By Morpheus
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on August 31, 1999.
I’ve been a (semi) regular around here for a little over a year now. The way I came to hang around Astros fans is a pretty neat story in and of itself.
It seems that the Astros– while being the best team in the NL Central (c’mon, CINCINNATI?)– has to fight off a scrub challenger every year that comes from out of nowhere. Last year it fell upon the Cubs to do that.
As is going on this year, an interesting board-war happened. The least literate of the regulars over at cubs.com’s message board came over to the BFT to say interesting things like, “aStroz sukkk!!!!111!!!” and a few zipped on over the the Cubs forum to say the same.
There were some exchanges of intelligent, well-thought-out debating on both forums, though. dwalt, Astro and Baggs handled the initial scorn quite well, and even became respected among Cubdom. I seem to be the only Cubs fan that hung around the TZ, though. (Note: I have no clue as to whether dwalt, Astro, or Baggs still go to the cubs.com forum – I’ve forsaken that, due to the average IQ of the inhabitants)
This year (due to the Cubs’ fall-back to their normal “suck” mode) I’ve been more of a spectator among the TZers. But I see the same thing happening, I think, only this time with Reds fans.
It fell to the Reds to challenge the ‘Stros this year, as the Cubs… are the Cubs, the Deadbirds don’t have an arm to complement the Yack Attack, the Pirates fell back to earth last year, and Milwaukee is… well, Milwaukee.
And the predictable boardwars start.
However, I’ve seen a pattern. There are always those that do nothing more than say: “aStroz Sukk!!111!!! My t3am roolz!!!11!!!!” That’s inevitable. There are those that are fans of the “game” though. Baseball is something special. As I said when I first arrived – and at that time, I didn’t know how true it was – “Hey, I’m a fan of the game. I just happen to root for the Cubs.” And that’s why I’m still here, I think.
I’ve been around to a lot of the fan/official/newsmag baseball sites, and I have yet to find a more knowledgeable group of fans. (I’m speaking as a whole, here. Every group has the flammable ones). This is a tip of the cap to the Zone-dwellers, through the only forum that isn’t as ephemeral as the TZ.
Before I came here, I couldn’t have told you what the hell OPS was, and why it’s better than batting average. Hell, I thought RBI were important.
Anyway, I’d like to tip my cap to the denizens of the Zone. May the Astros take the series this year (Gawd, don’t let the Yanks win!) – and that’s probably the only time you’ll see me writing those words.