan and plate holder..lol

[Nordy]

I personally don't care much about what happens in the regular season per se wins wise but I do want the Cubs to be the division champs and have home field advantage through the NL Playoffs if they get that far. Cubs can be stopped the Padres figured out how to do it. Every Cubs fan knows NOTHING is easy when it comes to the Cubs. They just need to keep the foot on the accelerator and keep doing what they do.

[opus]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I like baseball, I follow the A's but they aren't very good so it's difficult to get excited about the season being a fan of a team that usually plays like crap and flounders below .500.

The problem with the A's currently is they have a cheapskate owner who refuses to pay high salaries, so what ends up happening is their better players always eventually get traded, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson, etc. This season, it wouldn't surprise me if Josh Reddick got traded before the trade deadline. I could see him getting traded to Baltimore, I know he'd love to play there.

So as long as the A's have this "trade em before they get too expensive" philosophy, it's obvious they aren't serious about winning or fielding a decent team. This sucks for the loyal fans who support the team.

Remember when the A's were so good they got Brad Pitt to play them?

[Nordy]

Originally Posted by opus

Remember when the A's were so good they got Brad Pitt to play them?

Wasn't he the General Manager though in money ball??

[opus]

Originally Posted by Nordy

Wasn't he the General Manager though in money ball??

Yeah. I was just going for "clever". Guess not. Who's playing Theo Epstein in the Cubs movie?

[Nordy]

Ohhhh good question.....but not going to jinx my team. We Cub fans are very superstitious lol

[opus]

Originally Posted by Nordy

Ohhhh good question.....but not going to jinx my team. We Cub fans are very superstitious lol

I know. I hear you guys think billy goats affect baseball. Can you please tell the city the sport doesn't work that way.

[Nordy]

It is the damn goats fault!!. Cubs haven't been in the World Series since 1945 since that whole goat fiasco. There has to be some truth to it, but this years team is going to be the curse breakers!! (knocking on wood)

[opus]

Originally Posted by Nordy

(knocking on wood)

Kerry?

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by opus

Remember when the A's were so good they got Brad Pitt to play them?

Can't comment on that, I didn't see the movie.

One of my favorite A's teams was the 1978 team. This was during the end of the Charlie Finley era, Finley also got cheap and traded off the teams star players, and filled the A's roster with inexperienced youngsters, giving these guys a chance to play in the major leagues. Well, the 1978 team got off to a quick 19-5 start and were the talk of baseball. Then they started losing a few but then got back to winning again, they had a 60-54 record on August 7th and still in the division race, only 3 games out. But then the wheels fell off the cart and the A's went 9-39 the rest of the way and skidded to a 69-93 finish. The A's schedule was brutal down the stretch, their last 50 games were mostly against all the top teams, which sort of explains their downfall. The '78 A's had decent pitching, but the teams weakness aside from inexperience, was defense and weak hitting, they just had a hard time competing down the stretch. But it was a fun team to watch and I still consider that season a success as the team did exceed expectations.

The '79 A's were terrible, I think that team would have lost 120 games if not for Rickey Henderson getting called up from the minors and joining the team after the all star break. With Henderson in the lineup, the A's became more competitive in August and September but still finished at 54-108.

Then came the Billy Martin/Billyball era and the A's had a resurgence for two seasons, that was fun. Three stars in the outfield with base stealer Rickey Henderson in left field, defense specialist Dwayne Murphy in center field, and Tony Armas who emerged as a power hitting right fielder.

Since the year 2000, the A's have been in the playoffs several times but only one playoff series win to show for it. I think it's a combination of bad luck, and these more recent A's teams haven't really been built to have post season success. Those teams had decent pitching and good defense, but offensively they relied too much on home runs, which might be fine in the regular season, but in the playoffs you need to be able to do the little things to win games, steal bases, sacrifice, timely hitting and not swinging for the fences all the time.

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by Nordy

It is the damn goats fault!!. Cubs haven't been in the World Series since 1945 since that whole goat fiasco. There has to be some truth to it, but this years team is going to be the curse breakers!! (knocking on wood)

Then there was that black cat that showed up in 1969.



Leon Durham's Gatorade soaked glove in 1984, Steve Bartman in 2003...

The Cubs fans are long suffering and they deserve to have a World Championship team. I'm not rooting for the Cubs in any way, but I do feel like this could finally be their year.