Red Sox vs. Cubs: Who deserves to win?
GROUP DISCUSSION
October 7, 2003

Stephan Finch: I grew up a fan of the Red Sox, though they broke my heart in 1978. No 11-year-old who faithfully spends every goddam afternoon after school watching his heroes, Butch Hobson, Fred Lynn, Bernie Carbo, George "Booomer" Scott, Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, and even that .209 hitting Denny Doyle squander a 14-game lead at the break. No 11-year-old should suffer the pain of watching Bucky Dent... Bucky FUCKING Dent... send one over the green monster.

Where was I? Oh yeah, a Red Sox fan. But I lived in New York and, Mother Mary and Fred Lynn forgive me, fell in love with Yankees in 1996. Something about that incredible comeback against the Braves, I guess. And, for Chrissakes, is it so bad to cheer for a team that can actually win? A little salve on my wounded 11-year-old's broken dreams? Never mind that I was too ashamed to cry when the Diamondbacks broke us in 2001. Because I'd had those two magic nights in games 5 and 6. Yank-ees, Yank-ees, Yank-ees, I whispered in my sleep.

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Oh, no. The self-destructive heroin addict always has to go back to the pipe, no matter the consequences, and the romantic always goes back to cheering for *sigh* the hopeless underdog. And wouldn't you know it, I live in Chicago now. Home of the only team in baseball that Red Sox fans can actually have a measure of pity on. Da Cubs. People in Chicago are so resigned to watching this team lose, they sell out Wrigley with total disregard to how far back in the standings the Cubs are. These fans like to lose. Wrigley is a dump, and still they come. And, God help me, I'm hooked. Cub-bies, Cub-bies, Cub-bies...

Any one of these teams makes it to the Series, I'm in like Lynn. (That's as in Fred Lynn. Fred, after all these years, I forgive you, babe.) At least, I should be. That is, as long as I can contain my darkest, most self-destructive hope: Pedro v. Kerry in game one.

Oh, god. I'm a junkie. A JUNKIE!

David Brown: The true curse of the Red Sox is that even if they were to break through and finally win it all, Red Sox Nation as we know it would collapse. The Curse is so woven into the fabric of Boston and New England that any disruption of Sox ineptitude would send the whole region into a tailspin of confusion, self-doubt, and soul-searching (albeit after a wicked-huge parade).

Sox fans are defined by their unending agony – coming too close only to suffer bitter defeat. It gives them character and bestows upon the franchise a romanticism that no team can match. Check out HBO's documentary, "The Curse of the Babe." If this was really the year, and they really did win it, what would all those Sawx fans do next? No more complaining, no more self-loathing, pity, angst, anguish, doom or gloom. The whole mystique that has been slowing building since 1919 will dissipate like 3 game lead in July. For Christ's sake, Dan Shaughnessy's head would probably explode.

The Cubs are faced with no such curse. They are just the lovable losers. They could handle victory much easier.

But for the sake of tranquility, let's all root for another Yankee victory. We're at war, the economy blows, Arnold will soon be governor. The Yankees could provide some much needed stability on the home-front. Go Yanks!

Brandon Copple: It is different being a Cubs fan. You can’t become a real Cubs fan just by moving to Chicago and getting hammered at Wrigley a few dozen times (believe me). Like the Red Sox, the Cubs have lots of followers, but to be a real Cubs fan you have to have suffered.

But the suffering of Red Sox fans is a so-close kind of suffering, born of bucky homers, booted grounders and many a September collapse.

The Cubs have had a couple of epic meltdowns, but the essence of their fans’ misery is not in repeated dramatic disaster, but in decades-long losing streaks. The Cubs go five years between playoffs, twenty years between playoff wins, sixty years between World Series and of course, a century between championships. And yet people keep coming back. Every spring, hope springs eternal along with the ivy on the outfield wall. It’s either a miracle or a disease.

I’ve lived in Chicago, always within a few miles of Wrigley, for five years, but I only gave myself over to the Cubs two years ago; and I won’t feel like I’m a real Cubs fan until I’ve stuck with them through back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-etc losing seasons. Until then, I’m just another yuppie jerk basking in the glory of Wrigley Field, like a Baptist sitting in on mass at Notre Dame.

Michael Walls: I’ve suddenly come to a realization that wishing for a Cubs-Red Sox World Series is like wishing for Armageddon. For over a century, baseball has been built upon several stabilizing blocks that makes it what it is: the most exciting and heartbreaking game in the world. What makes it so exciting is the fierce team competitiveness and the pure individualistic heroics. What makes it so heartbreaking is the existence of evil empires (the Yankees and the Braves), and the endless, hopeful quest for redemption by the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.

These are the cornerstones of Baseball. Just like the Russians and the Berlin Wall were the cornerstones of the Cold War. Remember the Cold War? The war were everyone was afraid, but no one really got hurt? We all wished for an end to communism. Then, when our wish came true, and the Soviet Union turned to Democracy, and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down – what was there left to wish for?

If the Cubs and Red Sox go to the World Series, they both can’t win. One will walk away victorious, thus wiping the wish slate clean, while the other will go back home to a completely devastated city that will require national guardsmen and years of therapy to upright.

Dave Brown was right about the Red Sox. Boston is built upon the failures of the Red Sox. If the Sox should win, nirvana will have been reached, and there will be nothing to complain about. Boston would crumble under the boredom and it’s citizens would wander around aimlessly like zombies. If they should lose, Boston will burn to the ground, following by that same aimless wandering.

Is this what we want from baseball? To finally reach those collective wishes of a righteous world where everyone is a winner? Where no one is a loser? Where no one is left out? Where everyone gets to be happy?

That would suck.

The only true way to save baseball is to watch the Yankees bitch-slap the Marlins in a four game sweep. This way, we always have next year.