Jerry Moore: Cubs fans, it's time to move out of Wrigleyville
Ninety-nine, and counting.
With their ungraceful exit from 2007 postseason play, that's now the number of consecutive seasons the Chicago Cubs have gone without winning the World Series. And this doesn't merely establish the Cubs as the laughing stock of Major League Baseball. This losing streak sets the record for teams in football, basketball and hockey as well - so they're the worst team in the history of professional sports.
Apparently, the blue in Cubbie Blue represents how the team's fans feel at the end of each year. It's astounding that any self-respecting sports buff would even consider cheering for the Cubs given the team's penchant for futility.
I dreaded writing this column, knowing my Cubs fan friends would be hurting from yet another lost cause. If only the North Siders could give their faithful the ultimate joy for just one season, my friends would know their baseball fantasy was fulfilled at least once in their lives.
But the losing streak continues, and there's no reason to believe it will end anytime soon. Having grown tired of seeing so many of my friends wallowing in mediocrity, it's time for me to lay some tough talk on them.
Snap out of it, people! As long as you continue to pay the Cubs to play like losers, they're going to remain a losing team.
In 2003, when the Cubs last made it to the playoffs, a co-worker berated us White Sox fans for not supporting our team no matter what. His disdain for the Sox was surpassed only by his contempt for seeing a half-empty U.S. Cellular Field day after day, season after season.
How could we consider ourselves true baseball fans when we bail on our team when the going gets rough, this co-worker reasoned. He concluded that a team with such a fickle base of fans doesn't deserve his support.
Fast-forward two years later: Whose favorite Chicago baseball team claimed the World Series trophy as its own? I'll give you a hint - it wasn't the Cubs.
Admittedly, I'm not much of a baseball fan. It is a dreadfully boring sport, with spectators spending the vast majority of their time waiting for something to happen than actually watching something happening.
But to the extent that I follow baseball, I'm a Sox fan. I've lived on the South Side all my life; I come from a family of White Sox fans; and I even worked in the old Comiskey Park for a summer.
I know that many Cubs fans are rolling their eyes now, realizing the World Series victory was two years ago. What, these fans might ask, have my Sox done for me lately?
Nothing, and that's why you'll probably see many more empty seats at their games next season. I've long theorized that the widespread fickleness of Sox fans has served the team well.
When the White Sox do poorly, the fans by and large stay away. This hurts the team financially, so the suits have to scramble to field a competitive team and fill the seats.
The Cubs, on the other hand, fill Wrigley Field day after day, year after year, no matter what happens. What would it take for Cubs fans to lose interest? After nearly a century of ineptness, why hasn't Wrigley Field been torn down and converted to condos?
Cubs fans, you have only yourselves to blame. It's time to start supporting a baseball organization that has shown it can win a championship. I'm sure there will be plenty of available seats next year in The Cell, and no one will think poorly of you for abandoning the team the year after if it doesn't make good.
Think about it - and let's go White Sox!
Jerry Moore is a news editor with GateHouse Media Suburban Newspapers. He can be reached at jmoore@libertysuburban.com.