Poor Cubs...

[A Black Falcon]

Hopefully they make a comeback!

[DMiller]

Not looking good tonight. This seems so much like last season when the Cubs couldn't hit at all once the playoffs started. I thought it would be different since they had a much stronger team this year. I might cry myself to sleep tonight if they don't come back.

[A Black Falcon]

They'll need to win three in a row to keep going now, won't they... yeah, not looking good. It'd be nice to win on the 100th anniversary of their last win, but that doesn't look too likely now. Great regular seasons don't always mean post-season success... just ask the Mariners of a few years back.

Oh, and what was that I just saw? This is their eighth straight postseason loss? That's not a good streak... at least they should be able to win ONE... :)

[Fittisize]

Wow, that was ugly. But I can't say I'm all that surprised. When Loney hit that grande slam last night I could feel the Cubs soul being ripped apart. Dodgers will win this series, sadly.

But hey, you still got the White Sox to root for! Most people don't have the luxury of being able to have two home teams to cheer for and love equally.

[DMiller]

But hey, you still got the White Sox to root for! Most people don't have the luxury of being able to have two home teams to cheer for and love equally.

You obviously don't understand the Cubs and White Sox. When someone is born in Chicago the doctor declares them a Cubs fan or Sox fan before determining the sex. There are few people who root for both teams. Either way the Sox are now down 2-0 as well and they don't have the talent the Cubs do to come back.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, some cities or metropolitan areas may have two teams, but in pretty much every case, people are only fans of one team or the other, never both... but yeah, the White Sox aren't winning either.

[Fittisize]

I know, it was a joke. And I also made that post when the W. Sox were only down 1-0 and still looked pretty good. But they won't win either because the Rays are playing as if they've had a dynasty for the last three years and just simply know how to win. I got the Rays coming out of the AL, but I don't really know about the NL.

[A Black Falcon]

I have no idea why the Rays are good this year... but if they win (even up 2-0, I'm still hoping they lose! No way can I forgive them for finishing ahead of the Red Sox... :)), and if the Red Sox do too (also up 2-0), I'm definitely hoping they don't get any farther.

But yeah, they definitely have been the biggest surprise team this year, by far. A team that had finished last every year of its existence wins the division? Astounding.

[DMiller]

I'll be rooting for the Rays now that the Cubs are out. No offense to your Red Sox, but they are as close to a dynasty as there is in baseball today.

[A Black Falcon]

Poor Cubs indeed, out in three...

[Weltall]

One hundred years of sterling non-excellence!

[DMiller]

What kills me is they haven't even made it to the World Series since 1945. World War II was still going on! At least when the Red Sox had their long streak without a Series win they had made it there a few times.

[A Black Falcon]

Phillies win game one... hopefully they win the NLCS, I don't want Manny (isn't is amazing how his "injuries" disappeared as soon as he left the Red Sox? Still, I do think they made a mistake in trading him, overall...) and Joe Torre to win anything... :)

What kills me is they haven't even made it to the World Series since 1945. World War II was still going on! At least when the Red Sox had their long streak without a Series win they had made it there a few times.

Philadelphia's even worse off than Chicago, amazingly.

There was an article today in the NY Times about the Phillies and their general total lack of success, and it had a chart looking at the five cities or metropolitan areas that have had sports teams in all four major sports in every season since 1983, the last time a Phillidelphia team (the 76ers) won a major championship.

Those five cities are Boston (4 teams), Detroit (4 teams), New York (9 teams), Philadelphia (4 teams), and Chicago (5 teams). Since 1983 Philadelphia has 1 championship, Boston, Detroit, and Chicago have 8 championships, and New York has 13.

... That's a pretty amazing string of failure for Philadelphia... not that that makes what happened any better for Cubs fans, of course (six of those eight Chicago wins are from the Bulls, of course). But it was an interesting chart.

[A Black Falcon]

Down 7-0 in the bottom of the seventh, facing elimination... and they pull it off with a bottom-of-the-9th two-out run win! Wow... amazing stuff. :D

[DMiller]

That was a nice comeback. It was reminiscent of some of the comebacks the Cubs made this season, except they did it in regular season games that didn't matter much.

[Fittisize]

I wouldn't be too optimistic about Boston for the rest of series. The Rays may have chased Dice-K off the mound, but most people felt coming into the game that Boston would win this one and the Rays would finish them off at home. Still a great comeback, but Tampa still looks way too strong to lose the next two games. Besides, Tampa obviously lost the game on purpose so they could finish off the series in front of their home crowd (no teams ever do this, of course, but it's one of my favourite examples of fan logic).

On the topic of sports cities, Tampa has been spoiled. The Bucs winning the Superbowl in '02, the Lighting the Stanley Cup in '04, and now the Rays have a very real shot at the World Series. If the Rays pull through, every single one of their pro sports franchises will have won a championship in a short span of time. It's just not fair.

[A Black Falcon]

Last year the Sox won the ALCS after being down 3-1... they can do it again. :)

Sure, it's unlikely of course, but quite possible, and they've proven they can do it, in 2004 and 2007.

On the topic of sports cities, Tampa has been spoiled. The Bucs winning the Superbowl in '02, the Lighting the Stanley Cup in '04, and now the Rays have a very real shot at the World Series. If the Rays pull through, every single one of their pro sports franchises will have won a championship in a short span of time. It's just not fair.

Boston's had everybody except for the Bruins (and Revolution, I think, if you count soccer) win recently... it is kind of weird, after 10-20 years of little success from all of them.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah! Only one more to the World Series... good game. :)

[DMiller]

Boston has this comeback thing down pat. It will be an interesting game tonight since it will probably be the most pressure the Rays have been under this season while the Sox are used to these situations.

[A Black Falcon]

The last three teams to come back from 3-1 deficits in the ALCS and win:

(previous one: 1985 Kansas City Royals, in the first year of the 7-game ALCS)
1986 Boston Red Sox
2004 Boston Red Sox (came back from 3-0)
2007 Boston Red Sox

Will we make it four in a row? :)

They never take the easy path through the ALCS, do they... but as long as we win in the end, who'd complain about how you get there? :)

[A Black Falcon]

Well, that didn't go well. :(

Why did it have to be Tampa... the Red Sox and (Devil) Rays have a history of fighting going back almost as long as the Rays have existed, so it's not like I just now started disliking them (it's just that before this year they were a somewhat irrelevant 'rival' you always expected to crush...). And now they somehow manage to win the ALCS? :(

Hopefully Philadelphia can stop them... but by now, I'm not betting on it. :bummed:

[DMiller]

I know how you feel, but the Red Sox have had a lot of success the past few years so don't feel too bad. I'm pretty happy to see the Rays make it and hope they win, but a part of me is upset because one of the most horrible franchises in the league in the past decade made it to the World Series while the Cubs still haven't made it in 100 years.

[A Black Falcon]

I know, we've won twice in the last four years, so it's definitely not the same as the Cubs, for sure... but yeah, the RAYS? Why does that pathetic excuse for a franchise (for all of its first ten years until this one) deserve this? There are so many teams more deserving... the Cubs, Mariners, Giants, etc...

[Fittisize]

Oh boo-hoo Red Sox fan. The Rays went wire-to-wire this year with a young roster that was mostly composed of smart draft picks and a great farm system. Believe it or not, that system WORKS once in awhile. I can't think of any team more deserving than a team like Tampa to win the Series. I hope they can do it - being a former Expos fan means that I have a soft spot in my heart for the little guy and I value the accomplishments of teams with a strong core of home-grown talent a lot more than a team who scoops up players in the prime of their careers. I don't care how much you think Beckett, Ortiz, Drew, Daisuke, or Youkilis (who's been with the Sox his entire career but is still a Jew) deserve it over the Rays. They don't. They got beaten by a better, younger team who outplayed the Red Sox all season and didn't flinch coming into game seven. Hell, David Price looked like Mariano Rivera striking out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded in the 8th. Tampa is not a pathetic franchise, BOSTON fan is pathetic for being such sore losers. Just like the Patriots in the Superbowl, the Red Sox got stomped out. Come to grips with it, get over yourself, and cheer for the team that beat you fair and square. There's honour in that. If not, watch Good Will Hunting or something.

[Great Rumbler]

Red Sox lol

[Weltall]

I know, we've won twice in the last four years, so it's definitely not the same as the Cubs, for sure... but yeah, the RAYS? Why does that pathetic excuse for a franchise (for all of its first ten years until this one) deserve this? There are so many teams more deserving... the Cubs, Mariners, Giants, etc...

You Boston sports fans have let the last seven years go to your heads.

I for one enjoy the recent trend of Boston sports teams being humiliated in historic fashion, though watching the Pats go from 16-0 to mortal over the last nine months has been particularly sweet.