You know, it was fun at first.  I just watched a game here and there, and I was always enjoying myself.  It was only April, there was no pressure, I just wanted to have a beer or two, enjoy the green grass and the beautiful sunset against the grandstand.  But then I became more and more obsessed.  All of a sudden I needed to watch every inning of every game.  Sometimes it wasn’t too bad, Marmol might pitch a good inning, or when Derrek Lee started to heat up in June.  Sometimes it was miserable, when the Cubs offense shorted out and Milton Bradley turned on himself, the team, and even the fans.

Then August rolled around.  It started off decently, with the Cubs winning 3 out of 4 and sitting only 2 games behind the Cardinals.  And then things went south.  Not to say they had been going great all season until that point, but there was still a lot of hope.  Things were very precarious, however, and one weak link could trip up the whole operation.

Meet Kevin Gregg and an extremely inconsistent bullpen.  Sure, Gregg and the bullpen aren’t necessarily responsible for the position the Cubs are now in (if you ask me its a combination of terrible hitting and terrible coaching), but Gregg’s meltdowns in the 9th inning turned the tide on this season.  All of a sudden I was screaming at my girlfriend for no good reason.  Some days I would just be in a bad mood all day and not even know why.  I had to kick the habit, it had become self-destructive.  I think I’m much happier this way.

Now it is August 26th, the Cubs are 9 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central and 8.5 back in the Wild Card.  Also, according to a box score I noticed this morning (I swear I didn’t fall off the wagon and watch the game!), the Cubs lost 15-6 to the Nationals (arguably the worst team in baseball) last night.  I had clearly made the right decision.

So that is why I have decided to quit drinking Cubsahol.  Obviously I will be back on the sauce come Spring Training 2010 (or possibly even Cubs Convention), but for now I’m just trying to get my life back together.  Football season cannot come soon enough.