Now, for my thoughts on the Cubs...bear in mind, I am STILL reeling from some of these events.

Ok, so my thoughts on each game of the Braves series, and Games 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the NLCS are already summed up in this blog. Now, we come to Game 5. Also known as, THE ONLY CUB PLAYOFF GAME I'VE EVER BEEN TO. (AND IT WASN'T AT WRIGLEY)

So, minutes after the Cubs game-5 win against the Braves, Court and I (Court's idea) were online trying to get tickets to one of the games here in Florida. Game 4 was already sold out, but there were still tickets to game 5. I can only assume that is because at that time Game 5 was still a * if necessary game. We were able to but two tickets in a spot that said 'partially blocked view' or some crap like that. It was in a section not normally sold for Marlin games...as if that matters, since the place NEVER draws any Marlin fans during the regular season. I think their attendance average is <20k. Earlier in the blog you can read my thoughts as to how jazzed I was that I'd have a chance to see the Cubs clinch the NL pennant for the first time in over 50 years. Needless to say, I was ready for magic to happen.

It did...but it was evil, bad, ugly, scary, terrible magic. Voodoo magic. Bad jass. More on that later.

The drive down to Miami was uneventful. We'd packed a lunch so I had a sandwich and pop and some pringles while driving. It's basically 2 minutes on one road, 2 minutes on another, then the other 98% of the journey is on one highway, the FL turnpike. FL is weird because their oasises (is that right?) are at ground level, but still in the middle of the highways, with the road passing to either side. But I digress.

We see a stadium off in the distance, but at this time the net directions were getting a little patchy and we went the wrong way. I guess we were thinking it might have been the stadium where the Dolphins play (it was, duh, me) which I thought was called 'Joe Robbie Stadium' (it used to be, duh, me) and not 'Pro Player Stadium' as our tickets said. They renamed it a few years ago, much to my not caring. And the signs just said 'STADIUM'...not like the name of the stadium attached or anything. Which I guess is ok, since there's only ONE stadium in Miami, which apparently is common knowledge to everyone but me.

We get there around 2 hours early. It's hotter than heck out. Sun is BLAZING. We get in and they're offering those white crap-rag towels they Marlins fans wave. I declined, and I declined Court's on her behalf. I didn't want to jinx the Cubs. Looking back, I should have taken one, if only to use to clean up when the cat horks on the carpet or if there's crap stuck to his ass. That'd be a good use for it.

So, our seats were at the highest tier (third, I think) out in foul territory in DEEP left. The 'abstructed view' thing meant that we were probably missing a few dozen feet of left field. We couldn't see the left fielder because he was in our blind spot. It was too sunny to sit so we walked around the concourse. The stadium is ok, I guess. Totally meant for football, with its cruddy and too-cramped seats. There were a TON of Cub fans there, especially in our section. I was really proud to see them all. Court got a scorecard so she could keep score and I got us some liquids to keep us from drying out. I think I had 3-4 lemonades in all that day, and a few bottled waters too. It was too hot for beer, for me at least.

So, the game begins. Low and behold, Josh Beckett becomes some kind of pitching meta-human, and Zambrano cannot throw strikes. He got out of 2 or 3 sticky bases-loaded situations (if memory serves) and the game was scoreless until I had to get up and go to the bathroom and get some more lemonade. I'm in line, and BAM. Mike Lowell (who I would soon grow to HATE) hits a 2-run shot and the Marlins never looked back. Well, the Cubs got 2 as well...HITS. Beckett was just a madman that day and I didn't blame Zambrano for this loss. The Cubs bats were DEAD. Very sad, especially since they lit-up the Marlins during the Saturday night game that I missed seeing due to dinner.

During the game, the Marlins fans were talking major-league shee-it. It was easy to do, since Lowell was on auto-pilot and the Marlins got 2 more runs off I-Rod and Jeff (old man) Conine (I think) solo shots. There were some rough words exchanged between fans, particularly these two guys a few rows ahead of us, but nothing major. Fact is, the Cubs were anemic the whole game so even though the Cubs fans kept cheering there was really nothing they could say. At the end of the game, with Marlins fans cheering, two Cub fans started cheering "PRI-OR" "PRI-OR", and saying things like "Enjoy this game, it's your last one here this year." and all that. I was inclined to agree with them. Oh, how WRONG I would be.

(I will discuss the debacle tomorrow. Tomorrow's secret word will be: DEVASTATED.)