Cubs entire season a waste? Oct07 '08

Great article by Syler Thomas in the Chicago Tribune today, regarding the aftermath of the Chicago Cubs dismal playoff appearance for the second year straight, and the various ways fans are feeling/reacting:

"I can't believe they're gonna do this to me again. I cheer all season long, and then this. What a waste."

But is that what it's all about? The end result? What about the tears and joy from six long months of daily baseball? Is this what it's come down to?

Is that why I'm a sports fan? Is that the only reason why I follow the game, analyze the lineups, call my friends to gush about an unlikely comeback win or to process a particularly demoralizing blown-save loss? Just to get to "the promised land" of a World Series? And if I don't, is the season a waste?

Heck no, my friends. The season, the process, the journey is not a waste. Baseball is never a waste.

Baseball, and sports in general, isn't just about winning it all. It's about the road that takes us there, the joy in the journey.

We ride the roller-coaster for six months each spring/summer, and to think all that time was a waste would definitely be foolish. I don't look back on the games I went to with family/friends as a waste. Nor the times I sit alone in my room or car while clapping out loud to myself, high-fiving the air, or shouting profanities for a good or bad Cubs play. That certainly isn't wasted time.

Each game, although it may be early May, and the result may have no affect on the final outcome of the Cubs season, means everything to me (and all Cubs fans) because for that duration each day, the time during which the game starts and ends, nothing else in the world matters. Baseball is our own little escape from the mundane repetitiveness of life. It doesn't matter if it's the Cubs, or some third-graders playing in their school parking lot. Baseball is timeless and pure - an ode to how life should be lived.

So to treat the Cubs as if they've done nothing for us this season; that they've somehow ruined our lives, is complete foolishness. If you think this way, you're only focusing on the end result.

Categories: Baseball , Life , Sports

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My 31 years on this planet have been spent wishing the Cubs to a World Series, even though my family is chock full of those darned Sox fans. ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.

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