I admit it...

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

... I have anxiety about the Cubs continued success. What if KB isn't MVP caliber all the time? Javy probably can't duplicate his MVP season. Schwarber isn't the god we hoped for. Contreras maybe came back down. Heyward, while better, still meh. Darvish died. Lester is getting older. Russell, fuck off, and sucks. Almora is ok. Quintana hasn't been the level that they expected when they traded for him. The farm system blows now.

Now, we're in an offseason where Daniel Descalso and Cole Hamels (who was awesome, but is also old) are the big acquisitions. They could surprise everyone and somehow sign one of the 2 dudes (Machado/Harper), but I don't feel particularly inspired.

I'll love it if my internal doom and gloom about this is completely bullshit and Theo comes to my house to swing his 2019 WS winning balls right into my forehead.

I admit it: I also feel a bit like this.

I love this team and appreciate that after my own 40+ years of waiting, we finally have a team that we know will be contending in September each year.  Making the playoffs 4 out of the next 6 years is not an unreasonable expectation.

And yet as time has gone on, I've gone from hoping for a seismic historic correction resulting in 5 straight titles to hoping that they simply don't become the '85 Bears redux.  I've re-calibrated my expectations to just two more World Series titles over the next 5-8 years, but may bargain down to just one more at some point.

2018 broke a small part of me because I would have been COMPLETELY FINE with the Cubs getting spanked by Boston in the World Series, so long as they won a second pennant.  What hurt is that in spite of their own down year they had what seemed to be a greased path as the rest of the National League was also in a funk (save for those fuckers from Milwaukee who were truly the turd in the punchbowl and if nothing else I at least now have a healthy HATRED for that fucking team).  Last year was the Cubs' first exit where I felt echos of those Ditka-era playoff disappointments, and I don't like the feeling.  Sort of a 1st world problem I know--and I've acknowledged that I appreciate what they've done thus far--but I am as unsure about this team as I have ever been since Theo came along.  I still have faith, but I'm not nearly as cocky as I was 20 months ago.

TL;DR.  THIS

I, too, am firmly on the "fuck Milwaukee" bandwagon, and am pleased to note that there are definitely a few villains (over and above Braun, natch) popping up in their lineup.  That fat shit Aguilar can get all the way to fuck, for starters.  Arcia barely knows which end of a bat is which but stick him in the postseason and he turns into Latino David Fucking Freese: fuck that.  You will never persuade me that Eric Thames got how he is by eating right and exercising regularly.  And Hader?  And honest-to-goodness Nazi whom everybody on this board with the exception of DaveB can heartily fucking detest.

They played way, way above their heads last year and I, for one, can't wait for the hangover to kick in.  Cunts.

Yeah, the Cubs were banged up and out-of-sync, and still had the most wins in the National League for the entire summer; and yet some 18-2 type bullshit was pulled from every asshole in Wisconsin and they got caught on the last day.  Had the Cubs only been allowed their rightful position in a Best-of-5 LDS, they'd have been at worst even-odds to win the pennant, I'll be forever convinced.  I even rooted for Milwaukee after that series so the story could play out but they ended up ANGERING me more by pissing away my temporary fandom by having their pixie magic end against LA.  Fuck them, I hope in all my years that they never come close to a snifffing an LCS Game 7 again.  I want the Cubs to do to them what they've essentially done to St. Louis between 2015-2017 but even moreso.

I can't believe y'all didn't hate the Brewers before this.

Fernando fucking Vina?

Fuck those guys.

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

DPD.

What Tonker said.  Pen's a weirdo if he thinks Vina's presence with Milwaukee was annoying, or of any consequence to the Cubs, really.

[Saul Goodman]

I mean, maybe this belongs in a 2019 Cubs discussion, but I am zero worried. They rolled the National League for almost the entire season with a shitty hitting approach and while some of their best players missed significant time. They have no deficits.

Fuck that. Harper or bust. I don't just want them to win, I want them to destroy all other teams along the way. I want Harper/Bryant/Rizzo/Baez/LeMahieu/Contreras/Schwarber back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back dongs at least once per game. Burn Miller Park and Busch Stadium to the ground. Embarrass the Dodgers so badly that they move out to Riverside County where not even Elon Musk will build a tunnel to see them. Burn, pillage, destroy.

[flannj]

I mean, maybe this belongs in a 2019 Cubs discussion, but I am zero worried. They rolled the National League for almost the entire season with a shitty hitting approach and while some of their best players missed significant time. They have no deficits.

As much as I dislike agreeing with Krut I do believe that overall he is correct.
No deficits is probably overstating the pitching and salary cap situation.

Please God, let our man child from Middletown get back to form.

[Wheezer]

... I have anxiety about the Cubs continued success. What if KB isn't MVP caliber all the time? Javy probably can't duplicate his MVP season. Schwarber isn't the god we hoped for. Contreras maybe came back down. Heyward, while better, still meh. Darvish died. Lester is getting older. Russell, fuck off, and sucks. Almora is ok. Quintana hasn't been the level that they expected when they traded for him. The farm system blows now.

Now, we're in an offseason where Daniel Descalso and Cole Hamels (who was awesome, but is also old) are the big acquisitions. They could surprise everyone and somehow sign one of the 2 dudes (Machado/Harper), but I don't feel particularly inspired.

I'll love it if my internal doom and gloom about this is completely bullshit and Theo comes to my house to swing his 2019 WS winning balls right into my forehead.

I admit it: I also feel a bit like this.

I love this team and appreciate that after my own 40+ years of waiting, we finally have a team that we know will be contending in September each year.  Making the playoffs 4 out of the next 6 years is not an unreasonable expectation.

And yet as time has gone on, I've gone from hoping for a seismic historic correction resulting in 5 straight titles to hoping that they simply don't become the '85 Bears redux.  I've re-calibrated my expectations to just two more World Series titles over the next 5-8 years, but may bargain down to just one more at some point.

2018 broke a small part of me because I would have been COMPLETELY FINE with the Cubs getting spanked by Boston in the World Series, so long as they won a second pennant.  What hurt is that in spite of their own down year they had what seemed to be a greased path as the rest of the National League was also in a funk (save for those fuckers from Milwaukee who were truly the turd in the punchbowl and if nothing else I at least now have a healthy HATRED for that fucking team).  Last year was the Cubs' first exit where I felt echos of those Ditka-era playoff disappointments, and I don't like the feeling.  Sort of a 1st world problem I know--and I've acknowledged that I appreciate what they've done thus far--but I am as unsure about this team as I have ever been since Theo came along.  I still have faith, but I'm not nearly as cocky as I was 20 months ago.

TL;DR.  THIS

I, too, am firmly on the "fuck Milwaukee" bandwagon, and am pleased to note that there are definitely a few villains (over and above Braun, natch) popping up in their lineup.  That fat shit Aguilar can get all the way to fuck, for starters.  Arcia barely knows which end of a bat is which but stick him in the postseason and he turns into Latino David Fucking Freese: fuck that.  You will never persuade me that Eric Thames got how he is by eating right and exercising regularly.  And Hader?  And honest-to-goodness Nazi whom everybody on this board with the exception of DaveB can heartily fucking detest.

If Dubbs were here, he might have had the wits to say that you misspelled 'dentist'. Maybe not. My life has gone to shit.

[Wheezer]

... I didn't know that Charles Mingus died of ALS. Go listen now.

[Brownie]

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

Albert Belle.

[CBStew]

I was very gratified to see the Saints beat the Eagles.  Is that called schadenfreude?  OK, I can't spell it but I can say it.   

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

Albert Belle.

That's it.  Bad mistake by me since Mueller tore up his knee the same day that Vina tomahawked a Wood fastball at his face for a triple, and that was 2001 which we all know was Pujols' rookie season.  BAD PANK, BAD.  Albert Belle--of course. * smacks self on Tron helmet *

[Brownie]

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

Albert Belle.

That's it.  Bad mistake by me since Mueller tore up his knee the same day that Vina tomahawked a Wood fastball at his face for a triple, and that was 2001 which we all know was Pujols' rookie season.  BAD PANK, BAD.  Albert Belle--of course. * smacks self on Tron helmet *

Here it is.

[CBStew]

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

Albert Belle.

That's it.  Bad mistake by me since Mueller tore up his knee the same day that Vina tomahawked a Wood fastball at his face for a triple, and that was 2001 which we all know was Pujols' rookie season.  BAD PANK, BAD.  Albert Belle--of course. * smacks self on Tron helmet *

Here it is.

I thought that this was going to be a brawl about Special Counsel Mueller's investigation.

[Quality Start Machine]

My only Vina-as-a-Brewer memory didn't even involve the Cubs--it was when Albert Pujols (?) forechecked him about 20 yards near second base.

No, my black heart brews nothing but darkness for Fernando-Vina-as-a-Cardinal, stupid fluky-tomohawk-line-driving-a-Kerry-Wood-fastball-at-his-head-for-a-triple-the-same-day-poor-Bill-Mueller's-knees-were-unceremoniously-eaten-by-the-Busch-Stadium-walls (and many other offenses) motherfucker.

Albert Belle.

That's it.  Bad mistake by me since Mueller tore up his knee the same day that Vina tomahawked a Wood fastball at his face for a triple, and that was 2001 which we all know was Pujols' rookie season.  BAD PANK, BAD.  Albert Belle--of course. * smacks self on Tron helmet *

Here it is.

I thought that this was going to be a brawl about Special Counsel Mueller's investigation.

What's his OPS?

[Wheezer]

... I am determined to learn the dance step from the video for R.E.M.'s "Stand."

[Canadouche]

I love my job, but holy shit, the problems they are dealing with. Of our 45-or-so 8th graders, four have lost parents to tragedy. One's mother had an aneurysm seven years ago, and while she's still alive, she isn't remotely the person she was. We had the father of a student, and mother of another, both murdered in the span of 9 months. And one of my students is losing her mother to breast cancer.

That doesn't even factor in the number of absent fathers that many of them have. Way too much tragedy for kids who are just beginning their teenage years.

[Oleg]

I love my job, but holy shit, the problems they are dealing with. Of our 45-or-so 8th graders, four have lost parents to tragedy. One's mother had an aneurysm seven years ago, and while she's still alive, she isn't remotely the person she was. We had the father of a student, and mother of another, both murdered in the span of 9 months. And one of my students is losing her mother to breast cancer.

That doesn't even factor in the number of absent fathers that many of them have. Way too much tragedy for kids who are just beginning their teenage years.

Are you still in Toronto or somewhere up north?