Misery of Gophers Fans Nothing Compared to Cubs Fans
Strib ran a sports column on Friday about Gophers football fans and their 38 year drought for a Big Ten Championship. The article mentioned and compared the situation of the Gophers' football fans to that of the Cubs' fans.
Excuse me.
38 years (Gophers' Big 10 Co-Champs in 1967) is not 97 years (Cubs' World Series Champs in 1908). 1967 is not 1908.
The Gophers' fans are not victims like the Cubs' fans. Cubs' fans are victims of poor management because the Cubs are a major market team that has not won in nearly 100 years. Gopher fans are not victims -- their management has done as well as can be expected considering Minnesota is not the football recruiting ground that Ohio, Michigan and Illinois are.
It was an absurd comparison. Now, maybe if 50 more years pass without the Gophers winning a Big Ten Title, then . . .
Excuse me.
38 years (Gophers' Big 10 Co-Champs in 1967) is not 97 years (Cubs' World Series Champs in 1908). 1967 is not 1908.
The Gophers' fans are not victims like the Cubs' fans. Cubs' fans are victims of poor management because the Cubs are a major market team that has not won in nearly 100 years. Gopher fans are not victims -- their management has done as well as can be expected considering Minnesota is not the football recruiting ground that Ohio, Michigan and Illinois are.
It was an absurd comparison. Now, maybe if 50 more years pass without the Gophers winning a Big Ten Title, then . . .
posted by ssc | 11/19/2005 10:26:00 PM
I agree, there is no comparison.
The Strib running this article is based on the fraudulent, I think, premise that the Gophers had a realistic chance of winning the Big Ten. It seems that each year for the past several, the college football season has opened with Gopher staff, Gopher friendly media, and some fans stating things to the effect of; This is the strongest team in years, this team should win the Big Ten, go to the Rose Bowl, etc.
After three games against the likes of Tulsa, Florida Atlantic, and other barely Division I schools, those making the predictions of success feel validated - "We're 3-0, and did you see how good we looked on Saturday? 58-7! Sure it was against the Sisters of the Poor, but Maroney ran for 897 yards!"
Then, each year, the Big 10 season starts, the Gophers win about half their games, lose about half, go through a whole bunch of what ifs and if onlys (what if we hadn't let Michigan come back and beat us again, if only Wisconsin hadn't blocked that punt), they finish somehwere between 5th and 8th place, and ultimately are disappointed when the invitation comes to go play a bowl game in El Paso or Nashville or Detroit.
While I'm sure the disappointment is real, the expectations were not. This is in contrast to the Cubs, who occasionally after six months and a 162 game season, nearly make or even do make the playoffs, truly coming close to the ultimate goal of winning a World Series, before falling short and heaping more misery on their unfortunate fans.
As I stated earlier, I agree with the SSC's sentiment, there is no comparison.
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