Hehehehehe. You could feel it was going to slip away as soon as they had the fan/foul ball screw-up. Fate is a wicked mistress.

I still love the Cubbies. They've been breaking my heart for all 31 of my years, and all I can remember is how good the good times were.

*sigh*

i kept tuning back and forth between the baseball game on FOX...and the movie "armegeddon" on FX while the cubs were still leading...and couldn't help but feel the connection...then the movie ended...and the cubs did what they have done so well for so long...they found a way to blow it!...i could almost here cub fans coast to coast saying "here we go again".

I felt it coming as soon as the Cub fan tipped the foul ball. I did appreciate them showing his face on national TV, hopefully someone will kick his ass. But I digress.
Prior pitched a great game, save about 2 pitches, but Remlinger and Gonzalez just stuck it to him.
I'm scared, cause I know my Cubbies, and I know history.
Here's hoping that they will be scared enough by this to come out and rally behind Wood tomorrow.

Local sportsradio here in the shadow of NYC blamed the fiasco on the fan who pulled the ball out of Moises' glove. I'd hate to be that poor slob.

I was on business in Boston recently and somehow fans there are expecting to beat the Yankees but lose to the Cubbies. Something about the only grace left being to take over the title of "longest gap between championships".

But I'm a Met fan (yes, _still_), so what the heck do I know?

i am a st. louis cardinals fan from southern illinois...and i'm not surprised at todays proceedings...i have several good friends who are cub fans...and they have been oh so cocky since the cubs made the playoffs...i wonder what they'll say tomorrow.

I think it's totally wrong to blame that poor kid down the left field line. He didn't reach over, and he did what ANYONE would have done if they'd been in his shoes.

The players, though . . . inexcusable. And don't get me started on the number of players they left on base.

So is tomorrow "next year?" :)

i concur with your analysis...the fan didn't lose the game for the cubs...the players did...you can't point at any one guy and blame an 8 run inning on him.

While Alex Gonzalez certainly has to take some of the blame here, this was really Dusty Baker's fault. There was no reason Prior should have still been in there after anyone got on base in the 8th. The Cubs bullpen isn't THAT bad.

Here I was, looking forward to hearing what Rome had to say tomorrow, and you've spoiled it. :)

That fan who went for the ball wasn't the only one there trying to grab it; all it would have taken was ONE person yelling "don't touch it".

Top Ten Lies Told at Wrigley Field

1. Wait til next year
2. October is our month
3. This year is the Cubs year
4. The Tribune Co. Really cares about the fans
5. The Cubs will shine in '69
6. Who needs Johnson, Brown, Piazza and Maddux
7. The Cubs will shine in 2009
8. Neighbors just love night games
9. Parking is no problem
10. Bleacher bums drink in moderation

**Taken off a t-shirt husband got at Wrigley last year.
-Lex

"5. The Cubs will shine in '69"

LOL

HAHAHa. Nice. :)

Pity the fool! Don Zimmer bin hittin the heavy bag and stayin away from the wimmen folk. Those wimmen just wore The Gerbil down. Pedro be nuthin. Sammy be nuthin. Can't name one player from Florida, and if I could, he'd be nuthin. The Gerbil gonna gnaw the chumps from the National League into little bitty chump balls.
The eagle gonna intimidate, our Irish tenor will resonate, Zimmer gonna detonate, and when many Yankees cross the plate, the National League will meet their fate.
God, I hate the Yankees.

"really Dusty Baker's fault."

Just like last year.

-- Giants fan still suffering from last year.

Alas...the goat isnt gone yet..

It is Kerry Wood tomorrow night...the guy who took care of my hometown team(AOL's team...bleh...uncaring lackadasial asshats)...

Will the Cubbies break the curse or will Alex Gonzalez move in with Bill Buckner? Tune in tonite and see...

It should be the CUBS and the YANKIES. I was hoping for Boston, but when a smartass pitcher named PEDRO pushes a DON ZIMMER to the ground, BOSTON can suck my big ______. And say the ____ with being the WORLD CHAMPIONS, because we know its time for the CUBS!

Being a Mets fan, and having seen the Buckner play about 10^10 times in my short (21 years) life, I do have to protest on his behalf. There is no sceneario in which that loss was actually his fault except that he blew that last play, which didn't really matter anyway because there was no way he was going to beat Mookie Wilson to the bag. No, the real scapegoats for the Sox loss in that game have to be the bullpen. with 2 outs and 2 runs to work with, you have to be able to close that out.

Just my 0.02

sox rule all. We'll see the cubs in the world series as long as they can stop playing like us and beat the marlins!

chris

Baseball...

Hmph!

Overpaid, underworked cry babies.

"Oh! I stubbed my toe! I think I will now go on strike because 20 mil a year isn't enough!"

I'm pretty bitter toward all "professional ball players". I don't like greedy or selfish people. And in my opinion, most "pros" are greedy or selfish.

But I digress. Not all of them are like that. Maybe I would see it differently if I didn't have to work for a living.

We humans certainly do have our priorities in all the right places don't we?

What the heck are you talking about? Alex who? Ohhhhhhhhh - you mean the OTHER teams playing right now. I keep forgetting about THEM, seeing as how the Sox are doing their best to screw up their own circumstances. Hey - if the Marlins do play the Yankees, I think the Cubs and the Sox should get together and play each other anyway. Seceed from their leagues and make their own dang World Series... yeah!

Being a lover of underdogs, (Yes, I'm a Twins fan) I've been wishing for a Cubs/Sox series.
Now I have to go delete all the email from Twins corporate whining for a new stadium. We built them one in 1982. They can have a new stadium when someone builds me a new house.

About the foul-ball fan...no, it's not really his fault because people aren't REQUIRED to know better to gain entrance to the park, but face it, he probably affected the outcome of the game. In baseball, fans can have a direct impact on the game in this one way. I swear, they should print instructions on the seats closest to the field--"Remember! When a fielder catches a foul ball it counts as an out!"

The poor fool in the stands who (maybe) blocked that catch is going to be getting shit for it for the rest of his life. But the guy didn't cost them a run, hell he didn't really cost them an out. Prior had a full count. If he'd have thrown a strike for the next pitch instead of a ball, the guy would have been just as out.
Then we had to just plain fall apart. I say put Choi in and lets finish this nonsense tonight so I can watch me some baseball next week.

It's all my fault the Cubbies lost. Yes, I must confess: I watched the game last night. They always lose when I watch the game. My gut twisted watching the eighth. I suspect that fan is going to have to move to Florida, because his ass is grass in Chicago. I also love the way the cameras lingered on him and gave us a nice long clear shot of his features. Should be easy enough to identify, nu? I'm reasonably confident that the Cub will win it tonight, unless of course they show up. ;-D>

It was sad how the Cubs snatched defeat from the Jaws of victory, but lets face it, you knew it was coming as soon as the Damn Fox Announcers said "Only 15 more outs to go and the Cubs will be in the World Series. They do that to the Red Sox too. Don't these people know about Yogi Bera? It ain't over 'til it's over!

Everybody be envious of me...I'm going to Game 6 of the ALCS tonight to see the Red Sox (of course, because I'm there, the Yankees will clinch...but we'll be cursed next year too)

The curse is real!
Believe!
Believe!

I think that the curse of the Bambino has even started to leech into the frozen ice of the Fleet Center.

Dear Errant Cubs Fan,

They'd love you a lot more if you were hanged! You know why? Because it would sell more papers...That's Chicago!

Billy Flynn

--

Dear Cubbies,

Welcome to 1986.

Love,
The BoSox

Well, I'm glad you turned comments on for this one - It illuminated me. just. You're talking about a game of something (baseball???). Good 'aint I?

Lots of Love from this wierdo on the other side of the pond,

Alex
x x

to d.burr

Cubs fans will say the same thing we have been saying. Man, did those Cardinals choke this year or what?

No one actually thought the Cubs making the Series would be EASY, did they? I love them and I hate them and I'll try to refrain from throwing things at the TV.

Unless they lose again tonight.

Of all the times for Gonzo to break his errorless streak...Oy.

First of all -- to all you "underdog" fans out there -- don't whine until you try to follow the Brewers. (Diehard Brewers Fan Here *points to self*)... And they're not even the lovable losers. they're just "the losers".

Anyway -- also grew up watching the cubbies on wgn during the summer days. and damian miller (the catcher) grew up 15 min away from where I live -- so I've been cheering them on! Felt bad for those poor fans that tried to catch the ball. And while it was definately a momentum changer -- but I don't know if it affected the overall outcome of the game.

So yah GO CUBS! GO RED SOX!

The Sun-Times published the fan's name and workplace in the paper (or at least the online version).

His workplace's windows surrender.

Funniest thing I have seen this post season...

For the record, the fan is on the front page of pretty much every single Chicago paper today.

And all the tv news has it every time they show up.

Poor guy.

Wonder how much that ball'd go for on eBay?

Maybe Southwest can do a commercial around him:

"For when you really need to get out of town in a hurry..."

Hey. We don't use the "BB" word in this house.

Now, now, let's not go picking on Bill Buckner. The man did NOT lose that WS game. Mookie was going to beat him to first base anyway. Blame the abysmal relief pitching of Calvin Shiraldi who couldn't get the third out and Bob Stanley who threw the wild pitch that tied the game.

Yes, TIED the game. Even if Buckner fields and somehow gimps over to first and beats Mookie, the game is not won by the Sox. It is tied going into the top of the 11th.

And blame manager John McNamara who should have put a more able-bodied defensive substitute at first base, especially with the Mets FASTEST runner at the plate.

I absolutely sympathise with all you Cubs fans. I'm a Dodger's fan, and we've been greatly disappointed for years and years and years and years and years and years and years and....

I absolutely sympathise with all you Cubs fans. I'm a Dodger's fan, and we've been greatly disappointed for years and years and years and years and years and years and years and....

Come now, can you really compare the Cubs to the Dodgers?!

It's all my fault.

Let me explain.

We all know that the reason the Cubs don't win is somehow due to what we what we as fans do or don't do. We have the power to influence what occurs on the field. We are Cubbie Voodoo.

That nitwit diehard Cub fan proved it last night. All you have to know in baseball is how to count to three. Three strikes and you're out. Three outs and the innning is over. Interfere with this cosmic baseball alignment only at the peril of your team.

So, after last night's debacle in Wrigleyville, I was troubled. I felt that I had left something undone. I hadn't got out my Cub cap.

So I went looking in the walk-in closet. And up top on a nearby shelf I found a shoebox that should have contained that cap.

When I opened it, there was the dark blue cap with the red C trimmed in white.

But there was more.

There were three caps in the box. Two I had forgotten about. The box hadn't been opened in perhaps years.

There was a black cap with a white bear on it clutching a baseball bat. A vintage Cub cap circa 1908?

And, unbelievably, there was a blue Marlins cap I got when the Marlins franchise started.

So there they are now, sitting on the great room table. Three caps. A modern Cubs cap. A Cubs cap from when they last won a World Series. And a Marlins cap.

What were the chances that those three caps would be in my possession, forgotten in a box in the closet? Waiting. Waiting for this series with the Marlins.

One more win and the Cubs go to the World Series.
One more loss and it's back into the void for all of Cubdom.

Clearly this discovery of mine has COSMIC MEANING FOR THE CUBS.

So, what should I do?

It's been suggested I burn the Marlins Cap. But somehow that seems too easy and destroys the symmetry around the number three.

I thought perhaps I should stack the hats. Marlins on the Bottom, Vintage Cubs on top, and Modern Cubs on the very top of the stack.

I thought of sticking pins in the Marlins cap.

I think I will stick fish hooks into that cap at the very least.

ANY SUGGESTIONS???

This is very important.

:: jozjozjoz ::,

It's just a game.

Err navigator,

It's just a game.

Navigator: Wear the current cap. Place the vintage cap on your TV. Put the Marlins cap back in the box, and the box back in the closet. Don't do anything else to the Marlins cap. I don't guarantee anything, as I am not specifically a Cubs fan (just an underlog/chronic loser fan in general), but I think this is the right way to address the issue.

Kroeme: If Kirk Gibson dies before the Dodgers win another World Series, THEN you can start to complain.

wil/everybody else commenting about whose fault it was: The guy interfering with the foul ball doesn't have to be genuinely to blame, any more than Buckner had to be genuinely to blame. It's simply a matter of story. Everything seemed to be in the Cubbies control for once, and then it wasn't, and the first moment of lost control was the foul ball. That's the story people picked up on.

Personally, I think Dusty failed to earn his salary. It's easy to second-guess, but my gut reaction as soon as the foul-ball thing happened was "Pull the pitcher". Not because I thought he was in trouble or because of pitch count or any of that stuff, but because what the Cubs were going to need was time to re-focus. I learned today that you can't pull a pitcher in mid-count on a batter, but the basic principle remains. Have Prior throw a safe intentional ball four, a nice easy toss to the catcher, and pull him. Give your team time to get their game faces back on while the new pitcher warms up. You might still lose, but at least you don't panic.

I work just north of Chicago and have been told stories of news/radio broadcasts. The boy/man/thing has had death threats from callers into those radio shows. Cub fans are not pleased. Cosmetic surgery, grow a beard, dye your hair. He's screwed if the Cubs lose tonight.

While it wasn't entirely his fault for the loss (cubbies coulda stepped up a notch or two to make up for it), he definately changed the 'mindset' of the game. In laymen's terms: he psyched out the Cubbies.

I ain't no baseball fan, but if I had to chose, it'd have to be the Brewers. They suck, I know it, but at least they're consistant. ;) (miller stadium sucks too, multi-million dollar leaky faucet) But I definately feel for the Cubbies and their fans at this point. Don't care, but at least feel sorry for them.

BASEBALL: 3 minutes of excitement packed into 3 hours.

True, I use to enjoy baseball. It's a boring game to watch...it's often like watching a chess match. It's more fun to play.

I have been a Cubs fan all my life. Last night I was pessemistic and I decided that no way in hell do they win Game 7. Tonight, possibly because of the All Encompassing Power of Denial, I've decided that they will win it.

I forgive The Fan (whose name shall not be taken in vain). I feel terrible for the guy. I genuinely hope that tonight is a victory for Chicago so he can go down in history as just an example of this team's fortitude. Otherwise with a loss he may find himself killed by vindictive fans.

I've been blogging a lot about the Cubs... I'd love to see some traffic to the site so check it out... http://paradisedown.blogspot.com

Yesterday's post was about how they should win it but might not. Today's post is about how they WILL win it, and why. I love the Cubs. I'd love a win tonight even more.

Wil,
You really love those cubs. As always, the best team will win. The play-offs are great.

FG

*reads all the comments*

I am still none the wiser.

as a cardinals fan...i really don't want to see the cubs go to the world series...but if it'll save that poor guy who interfered with the ball a life of hell or worse...then i have to hope that the cubs win tonight...the outpouring of hatred for this guy has been disturbing to say the least...the goat curse seems insignificant...next to the curse of being the scapegoat.

I'm not a huge baseball fan but just wanted to say how I'm so glad that we're able to make comments on the website. (I've been gone awhile...)

"The perfect baseball game is where *nothing happens*."

WOO WOO!! The Marlins won!! *G* (Yeah, I suck.. )

One day.. the Cubs will be in the Series.. just not this year. ;)

GO RED SOX!!!

Just wait til next year....

The team lost this game, not the fan. Sorry!

Heh, Heh, Wil, that is priceless-a Little Leaguer could have fielded that ball!

As an Angels Fan-----I feel the Cubs pain. (They are my second favorite team).
Next year is next year-get us some decent closers, McPhail, PLEASE!!!!!!!
Until then-thank you Cubs for a great year-now GO YANKS!

P.S. Now someone please put a muzzle on the lousy Fox Announcers-if I hear one more time how wonderful Beckett is-I'll be sick!

I didn't see the game, so I won't comment on that. What is messed up is what the Chicago media did afterwards, such as printing the kid's name, address, email, and all that other good stuff.

Are the media trying to get this kid hurt?

He's 26, and he came out an apologized.

It sucks that they lost, but you know the old saying...There's always next year.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/news/chc_news.jsp?ymd=20031015&content_id=580904&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chn

You owe me a new monitor.

Hey Will,

You..., THANKS YOU!!!!

Too many times when someone is being attacked, picked on, etc. we just stand aside silently. Even though most of us have experienced such ourselves.

Rarely does anyone put their neck out and stand up for the The Guy. It's nice to see....

i think this guy was stupid but antone would have done the same thing in his place he was just the one there!
i still like to blame him though it gives me closure to blame him and that dang goat

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