Benching a player for lazy lackadaisicle play? Get out of here.

I'm not blaming Dusty solely for the current situation ... however I am blaming him for not realizing his current approach is not working. You can't just wait around for luck to balance out.

There are several instance where I think Dusty could have been a point and fired the team up by benching a player (see: Jones, Cedeno)

Do you like this approach by Cox or did you think it was too harsh?

Something is amiss when I don't look forward to attending a Cubs game.

I would be lying if I failed to acknowledge that a significant portion of my decision to move to Chicago after college was the Cubs and the environment associated. While attending a handful of games each and every year with my dad throughout my childhood, I often dreamt of how fun it would be to just walk down the street to a game instead of a three-hour commute from my hometown of Grand Haven, MI. Now living here in Wrigleyville, looking forward to Cubs games help me endure the three months of tortuous weather during the winter. As February rolls around, I track down the upcoming season calendar and map out all the games my friends and I would like to attend. After tickets go on sale in late February, and we've only managed to lock up a half dozen or so games I usually highlight, circle, you name it to those dates in anticipation. It's the Cubs after all, and going to Wrigley Field is about as fine a sporting experience as a fanatic can have.

This weekend was different.

As Saturday approached I looked forward a fun filled afternoon in the neighborhood, hitting up as many local establishments as our liver's allowed and hopefully remembering enough of the day to reminisce about it in the future. However, I wasn't looking forward to heading to Wrigley and that's just not right ... and naturally I was angry with myself. Am I a bad fan? Are my expectations out of line? Have I been spoiled by recent years of gaudy expectations? Probably some combination of all and I don't seem to be alone ... the stadium famously known for being the Friendly Confines, turned decidedly unfriendly for the extent of the 9th inning Saturday and throughout the afternoon on Sunday.

The cause? The cause is that the Cubs are playing lousy baseball. Actually, I take that back, for identify what the Cubs are playing as baseball would be a terrible insult to baseball. Scrolling through the possible adjectives: atrocious, awful, careless, crappy, defective, deficient, dreadful, erroneous, garbage, inadequate, inferior, lousy, sad, stinking, unacceptable and unsatisfactory ... not one word is enough, all of these in their own way help to describe the Cubs this year and the last two unacceptable and unsatisfactory would seem to sum up best what has been going through the minds of fans.

But, it's the Cubs and losing is what they do right? That may have been a way to rationalize this current stretch when I attended games as a child ... but now losing unacceptable and unsatisfactory. Can you blame us? With the recent championships of the Red Sox and White Sox, combined with multiple titles for the Florida Marlins in their short life as a major league team has put Cub fandom sent Cub fans to a new level of frustration. It's not like the Cubs are at a disadvantage (aside from a curse I believe more and more everyday) ... playing in one of the largest markets in the US, and one of the most profitable franchises in the league. All of this frustration can now be culminated in a simple word, or should I say sound...

Booooooooooo!

Ironically, I sat basically in the very same seats my dad and I sat in every year during my early years of a Cubs fan which forced me to compare my experiences in the past to the present. I'm certain that of the many games attended during the late 80's and early 90's that the Cubs lost more than 80 percent. And probably quite a few of those in pathetic fashion ... But there was never any booing. You just shrugged off the loss, because it was so much fun to be at Wrigley Field and the Cubs lost ... a lot ... so what did another defeat matter? You cheered just as hard after the seventh inning stretch if the Cubs were up a run or down 10. Young baseball fans brought loving signs to the game. Things have changed ... dramatically.

To sum up my experience this weekend, and relay to you just how bad it has gotten ... a young kid, probably 10-years old held up a sign throughout the contest Saturday that read - This season is more painful than Math Class.

I repeat ... he was 10. And I wholeheartedly agree.

So painful, that for the first time in my life I can say that other than spending time with friends, I did not enjoy myself at the Friendly Confines. (40 degree weather on May 13th probably didn't help) Another first is that I've turned down Cubs tickets for Tuesday's game. Maybe I'm a bad fan, who knows ... but I'm also a consumer and I reserve the right to express my dissatisfaction. When I buy a ... let's say a bottle of Coke and it tastes foul, there is an 800 customer service number to call to inform them of a bad product. For sports fans, in my mind the best way to make the same statement is to stop going to games. I'm not saying I won't attend another Cubs game the rest of the year ... but I really don't see another reason to continue to put dollars in the pockets of an ownership that appears to have no clue how to field a winning product.

Of course I've often woken up on a Saturday morning and proclaimed I'm never drinking again, and jumped back on the wagon that same evening ... chances are I may feel different tomorrow ... but for now I've had it with the baseball that is being played by the once lovable Chicago Cubs.

Test your sports knowledge, baseball knowledge, Cubs knowledge against the rest of fandom.

Want to prove you can predict how many wins Greg Maddux will have? How many starts for Kerry Wood? Will Felix Pie play in the bigs this year? How many Old Style's will I have at the first game ...  

I've been a part of the site for just over a week and had a blast. The fanbase is growing and it should provide for an exciting summer of baseball prognostication.

With the season approaching, the site could use some more Cubs faithful ... a little too many cardinals for my liking.

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