Cursed!

In his most recent column Bill Simmons writes about the "Levels of Losing," and his column culminates in a ranking, backwards from 15 to 1, of the most tortured fan bases. Of course, as you might expect, the Chicago Cubs were on there. What I found humorous, after reading the article, was that as I went through the article I found myself hoping, with growing intensity, that the Cubs would be ranked number one. I mean we had to win at this, right?

Well, then I found myself, long around number eight, realizing that we hadn't been named yet, and I had two distinct feelings:

A) "Woohoo! We made it halfway in! Go Cubbies!"

and

B) "I bet the Vikings are going to win because of their last game. I bet he'll find a way to put someone ahead of us. I bet we'll be like number four."

Now, with all due respect to Mr. Simmons ... THAT is the hands down, no doubt indicator of a man with a tortured sports soul. I found myself rooting that the Cubs would win at a list that a) means nothing, and b) means that we suck (but at least validates that we are noble in pulling for the most tortured team), and then I found myself expecting us to lose at that very list. That, my friends, is a cursed franchise, and what it's like to root for one.

Here is a link to Simmons' article; I encourage everyone to check it out, it's a good read. Beyond that, Spring Training is just around the corner ... and the Cubs outfield looks not too shabby :-)