Don't Blame The Fan
To all the die-hard, long-suffering Cubs fans out there, I feel your pain. You guys have a right to complain and feel down. Even I found it tough to watch them lose last 3 games, and I'm a Sox fan.
To all the people who never watched baseball until a few weeks ago, and suddenly became huge Cubs fans when they made the playoffs, please don't spend the next few weeks whining, because I could care less.
Anyways, here's my opinion on the whole "fan incident". The guy is stupid. So are all the people around him that were also going for the ball, he just happened to be the unlucky stupid one. If you sit in a front row seat, and a ball is popped up towards you, you should know to pay attention first to the field of play, and go for the ball second.
Then, the guy releases some lame statement. Sorry man, nobody wants to hear it. Maybe if you just shut up for a while, or just talked to a local reporter, looked into the camera, and simply said "I'm sorry, I'm a dumbass", it would all blow over within a few weeks. No, he tries to act like some important person, sounding like a cheesy politician's speech with stuff like "I ask that Cubs fans everywhere redirect the negative energy" and the painfully obvious "Had I thought for one second that the ball was playable ... I would have done whatever I could to get out of the way." Now, I'm not a Cubs fan, but if I were already pissed at this person, and then he talks down to me like that, I'd be even less inclined to forgive him and even more inclined to kick his ass.
With that said, there's no way you can blame losing the series on that one play. Yes, it made a huge difference momentum wise, but it didn't make 8 runs cross the plate that inning, nor did it make Kerry Wood give up 7 runs the next night. And it certainly had no part in the Cubs getting shut out the game before that. The fact is, a lot of other stuff went wrong, and if you can honestly blame a 7 game series on a fan's stupid play, then your team doesn't deserve to play in the World Series to begin with.
In a pure baseball sense, that fan cost the Cubs one out, if that much. Everything else is "shoulda, woulda, coulda" that you can debate forever. Maybe Moises doesn't catch the ball even if the guy gets out of the way, but then Prior goes on to strike out the next two guys and the Cubs go on to win. Maybe Moises does catch the ball, Alex Gonzalez doesn't try to rush the play to turn 2, and Cubs are out of the inning and winners also. Maybe the Cubs get out of the inning, but then the Marlins bat around in the ninth and win Game 6. But then Kerry Wood throws a no-hit shutout in Game 7. In sports, and especially in baseball, anything can happen.
If you watch the game of baseball and know how it goes, you should understand that there are a million variables, an infinite number of things that can go change in one play, but no matter what happens, you have to move forward and play ball with what you got. I've always hated those players who get a questionable call on strike 2, swing and miss for strike 3, then go back and complain to the ump about his call on strike 2. Maybe it was out of the zone, maybe it was in, but either way, you still had a chance on the next pitch and you missed. It's your own problem if you chose to spend your time and energy crying over spilled milk and licking your wounds, instead of focusing on the next opportunity. And that's exactly the case with people who will continue to moan about getting screwed on one play in one inning of a 7 game, 63 inning, 189 out series.
Oh well, that's enough talk about that for now. I'm sure this city will be sick and tired of talking this subject to death in the next few days, or maybe for years to come. If you Cubs fans want to turn into Red Sox fans, go ahead and keep feeling sorry for yourself about what happened until the day you die. Personally, even though I think cheering for "lovable losers" is dumb, I've still always felt that Cubs fans are much better than Red Sox fans, because they aren't as overly cynical and they still are behind their team with high hopes every year. So I'd suggest for everyone to just take a few days at most to mourn, and then look ahead to next season for bigger and better things.
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Maybe the following story will provide a welcome diversion. A week or two ago I was watching ESPN and caught the following news scrolling by on the BottomLine: "Jacksonville punter Chris Hanson out with leg injury (gashed with ax)". At the time, I was like "what the??" but figured I just read it wrong or something. Later, I saw part of the report on SportsCenter and it turned out that he actually was injured by an ax. Apparently, he nailed his own leg during practice as part of a motivational stunt where the coach had him chopping wood for some reason. How chopping wood can be a motivational tool for football practice, I'll never know.
Now, there's been plenty of bizarre injuries in the sports world. Among others, people have hurt their back carrying their own luggage at the hotel, strained neck muscles pulling their overly tight cap on, gotten tackled by their dog, and missed games because of a spider bite. But there's more to this story. For me, the "kicker" (meester son of a beetch... lets pliay some khards) of this whole thing came a couple days ago when I was listening to the radio and they were talking about the incident. I found out that this is the same guy who was part of a weird "fondue mishap" last year, which I remember hearing about at the time.
So in 2002, Chris Hanson injures himself by spilling hot fondue on himself at home. Then in 2003, he's out for the season after "gashing" himself with an ax during practice. Maybe no one else thinks it's that funny, but I've been snickering to myself ever since I heard that.
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During the Cubs game yesterday, I saw a TV version for the Bud Light commercial I talked about in the last blog. Wasn't as funny as the radio ones I've heard, and I guess the actual title is "Real Men Of Genius". Just thought I'd pass along an update.
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One final thing of note, for all the Illini fans out there... Kurt Kittner is getting the next start for the Atlanta Falcons this week. Yes, the legendary Kittner15!! Too bad he wasn't able to start the last game on Monday Night Football, and claim to be from Playa University too.
