Better Luck Next Time! An Ode to Chicago Sports Fans

“Better Luck Next Time!” A 4-word phrase us Chicago sports fans are all too familiar with (also interchangeable with “There’s Always Next Year!”). Whether it’s the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, or Bears, us fans have come to look forward to off-seasons when we can finally take a break from the constant heartache that pairs with each of our teams’ seasons and reset our minds with various degrees of false hope (I saw 13 wins on the Bears schedule this year, and that very well could be their number of losses!).

During the early stages of lockdown in 2020, our group of friends bonded over our love of all things Chicago sports in the form of Xbox/PlayStation parties while we all competed to build World Series-caliber Diamond Dynasty teams in MLB The Show 20. One step on the path to glory was playing “showdown” challenges which felt impossible to beat at first. Each time we would come close, a nasty change or slider would have our batter looking like Javy Baez (you know the gif) and all the progress we made would come to a screeching halt as we once again would need to reset our lineups (and mindsets) and try again.

Taunting our ineptitude at the plate, the haunting phrase “Better Luck Next Time!” would flash on the screen… you could almost hear the SDS game-makers (you guys SUCK by the way) laughing through our over-priced monitors meant to give us a competitive edge at the dish. Eventually, after hours upon hours of grinding (and an update that made the showdowns easy enough for 5 year olds to beat) we improved. It wasn’t a quick fix, but eventually we began to win with consistency and the 4-word taunt lost it’s sting and became a motivator. Even more importantly, it became our battle cry and gave birth to what Better Luck Next Time is today .

The past 4 years have been filled with frustration. We’ve seen (to half the group’s delight and the other half’s despair) the White Sox set the record for most losses in a season and lowest O/U win season win total in betting market history; we’ve seen the Bulls swing and miss on just about every move they’ve made (save us Matas Buzelis!); we’ve seen the Cubs fail to meet their mediocre expectations through gut-wrenching summer stretches and “too little too late” finishes; and most painfully, we’ve intently watched every single Bears game and spent 3 years being waterboarded with Flus Juice.

Every year, each team’s season eventually reaches a point where, despite still having games left, the season is over with no reason to watch aside from filling a void deep within the depths of our hearts. Our sights become set on the next year’s season as we obsess over every news report and possible move to be made in order to finally position our teams in a place to compete and win. It’s a way of life for us fans of the greatest city in the world’s sports teams – a shitty way of life, but it’s OUR way of life.

If you’re reading this, you understand – you’re one of us and we’re doing this for you. It felt like Christmas came early after the Bears FO trotted out the corpse of Matt Eberflus to take a few questions before Kevin Warren and company took him out back and put him (and us) out of his misery. In typical Bears fashion however, they still somehow managed to bungle the historic act of a mid-season firing. Caleb looks beat up and dejected on top of not meeting the admittedly unrealistic expectations placed on his shoulders and too many players present dogshit attitudes that don’t exactly instill the sense of hopium we’re all so addicted to feeling.

For now, all we can hope for is to have better luck THIS time. Better luck THIS time while we search for a Bears coach that will actually have us competing for a Super Bowl. Better luck THIS time in Craig Counsell’s second season at the helm and our bullpen closing out games. Better luck THIS time for the Sox to win more than 41 games out of 162. And the bulls…. well it’s not even Christmas and the season is dead with no sign of any light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for a long time. Please go away forever, Jerry, you STINK!!!

We hope these blogs will be a cathartic experience for our authors and readers alike as we continue our painful Chicago fandom journeys together. The light is dim or non-existent for each of our beloved teams – Better Luck Next Time is here to call it as we see it, to fight tooth and nail to get the word out that not all Chicago fans are total idiots, and to brighten those dim tunnel lights one day at a time. One day “Better Luck Next Time” will be a phrase we don’t cling to for our own sanity, but rather will be our smug taunt to the NL and AL central foes, NFC North rivals, and LeBron fans (who won’t know what to do with themselves when their King finally retires) as our teams leave a trail of blood in their wakes on the way to championship heights. That day is not today, but the night is always the darkest just before dawn.