2/05/2004 10:00:00 AM by Rob

What I am, and what I am Not

Another in a occasional series of posts to attempt to define my place in the universe

This is a Cub blog, primarily. That is because the fortunes of the Cubs takes up such a large space in my life. Moreso than, dare I say, my job. Certainly following the Cubs qualifies as my biggest hobby.

There are those who go to more games; those who watch more games; and those who do a much better job either writing about them, or analyzing them. I did not go to any playoff games. I wanted to, and I do not think that taking a quick trip to Atlanta on a moment's notice is excessive at all. Many of my Cub Blog brethren did, and I really envied them. I just couldn't, my life is not yet set up where I can do such things, and the fact that it is a priority of mine to construct my life so I can do exactly that attests to my love of all things Cub.

There are those who will wade into the numbers, trying to detect a trend, tell the future, to prove the effectiveness or lack thereof of our off-season transaction. I can read them, I can understand them, I can appreciate them, and I could probably do the same thing, if I were so inclined. But I'm not, perhaps in fear that I will be regarded as one of the geeks Kurt talks about on the Cub Nation blog. But I don't even really care about my geekhood. After all, someone who has an office like mine (see Sloth at Work link to left) is a geek. I just don't care to do it.

Those that do, and Derek has a good one today at Big Red C, tend to gain the respect of other bloggers and writers. They get linked to, and glorified. I rarely get that sort of treatment, even though I post every day if I am not sick, out of town, or in jail. Anyone willing to do numerical analysis deserves praise, even from me.

In here, I talk about the Cubs from my gut. I consider myself to be an observer of the human condition, and I tend to put most of my belief in the intangibles: how guys get along, how bad do they want to win. Here, we air greivances, we express resentments and bitterness. Most of my visitors and referrers are philosophers, ranters, ravers, and lunatics like Phil Martelli. Those are MY people, those who care more about whether Greg Maddux WANTS to be a Cub more than what he is being PAID.

The kind of people who, if they owned the Cubs, wouldn't give a shit about how big the payroll got, wouldn't think twice about eating someone's contract if they sucked and didn't care, and spend most of their time dealing with which guys bust ass, and which guys eat ass.

The rest of the blog is more of a personal indulgence, which is a purer definition of what most blogs are. The majority are diaries; there are people like myself that can't go on unless they get something off their chest, and this is a way to get it off my chest. My forays into politics have been miserable failures, for 98% of Americans care more about it than I, and considering that we are a fairly apathetic lot, that's saying something. I don't feel I have a particular agenda, outside of not suffering fools gladly. I am not Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, etc. Like most Americans, I am self-centered, self-reliant, and self-absorbed. My wife and kids take up about 80% of my brain waves, the Cubs take up another 10%, my job, another 5%, and the rest gets split up between friendships, high school football, NASCAR, facial porn and the collected writings of Rev. Andrew Greeley.

And you think I'm kidding.

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