Comments on How to Enjoy a Pennant Race

what was with those umps tonight?!?!?!?

get some fucking glasses assholes!

Your team is 16.5 games back; query whether this should inspire poetry, envy, or silence. We think you a hater.

Wait, i thought enjoyment and baseball were oxymorons.

@ 2

My team is currently proud to lead the weakest division in baseball by 1.5 games over the Brewers, and I'm doing for my Cubs exactly what I advise you to do for your Mariners. "Chicago Fan" does not mean "White Sox fan."

Bill

my mistake. noted you're for the cubbies. but then what was all that bobby jenks nonesense a week or two ago?

you are here to taunt us; naturally, we do our level best to taunt you back.

Ah, R and M:

The Bobby Jenks business is about the difference between being a baseball fan and a fan of a particular team. If I were at a Cubs-Cardinals or Cubs-Sox game, and the Cards or Sox pitcher threw a no-hitter, I'd stand and applaud at the end, recognizing an unlikely and beautiful accomplishment. I'd root against it happening while my team was being no-hit, but the Game itself deserves its respect. So while I hate and root against the White Sox, I must give Jenks his props--though I may have jinxed him, since after the Mariners swept the Pale Hose, he returned to Chicago and gave up a hit to the first batter he faced, ending up with a tie for the record instead of setting a new record.

Taunting back in your court. . .

Bill

Agreed about the game. And Jenks, as we've said, jinxed himself when he doffed his cap at tying the record.

Dargh, I was at the M's / Angels game last night. The M's continued to look flat and double-stuffed by another good outing by Lachey. I'm in again tonight and let this not be the midway game to another 7-game losing streak.

M's fans (and Chicago Fan) gotta see and enjoy shades of Lou in McLaren when he gets all up in the ump's face and plugs in the profanity-spewing chicken neck.

I'm going to the Cubs game tomorrow. What should I do?

Now, why is Steve Goodman's "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request" running through my head?

Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League

@ 9:

Avoid the bars directly around Wrigley. Go to the Ginger Man (on Clark, one block north of Waveland) or the L & L (on Clark, about a half mile south of the Park, just north of Belmont), or Guthries (four blocks west on Addison).

For the best hot dog, walk four blocks north on Sheffield/Sheridan to Irving Park Road, then a quarter block west (right) to Byorn's (yes, that little shack with a picnic table out front). Best hot dog in the city.

Hope this helps.

I feel like Jeff Weaver is going to make it an inning and a third tonight...His four game winstreak is about to be demolished...I actually miss Jamie Moyer!

Nah, Ichi. I'm going again tonight so I say that Weaver will stay tough, spark up the team, and overcome last night's pick-apart.

Either he makes it through 5 or he doesn't. Shit, let's just bet 20 bucks.