Thanks to waxpaperbeercup for the reminder - 6 years ago today was the Bartman game, where the Cubs were 6 outs away from their first WS appearance since 1945 before coughing up a 3 run lead in the 8th inning. I've always thought that this game was the one that changed the fanbase, and wpbc agrees. He hit the nail on the head with this statement:
The days of the ever-optimistic Cubs fans have gone away. Many Cub fans now feel as if they are owed something because of what happened that night.
That's pretty much it. Many of us (myself included too) now feel like we are somehow owed a successful team, since victory was snatched from our grasp in such an excruciating fashion. I know I wasn't all-in as a Cubs fan until after that postseason. I was pretty devastated, though I didn't realize it for weeks later when my now-wife pointed it out to me.
In some sense, it is a good thing, as it put pressure on the Trib to actually spend money on the team - for example spending money on Lee, Soriano, and Maddux and keeping Ramirez and Z around when the old TribCo would have let them go, Greg Maddux-1993-style. But man, at times it makes it very hard to interact with other Cubs fans. At times we're just as bad as the Red Sox fans that I roundly despise.
It still sucks, 6 years later. FWIW I don't blame Bartman for anything, and when the Cubs are back in the NLCS, I hope he throws out the game ball for the next game 6 (or in the WS!)
1 comments:
one thing that loss did to me is change how i watch sports. very rarely to i get fully invested in a team winning. a sports loss has never bothered me since game 6 of 2003. that one bothers me to this day, but the ones since do not. it can't get any worse than that...well maybe it could...
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