The Rome report

MLB

As someone who is a fan of the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Braves, Washington Wizards and Miami Hurricanes football I know a little something about rooting for losing teams. The 49ers and Raiders haven’t made the playoffs since 2002. The Raiders probably won’t until owner Al Davis kicks the bucket since he won’t relinquish control of the team. The Braves won 14 straight division titles from 1991-2005 but only won one World Series title during that span. The Wizards have lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs the last three years. The Hurricanes are currently in the middle of a rebuilding stage and haven’t made it to a bowl game in two years and will struggle to make it to one this season.

However, those teams have nothing on the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series championship since 1908 and with their loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers this past Saturday they won’t end the streak this year. The Cubs can’t even win a playoff game. The loss Saturday night gave them nine straight playoff losses. They are 0-6 in the playoffs under current manager Lou Piniella.

This playoff exit will hurt the most. The Cubs were hands-down the favorite to reach the World Series from the National League. They had been one of the best teams in all of baseball. They won 97 games during the regular season. The Cubs had home-field advantage. They were facing an opponent in the Dodgers who fought tooth and nail just to make it to the playoffs. In the end, though, it wasn’t enough. They opened the series against the Dodgers and looked nothing like the team they had been. They couldn’t hit, scoring only six runs in the three-game series. They couldn’t pitch. The starting pitchers pitched a combined 15 innings. They couldn’t even play defense. In Game 2, every infielder committed an error. The Cubs couldn’t play their best baseball when they needed it the most and will have to wait at least one more offseason because of it.

ALSO .

How great would it be to see Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers go up against his former team, the Boston Red Sox, in the World Series? It’s now becoming a possibility with the Dodgers advancing to the NLCS and with the Red Sox looking like they will get past the Angels to advance to the ALCS. I am sure both sides would love to get back at each other since Manny’s trade from Boston to L.A. didn’t come under the best of circumstances. I think Manny would love to show the Red Sox management that they made a mistake in trading him away, and that he is still the hitter that he was a few seasons ago. I think the Red Sox management would love to show Manny that they don’t need him to win a World Series. However, both teams still have work to do before we can get a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series. But it is still fun to think about.