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Bill @ the daily something
14 years ago

It’s wanting to see baseball in an astoundingly beautiful ballpark. They’re not “dedicated” in the usual sense, but not stupid either (I mean, not collectively).

I’m not grasping the significance of the layout of the numbers.

southsidemike
14 years ago

Which is more important: winning ballgames or a beautiful park? 
Watching fish rot on the beautiful Copacabana beach in Rio is not my idea of a pleasant afternoon. 
Neither is watching the trash cans overfill at the Louvre, or watching naked fat people frolic at sunset on the beach on the North Shore of Oahu.
I assume you catch my drift

BTW the numbers spell out cubs

MikeS
14 years ago

I’ve been saying it for years.

Only sports franchise on the face of the earth that can lose and sell tickets.

Bill @ the daily something
14 years ago

Ah…I see that now. Kind of.

I don’t think “which is more important” is the question (though the relative successes of the Cubs and Rays might provide an unwelcome answer). Nothing wrong with providing an overall experience pleasant enough that people want the product even if the baseball is bad (which, it should be pointed out, it generally isn’t).

TUCK!
14 years ago

@alla youse: Great comments, thanks very much for posting.

@Bill: Really just curious, but how do you quantify that the Cubs’ brand of baseball “generally isn’t (bad),” given their track record?

SS712
14 years ago

Bill obviously hasn’t watched too many Cub games to say that their brand of baseball is “generally not that bad.” They are an awful team, in an awful division, that is 6 teams deep. Regardless of record playing the pirates, reds, astros, and brewers 19 times a year (each) cannot qualify as good baseball. 101 years and counting… pathetic

southsidemike
14 years ago

Tradition of losing for 101 years… Is that fan dedication or stupidity?

“It is pure genius from a marketing perspective, that they support a team that is bad,” said David Berri, a professor at Southern Utah University who specializes in sports economics. “It’s the only entertainment where, ‘We have failed, but we would still like you to pay us.’
“Imagine if you had a restaurant like that. We serve crappy food! That’s what’s so great about us!”

Source(s):
In 2005, the Cubs went 79-83 but still drew more than three million fans, the sixth highest MLB attendance that year. The next year the Cubs imploded, finishing 66-96, and yet drew more than 3.1 million fans, again the sixth highest in MLB.

Bill @ the daily something
14 years ago

Live in Chicago and watch the Cubs all the time (not a fan, but the TV team is miles better than the southside guys). The Cubs were easily the best team in the NL in 2008, and figured to be the same this year, but for a complete collapse by three key players, and are still playing above .500 ball, as they were in 2007. For at least the last 12 years, they’ve been good more often than they’ve been bad.

More to the point, ripping on Cubs fans for showing up to support a bad team seems a little silly. If fans show up for every game, it’s a sad statement about the team somehow, yet if they don’t, they’re derided as fair-weather fans…you can’t win for losing (or something like that). And if you think playing the Pirates or Reds “cannot qualify as good baseball,” you’re just not a fan…went to an utterly meaningless Brewers-‘Stros game a couple weeks ago and had the time of my life.

The average Cub fan may be a little less intelligent than the average MLB fan (not that there aren’t a lot of smart Cubs fans who still go to the games, and good on ‘em), but they’re fans who love their team and love going to the ballpark. Nothing wrong with that.

Aaron Vowels
14 years ago

I’ve been a baseball fan since at least 1983 (born in 1974) and a Red Sox fan since 1986 (I blamed Calvin Schiraldi!) and I’d take a losing Cubs team at Wrigley over any day/night at work.  Provided that the game is not error-filled or the play is not obviously lackadaisical, baseball is fun to watch.  It’s especially fun to watch with 40,000 of your “closest friends” and a cold beer and a hot dog. 

Plus, I think if you view it one game at a time rather than 101 seasons of futility…it’s not as depressing!

Kahuna Tuna
14 years ago

I’d take a losing Cubs team at Wrigley dull baseball game between any two nine-player teams on any field on the North American continent — hell, anywhere in the world over any day/night at work.

There.  Now it says what it should say.

Aaron Vowels
14 years ago

Hey Tuna…nice edit.  I’m in complete agreement.

TUCK!
14 years ago

@Aaron:
“Plus, I think if you view it one game at a time rather than 101 seasons of futility…it’s not as depressing!”

You’re right—it’s even MOREso (162 x 101 = 16362)(And, yeah, I know they’ve only played 162 games since 1962; I am NOT doing more math than that on a Monday afternoon).

(Tho I, too, concur with Kahuna. ‘Cept make my dog a brat.)