Losing my capacity for caring

rfl wrote:

>rfl wrote:
Now we have ZN, the board optimist, asking how many more wins.

Ooops. My misread. It was WV who started that thread.

As usual with things like this, I am not the only one with my “tendencies.” There are several people on each position on this.

All I can say from my perspective is that Linehan was worse. The 90s was worse.

My attitude is simply this. In bad years you sort through the mess for the silver linings, and determine if they’re real. When they win you cheer and enjoy it….cause whether wins are meaningful at this point, they’re still good and give pleasure. Plus I find that good old-fashioned, honest but not snarky gallows humor always helps.

In terms of the future? Enh, no one knows. No one expected 99 at the end of 98, and no one expected 2014 at the end of 2013.

It’s just different mindsets, and neither of us is alone. The trick on a good board is for everyone to give each other space to be themselves…losing will produce both of our tendencies, and more. If we believe in the community, then, we can all look forward to a time when we will all be celebrating again. Some of us may think that’s distant, some may think it’s closer, some like me are just “wait n see cause you never know.”

Well i hope RFL is wrong about Fisher
being McClellan. I dunno.

If the defense really keeps improving
and gels, i will continue to be pretty optimistic.

Hard to judge an offense when the franchise QB
is sitting on the bench. Lets see how the Cards
look with Carson gone now.

At any rate, i just enjoy the whole ram-fan thing.
I just kinda smile and shake my head during years like this.
It’ll take more than just one decade of futility
to wear me down 🙂

w
v

http://www.nellaware.com/blog/george-b-mcclellan-quotes.html

“Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?”
–President Abraham Lincoln’s question directed to George B. McClellan, who had excused his lack of action in the fall of 1862 because of exhausted horses. McClellan was removed from command soon afterward.

“If he had a million men he would swear the enemy has two millions, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three.”
–Edwin M. Stanton, the United States secretary of war commenting on General George B. McClellan. McClellan often overestimated the number of enemy forces opposing him, and so he always needed and wanted more men and more supplies before he could take offensive action.

It is called the Army of the Potomac, but it is only McClellan’s bodyguard…If McClellan is not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a while.
–Abraham Lincoln on April 9, 1862, regarding George B. McClellan. McClellan often tested Lincoln’s patience because of his failure to take action against the Confederates. This quote is from a note Lincoln eventually decided not to send.

General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at the Rebels, you want to be sure of plenty of room so you can run in case they strike back.
–This is from Zachariah Chandler, a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War as he was questioning McClellan regarding his inability to take offensive movement against the Rebels.

=======

Ultimately, McClellan failed, and history has not been kind to failures. Historian Richard N. Current wrote that “McClellan had his faults. Though fond of Napoleonic poses, he lacked the fighting blood of Bonaparte. He was slow, overcautious, duped by his spies’ fantastic exaggerations of enemy strength. Yet he had real abilities, particularly in drilling troops and inspiring them with loyalty and trust. To some extent his faults were merely defects of his virtues. He sought to make the most of the Union preponderance in men and resources – to win the war by strategy, not butchery.” 13 McClellan biographer Stephen W. Sears called McClellan “inarguably the worst” Union general to head the Army of the Potomac. 14 James Russell Lowell wrote in 1864 that McClellan possessed “every theoretic qualification, but no ardor, no leap, no inspiration. A defensive general in an earthen redoubt not an ensign to rally enthusiasm and inspire devotion.”15 Historian Kenneth P. Williams called McClellan “a vain and unstable man, with considerable military knowledge, who sat a horse well and wanted to be President.”16 Lincoln aides John G. Nicolay and John Hay determined to destroy McClellan’s reputation in their ten-volume biography of the President. “I have toiled and labored through ten chapters over McClellan,” wrote Hay to Nicolay. “I think I have left the impression of his mutinous imbecility, and I have done it in a perfectly courteous manner…It is of the utmost moment that we should seem fair to him, while…destroying him.”17 …
http://abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincolns-contemporaries/abraham-lincoln-and-george-b-mcclellan/

Zooey wrote:

Look. Everybody around here was worried that I might attempt suicide if the Rams hired Fisher as coach. I made my views known that I consider him to be one of Satan’s minions.

But.

It is precisely BECAUSE I believed that Fisher was in league with Satan that I accepted him as coach.

If it turns out that he isn’t, that he’s just an ordinary evil guy like Colonel Klink,
then I am going to need professional help.

Year FOUR. Its all about year FOUR.
Just keep repeating that. 🙂

Oh and btw, we’ve been posting together
since, what, 98 now? — its been an honor.
Truly. An honor.

Maybe we’ll see another championship
before we die.
Carry on, Z.

I gotta go. I’m baking
rice and books.

w
v
“I love Zack and he knows that. But this is exactly where we differ!
Zack is in the fetal position, but my head is in the oven! No amount of semantics can change this.”
Zooey’d For Life

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by wv.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by wv.

I don’t know where I stand on this team, this franchise. On one hand I did not even try to watch the 49er game because I was sure they would lose, and I disappointed my self when I watched the Cardinal game thinking they could win. On the other hand I heard myself ask out loud for a Rams jersey for Christmas.

I kind of went into Rams-hibernation while i lived in NY and PA. Winter is here. Maybe I will crawl back in that cave and come out after they recycle half the current lineup and coaching staff.

I’ll always care to one degree or another. I may pay more attention some seasons but I will always pay some attention.

I find comfort in knowing I DID live to see them win a ring.

It may be the ONLY one but..eh. I take pride in being the fan of a lousy team. I get to the point of laughing about it.

The Rams team–the horns feel like part of my identity. When people I know think of a Rams fan–I’m it. When they see the team or read about them they think of me. I have too much history. I’ll always be there.

I’ll always have hope.

Until at least the third game of the season.

In the aftermath of a Rams loss I will often sit and wonder why I watch and I resolve that I will never put myself through that misery again. You have to be a masochist of the highest order to follow this team.

But there I am the following week, watching yet another disaster and saying “Never again!”.

So, does anyone know where any masochist support groups might meet? Actually I do know.

Right here.

Maybe I’m completely insane but I think this team is very close to winning. I just hope they figure it out before their window closes.

Zooey wrote:

wv wrote:
Well i hope RFL is wrong about Fisher
being McClellan. I dunno.

Look. Everybody around here was worried that I might attempt suicide if the Rams hired Fisher as coach. I made my views known that I consider him to be one of Satan’s minions.

But.

It is precisely BECAUSE I believed that Fisher was in league with Satan that I accepted him as coach.

If it turns out that he isn’t, that he’s just an ordinary evil guy like Colonel Klink, then I am going to need professional help.

FYI Kobe still plays and starts for the Lakers.

I am still very much excited about this team, as I have been each of the 45 years I have been following them. I watch every play of every game, and I am traveling to San Diego in two weeks with my son to watch them play live in person. I don’t post or read the boards much because it seems like mostly just a sea of complaining and misery these days, but at least this board has some participants who can see past the most recent game, season, decade, and still enjoy and appreciate following a team who seems to be a lovable loser. I mean, if you are going to outwardly follow the Cubs, don’t bitch and moan that they didn’t win the World Series this year (again).