Thanksgiving...what do we have to be thankful for as Cub fans this year?

We have a lot to be thankful for this year, Cub fans.

Yes, we didn't make the playoffs, and the season itself was really disappointing...but let's look at the positive things here.

The top ten things to be thankful for as Cub fans:

10.  Milton Bradley will likely be traded before the end of the year.

Right?  He will be traded?  He had better be traded.

9.  We aren't the Pirates

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Pirates who have set a record with their 17th straight losing season. 

8.  We are another year closer to the Cubs ridding themselves of these horrible, back-weighted contracts.

Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Kosake Fukudome....the list goes on...anyway, they all have hugely back-weighted contracts, meaning that a big part of the money that they earn will come in the latter years of their contracts.  The Cubs will be paying Soriano $18 million plus when he is in his late thirties and his skills become quite diminished.  So we are one year closer to these financial handcuffs to go away.  Yea!

7.  We didn't get swept out of the playoffs.
The playoffs were much more enjoyable to watch this year.

6.  Koyie Hill

Enough said there!

5.  Derrek Lee has been resurrected!

Yes I want to trade him still, but at least this year he is worth something.  If it wasn't for Derrek Lee, this team would have probably been fighting with Cincinnati and Houston in the bottom half of the division. (They would have still been better than Pittsburgh, though.)

4.  Soriano can't possible be any worse next season

Yes, Soriano had a bad year this year, but be thankful that he had it during a season in which everyone else (except D-Lee) played not quite up to specs either.  So, expect big things out of him next year!

3.  Didn't have to pay for playoff tickets

The Cubs didn't even send out applications for playoff tickets this year...which meant I was able to keep some extra money in my savings account for a few extra months. 

2.  Three straight winning seasons.

Sure we didn't make the playoffs this year, and the season was rather disappointing for the most part, but for the first time since the early 1970's the Cubs have had 3 straight winning seasons.  If anything, that should tell us that this franchise has definitely moved in a positive direction over during this decade.

1.  We have new insect overlords
The Cubs have new owners.  The Ricketts family.  Only good can come from this...right?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!