This was kind of interesting

I finally got around to putting together some "Google alerts" for news stories involving MWL teams and the Mariner system. This is what popped up in the Seattle Mariner alert this morning, a blog entry by Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.

Cubs fans lament

CLEVELAND-- Can it possibly get any worse for Cubs fans?

It's bad enough that an expansion team like Florida already has two world championships under its belt, and an expansion team like Arizona has one, and recently embarrassed the Cubs with a Division Series sweep before getting swept by Colorado on Monday night in the NLCS.

Now the Rockies, the third of the four 1990s expansion teams, will be playing in their first World Series.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

At least Cubs fans can still count on Tampa Bay being a perennially miserable franchise. In fact the Devil Rays are one of only four teams that haven't made it to a World Series since the Cubs last appearance in 1945.

Tampa Bay, of course, has never made it, and neither have the Washington Nationals (formerly the Montreal Expos), the Texas Rangers or the Seattle Mariners. Coincidentally, Lou Piniella has managed three of the five cursed franchises -- the Cubs, Mariners and Devil Rays.

This reminds me of a series of posts that I planned to do at some point. They were to be titled "This close" and I would go through each current Major League team and see the closest they have been to winning the World Series and to winning their league pennant since the last time they made it -- if at all. Still time, I guess.