The Losers' Club

Faithful, Too: “Game 81W and Halfway Home!”

Busy project at work yesterday afternoon that was made blissful by listening to what turned out to be a relatively smooth-sailing 3-0 Cubs victory over the Cardinals to split the four-game series how’s this for a run-on sentence?

The main highlight, of course, was the long-awaited return of Shota Imanaga. Whenever a pitcher returns from a months-long injury you hold your breath. You hold your breath in fear that they’re rusty and frustrated. You hold your breath in fear that they’...

Faithful, Too: “Game 80 - Boy(d) Did We Need That”

The sky is no longer falling. At least for now.

Behind a barrage of long balls (and a beautiful defensive play from Shaw) the Cubs shutout the Cards 8-0 to halt a three-game losing streak. On the bright side the Cubs are one of only three teams to not have anything worse than a three-game losing streak this season. Let’s hope they avoid surpassing this stat for as long as possible, or at least until they can afford to. The Cards and Brewers are not going anywhere. Build that cushion, ...

Faithful, Too: "Games 78L and 79L - At Least Ben Brown's Gone"

Watching the first six innings of Monday's eventual loss to the rival Cards was a true representation of that analogy I've used several times this season regarding Ben Brown. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In his first 3 2/3 innings pitched he gave up zero runs on only two hits and struck out three. Over his next (and last) inning and 1/3, he gave up eight runs on seven hits and walked two. Holy shit. Oh, and he gave up four, yes, four 2-run homers in that inning and 1/3. The Cardinals had...

Faithful, Too: “Games 74L/75W/76L/77L - The Curse of Slammin’ Sammy

I write this as I wait for a flight back to Chicago after an otherwise wonderful three nights and three days in Boulder (we’re delayed 2.5 hours and counting). Yes, the same Boulder that was the final destination for all of God’s good ones in The Stand. After visiting here I understand why King chose the location.

Due to this vacay (that also included a stop over at The Stanley for a pleasant Shining tour), zero footage of live Cubs baseball was viewed by yours truly since the PCA s...

Faithful, Too: “Game 73W - MVPete”

Big homestand for the Cubs began Tuesday night. No better player to hit the mound for the hometown Cubbies than Ben Brown. Strike that (no pun intended). No worse pitcher to hit the mound than Ben Brown. Ignore the box score. Sure, he only gave up two runs in five innings and got the win. Look beyond that. He gave up six hits, walked two batters, and even hit a guy for good measure. Allowed nearly two batters to reach base per each of his innings pitched. Gave up a two-run homer to smallball-...

Faithful, Too: “Game 69W, 70L, 71W, 72W - Nothing Happened”

“Nothing Important Happened Today” was the title of the two-part season nine premiere of The X-Files. Would love to extensively pod about The X-Files one day. Will probably never happen. Anyways, that could more or less be the summary for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Cubs/Pirates series. There were four games on those days, two of which went to extra innings. Sounds exciting, right? Absolutely not. Over 4 games and 38 innings worth of baseball, both team...

The Stand: Episode One: "The Plague" [1994 Miniseries Re-Ka-mmentary]

Losers Randall Colburn, Michael Roffman, Dan Caffrey, and Justin Gerber reunite to make a stand by re-recording a Ka-mmentary track for Mick Garris' 1994 miniseries The Stand.

Stay tuned for Parts 2, 3, and 4 as The Summer of The Stand heats up.

Faithful, Too: “Games 66L, 67W, 68L”

You lose some, you win some, you lose some.

Let’s start on Friday, game one of the Cubs only visit to Philly this (regular) season. Here are the highlights:

• For the first time this season, Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler gave up a first-inning home run. It was to Kyle Tucker, who went on to strikeout in top of the 6th to give Wheeler his 1,000th career strikeout.
• Ian Happ hit a homer from the right side of the plate in the top of the 8th and in the bottom of ...
  2025-06-11 20:55:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Faithful, Too: "Games 63L/64W/65L - I Get It"

If you're going to lose a series 2-1, let it be on the road against the best team in baseball.

Mission accomplished! The Cubs lost their rubber match today in Detroit, but enough about that. Okay, a little about that. The game was over before it started (final: 4-0). The Tigers scored two in the first and that's all they needed. It's the only game of the six that Horton has started that the Cubs have go on to lose. That's what we call "holding the fort" until Shota comes back h...

Faithful, Too: “Game 62W and…TRUMP 2028?”

Do I have your attention?

This is what flashed before my eyes upon starting the Cubs rubber match (the deciding game of a tied series) against the home team Nationals. The words and year were in blazing, bold white, stitched upon a red hat worn by an older gentleman with sunglasses, who was sitting right behind home plate and in full view on the TV throughout the entire game. It was Pride Night at Nationals Park, and I’m not saying that he wore the hat in a form of protest, but I’m...

Faithful, Too: “Game 61L - Almost Perfect, But Not Quite”

Life comes at you fast. With one out in the bottom of the 6th, Matthew Boyd, whom I argued in my last post is the best active pitcher on the Cubs right now, had a perfect game going. No hits, no walks, and his teammates hadn’t committed any errors. It was looking like roses, except for one problem: the Cubs offense hadn’t had a hit since the first inning. In that inning the Cubs had three straight singles to start the game but somehow failed to score.

I didn’t watch that first inn...

Faithful, Too: “Game 60 W and Notes on Da’ Starters”

Leaving work yesterday after another long one, I listened to the radio call by Pat Hughes regaling the top of the 4th for the Cubs/Nationals first game of the series. PCA hit what would normally be a routine single and turned it into a double because of his incredible speed. He then stole third without a throw from the catcher because of his incredible speed. He then spooked the Nats’ third baseman into not throwing to first after a routine grounder because PCA convinced him that he would t...

Here's our June 2025 schedule!

We declare this THE SUMMER OF THE STAND!

--In our main feed, we're unlocking our old Ka-mmentary track for The Shining for its 45th anniversary, reviewing Mike Flanagan's The Life of Chuck, unlocking our book episode for Billy Summers, and beginning our re-read of The Stand with Book One: Captain Trips.

--Our patrons will get our expanded thoughts on The Life of Chuck, our first of four commentary tracks as we revisit Mick Garris' 1994 ...

Faithful, Too: “Game 59 W and Series W”

After a busy Saturday, we took it easy Sunday afternoon and didn’t miss a pitch of the first seven innings of the Cubs 7-3 victory over the Reds to remain red hot. Pun very much intended.

The Cubbies had a promising bottom of the first that they totally botched. Tucker got hit, Seiya walked, PCA singled…then Dansby struck out to end the threat. To add insult to injury was a real injury. In-between all that, Tucker faceplanted on a steal attempt and walk away with a cut nose as well ...

Announcing THE SUMMER OF THE STAND

June begins our three-month reading event THE SUMMER OF THE STAND. In anticipation of the short story collection IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, the Losers will revisit Stephen King’s magnum opus with three Twinner book episodes featuring a new ka-tet of Losers who were previously on our coverage and haven’t been able to speak on it.

In addition to these episodes, we’ll be running additional content in The Barrens, including a new commentary run for Mick Garris’ 1994...

Faithful, Too: "Game 57L, Game 58W, and...Kane County Cougars L?"

Walking around the office on Friday with the Cubs game in my ears is usually a great way to kill time and enjoy a good game. 'Twas not the case this past end o' week. I missed the beginning of the game as the Reds started off to a quick 2-0 game, and the moment the Reds' Tyler Stephenson hit a 2-run homer in the top of the 4th, I figured it was back to podcasts for the rest of my afternoon. I didn't miss much. I tuned back in when I saw that it was the bottom of the 9th and the Cubs had runn...

Faithful, Too: “Game 55 W and Game 56 W: A Walk-Off and Another Sweep”

My praise for young Mr. Shaw couldn’t have come at a better time.

After having a particularly nightmarish Tuesday, nerves were settled upon starting a 1,000-piece Galison Mixtapes puzzle with Kait (looking to be easier than the Frankenstein one). Soundtracking the event was the Pat Hughes on the Cubs radio broadcast calling game two of the team’s series against the woeful Rockies. It was another close one. Cubs struggled to score throughout the series despite their opponent, though ...

Never Flinch

In our latest book episode, exclusive to the Barrens, the Losers reunite with Holly Gibney for another slice of true crime in Never Flinch, now available in stores. Spoilers within, so please read before you stream. You've been warned.

Faithful, Too: “Game 54 - Offense on Pace for…”

If there are going to be boring games, give me a boring Cubs victory. Memorial Day day game gave me just that. The Cubs won 3-1 thanks to another solid start from Jamo, an RBI-groundout, a sac-fly, and a RBI single. Beautiful. Efficient. Proves the Cubs can win low-scoring affairs by playing smallball (a.k.a. not relying on home runs). We are now 1/3 through the season, and it’s time to see what each Cub is on pace to reach by the end of the season (if these numbers hold, of course). It loo...

Faithful, Too: "Game 52 L and Game 53 W: Near Comeback & Complete Comeback"

Was out and about Saturday and Sunday during both Cubs games against the Reds. Saturday had a similar scenario as Tuesday's: Kait and I en route to a concert at Thalia Hall. Would there be a similar breakout inning to that Tuesday onslaught against the home team Marlins? Alas, the Cubs came up short. After a Carson Kelly homer in the top of the 9th to cut the Reds' lead down to two runs, Matt Shaw hit what I believe was his 127th double of the past week with only one out. Sadly the Cubbies di...

Faithful, Too: "Game 51 - Bathroom Breakout

Relax! This isn't a vile "Poundcake" post, though Reds players and fans may view it differently.

Last night after dinner, Kait and I decided to watch a movie she'd had on her Kanopy watchlist for a while: Long Weekend, a rather intense, fairly unpredictable 1978 Australian thriller. Before we hit play, I figured I'd hit the bathroom so as to lessen the probability of needing to hit pause during the viewing. En route to said restroom, I read a post from the folks over at Bleache...

Never Flinch [Spoiler-Free Review]

In anticipation of our exclusive Barrens book episode -- which arrives next week -- Losers Randall and Justin recorded a spoiler-free discussion. They also answer YOUR questions!

Faithful, Too: “Game 49W and Game 50W: Momma and The Blown-Save Redemption”

Last night I hopped in an Uber to go see Momma at Thalia Hall (with opener Wishy; check both of them out). The Cubs had the bases loaded with no outs in the top of the 6th with the score tied at one. The following happened over the next 17 minutes:

• Swanson RBI single
• PCA RBI single
• Nico 2-run single
• Turner RBI sac-fly
• Shaw RBI double
• Suzuki 2-run homer

That’ll get things done, and done they were got. I found that the Cubs tacked...

Faithful, Too: “Game 48 L - 95.6% Chance of Winning But…”

What can I say? Was hoping to mostly write about Matt Shaw’s return to the majors and his RBI-double, or this factoid after Amaya’s great night from MLB.com: “Amaya was brilliant at the dish, tallying five RBIs for the second time this season. The milestone etched him and starting catcher Carson Kelly as the only pair of catching teammates to have multiple five-RBI games in a season since RBls became official in 1920.”

Sounds great. Daniel Palencia had a 95.6% chance of earning ...

Never Flinch: Ask Us Anything!

In addition to our book episode, we'll be running a simple, spoiler-free Never Flinch preview episode for the main feed. We need your questions, though. So, ask away!

Faithful, Too: “Game 46 W and Game 47 W = SWEEP”

Save a couple of eventless middle innings of Saturday baseball on TV, it was a Cubs-free weekend for yours truly. Those innings were sandwiched between an outdoor visit with Loser Mel (craft fair) and an indoor visit with Loser Randall (Friendship: funny). The Cubs continued on from their blowout on Friday to win 7-3 behind another solid performance from Matthew Boyd, whose ERA is below 3 nearly 1/3 of the way through the season.

Today, a visit from friends out of town led to a...

Faithful, Too: “Game 45 W and Not Even Close”

A good ol’ fashioned bloodbath at Wrigley on Friday, with sunny skies and windy, er, winds making it interesting early. Fortunately fortune and just plain being a better baseball team helped lead the Cubs to a 13-3 victory over the crosstown rival White S0x. Moises Ballesteros had his first hit, walk, runs, and RBI’s in this one, but the star of the game was the tremendous PCA. Four hits, including a 3-run blast in the Cubs’ six-run 2nd, two runs, and six RBI’s…batting ...