Most people around here are pulling for the Cubs. Lester and Ross are absolute top class guys. Hope this is the year.
Theo won in 2004 with Dan Duquette's players. He's ok, but he ain't that good.
The number of funerals rose precipitously in New England after the "04 Red Sox win, as many older fans (my elderly father included) seemed to be holding off the inevitable waiting to see the Sox finally win one.
This former Bostonian will be rooting hard for the Cubs and their loyal fans as only someone who has waited as long as we did can appreciate what a World Series win would mean to Cubs fans.
This former Bostonian will be rooting hard for the Cubs and their loyal fans as only someone who has waited as long as we did can appreciate what a World Series win would mean to Cubs fans.
I love baseball. As both my home teams have failed to move-on this season, I will be watching the Cubs, clinging to every strike. I pulled out my Mets voodoo doll over a week ago. I'll be needing to threaten it with flames since the pins don't seem to be enough.
St. Louis born and raised (with rapid Cardinal fans for friends.) But I want the Cubs to win the World Series! There. I said it.
Both Epstein and Bryant went to the University of San Diego. Chicago should send them a gift basket.
This team has such a different feeling than past Cubs teams.
Whether or not they win it all, Theo has done an outstanding job of starting from scratch and creating a very fun team to watch.
As a native of Chicago, it's nice to finally have a team that is young and confident.
Whether or not they win it all, Theo has done an outstanding job of starting from scratch and creating a very fun team to watch.
As a native of Chicago, it's nice to finally have a team that is young and confident.
"[A]t the wheel of a Volvo in a gorilla suit" has to be one of the most amusing pieces of insufficiently considered syntax a sports writer for this paper has produced in long time. Would love to see a Volvo in a gorilla suit.
With Epstein comes sabermetrics. The Cubs walk more than any NL team. So even though they are 14th in batting average, they are 5th in on base percentage. They don't sacrifice bunt. They rarely ground into double plays. When they make contact, they hit the ball in the air a lot more than on the ground. And no team has longer at bats than the Cubs. So, in summary, the Cubs work hard to make every at bat count, they don't give away outs, and they inflate the opposing team's pitch counts.
The Cubs' two best starters, Arrieta and Lester, are elite, while #3 and #4, Hammel and Hendricks, have sub 4.00 ERA's. The bullpen is not great, nor is the power hitting. Still, their run differential is 3rd in the National League.
Epstein has put together a team that knows how to score and has the pitching to back it up. Also important, they force opposition pitchers to their pitch count limits, so they can exploit any bullpen weaknesses. Their pitching is outstanding but not unsurpassed. Their hitting is efficient, not overpowering. They're not a team for the ages. But they are good enough to win it all.
The Cubs' two best starters, Arrieta and Lester, are elite, while #3 and #4, Hammel and Hendricks, have sub 4.00 ERA's. The bullpen is not great, nor is the power hitting. Still, their run differential is 3rd in the National League.
Epstein has put together a team that knows how to score and has the pitching to back it up. Also important, they force opposition pitchers to their pitch count limits, so they can exploit any bullpen weaknesses. Their pitching is outstanding but not unsurpassed. Their hitting is efficient, not overpowering. They're not a team for the ages. But they are good enough to win it all.
5
If the Cubs fulfill Back to the Future 2 prophecy and win the Workd Series, there should be a new motto on our currency: "In Theo we trust."
1
Theo got lucky in 2004. He had little to do with building that team and he was very young.
There is nothing lucky about the Cubs' success now. Theo is light years ahead of where he was as a GM in 2004. He has masterfully built this team. Kudos to the Cubs ownership for giving him enough rope to do it the right way. They are going to be good for a long time.
There is nothing lucky about the Cubs' success now. Theo is light years ahead of where he was as a GM in 2004. He has masterfully built this team. Kudos to the Cubs ownership for giving him enough rope to do it the right way. They are going to be good for a long time.
9
Trading Nomar was gutsy.
I was appalled at the atrocious and low class behavior of Mets fans booing Max Scherzer when he pitched a no-hitter.
It belies my memories of their fans in 1969 (for example), when they were true fans, not boors.
If the Mets lose (and here's hoping based on that kind of fan behavior), it will be this unseemly and obnoxious behavior coming home to roost in a cosmic karma bite on the posterior.
It belies my memories of their fans in 1969 (for example), when they were true fans, not boors.
If the Mets lose (and here's hoping based on that kind of fan behavior), it will be this unseemly and obnoxious behavior coming home to roost in a cosmic karma bite on the posterior.
3
You cannot be serious. In 1969, after the Rose/Harrelson incident, the Mets fans went nuts. To the point the Reds players' families would not sit in the stands, one threw an empty whiskey bottle at Rose in left field and they completely destroyed the field after they won the World Series.
Scherzer pitched the equivalent of a no hitter in spring training as the game mean absolutely nothing to anyone but him. After falling flat on his face during the games that really did matter in August and early September.
Let's Go Mets!!
Scherzer pitched the equivalent of a no hitter in spring training as the game mean absolutely nothing to anyone but him. After falling flat on his face during the games that really did matter in August and early September.
Let's Go Mets!!
1
I'm confused. Did you actually expect that Mets fans would cheer Scherzer on as he no-hit their team?
Secondly, if you're concerned about boorish, low-class behavior in baseball, I'd suggest you watch the video of the Washington Nationals' Papelbon-Harper incident and comment on that.
Secondly, if you're concerned about boorish, low-class behavior in baseball, I'd suggest you watch the video of the Washington Nationals' Papelbon-Harper incident and comment on that.
1
"In his news conference Friday, (Lester) referred to them as “storied franchises,” leaving out the sob syllable..."
Great line!
Great line!
A polite request to the national media, including the NYT: From here on out, please, please, PLEASE try to run a piece about the Cubs without using the phrase "lovable losers." It was hackneyed, cliché, and threadbare about, oh, forty years ago. Other than that, nice column.
10
The "lovable losers" just beat the two best teams in the majors and will do the same to the Mets. I'm sure Pittsburgh and St. Louis don't view them as "lovable".
Has Jon Lester found fried chicken he likes in Chicago yet? Beware the nasty chicken fat slider.
Dan Duquette, Theo's predecessor in Boston, deserves a lot of the credit for 2004. Duquette's 2002 team had Manny, Pedro, Nomar, Johnny Damon and Derek Lowe on it. Dan was never as telegenic as Theo; the insatiable Boston press didn't find Duquette to be very good copy. Epstein did his part too, adding David Ortiz in 2003. But any knowledgeable fan knows that the Red Sox championship in 2004 was not simply a Theo Epstein production. By the way, I was at Fenway for Jon Lester's no-hitter in May of 2008. I wish him nothing but the best.
5
I was speaking with someone the other day about the possibility of the Cubs winning it all this year. He suggested, I think entirely appropriately, that if the Cubs do win the World Series this year (or at any time under Theo) there should be an entire wing named after him in the Hall of Fame.
Theo is indeed God's gift to this Cubs fan.
Theo is indeed God's gift to this Cubs fan.
2
As a Red Sox fan, all I can say go Cubbies. Oh and the Red Sox suck again, Theo please come back. The guys at Fens are nuts.
4
Obviously Epstein gets credit for the 2004 Red Sox team but (as the article implies) Lester didn't arrive on the team until later, in 2006. So the headline is a little misleading by putting Lester and Exorcism together. The Red Sox exorcism was in 2004, and Lester didn't have anything to do with it.
I'd be rooting for the Cubs, in their coach wasn't Joe Madden.
I'd be rooting for the Cubs, in their coach wasn't Joe Madden.
1
That's:
I'd be rooting for the Cubs, if their coach wasn't Joe Madden.
I'd be rooting for the Cubs, if their coach wasn't Joe Madden.
Although I do see in the fine print at the bottom that the paper edition has the headline "2 Red Sox Magicians Try Another Exorcism" so if that's what you were referencing, your point is well-taken.
That's two of us.
As a Red Sox fan since the heartbreak of '67, I'll be forever grateful to the current ownership for digging CEO and making 2004 possible. 2007 and 2013 were icing on the cake. After decades of suffering, if I go tomorrow, I'll go content on the baseball front.
Still, it's hard to accept how the players are all commodities today, how Henry et al let guys like Lester, Ross, Epstein get away, not to mention Pedro, Damon, Ellsbury, Yuklis, and guys who most Red Sox fans would be content to grow old with after 2004.
Good luck to these guys. The fact that they're playing the Mets only makes it better.
Still, it's hard to accept how the players are all commodities today, how Henry et al let guys like Lester, Ross, Epstein get away, not to mention Pedro, Damon, Ellsbury, Yuklis, and guys who most Red Sox fans would be content to grow old with after 2004.
Good luck to these guys. The fact that they're playing the Mets only makes it better.
12
Lester joined the Sox in 2006, Ellsbury in 2007, and Ross in 2013. Youkilis had only 2 plate appearances in the 2004 playoffs, none in the World Series. It's tough to say goodbye to players like Pedro, but the only reason Sox fans could celebrate 2007 and 2013 is because of the new players who were brought in to replace the old ones.
3
1967 was hardly a heartbreak year for the Sox: they went from 9th place in 1966 to the World Series in 1967. Yastrzemski was other-worldly at bat and on the field, putting up the greatest combined WAR (wins above replacement) in a single season than anyone not named Babe Ruth (yes, higher than any season of Barry Bonds). 1967 rejuvenated Boston baseball, reset the expectations here, and was the first of 6 trips to the World Series, the last 3 of which the Red Sox won. A watershed year, certainly. Heartbreak? Not if you lived in Boston, sir, as I did.
5