Cubs
Win! Holy Cow! Go Cubs Go!
In
1988 I was a five-year-old boy, trying to
follow in my father's footsteps as a Cubs fan. Holy Cow! I screamed repeatedly.
Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux, and Harry
Caray, were the first six names I learned as I became a fan of the game.
Later
that season my competitive nature kicked in and I realized it would be more fun
to root against my father's team, at least for a couple of series each year,
than to cheer with him all season long. Back then we didn't have this endless
litany of channels providing access to every baseball game on the planet. If I
wasn't going to watch the Cubs on WGN, the only other option was the Braves on
TBS. My mind was made up, I was a Braves fan, and so the cubs became my #2.
At
that time the Braves were just as bad as the Cubs. But, I had no qualms cheering
for the underdog. As I've learned throughout my life, it's the role I was born
to play. I rooted for Ron Gant, Dale Murphy, David Justice, Deion Sanders, Fred
McGriff, and Chipper Jones as they became
some of the best in the game. In the early 90s, it became fun to be a Braves fan as they built the best rotation in
the history of baseball - Tom Glavin, Steve Avery, John Smoltz, and of course,
former Cub, and my favorite pitcher of all time, Greg Maddux.
In1995
I pulled for the team of budding superstars for the last season because when
they won the title, I instantly knew, rooting for the champ wasn't something I
could do. After the season I went back to those lovable losers, my cubbies.
In 1998
I watched with amazement in shock and awe as "Slammin" Sammy Sosa
launched bombs while he battled it out with Mark McGwire for the single-season home run record. To this day I'm
still on the side of the argument that that was the most exciting season in
baseball history. I know it's not a popular stance but, the fact is, steroids didn't ruin the game, they brought it
back from the edge of darkness after the strike had turned many away from the
sport.
In
2003 I thought for sure this was our year. We had the great Sammy Sosa, Moises
Alou, Kenny Lofton, and my second favorite pitcher of all time, Kerry Wood
leading a pitching staff of Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano,
and Matt Clement. At the end of the season,
I yelled, screamed and choked back tears as we gave the NLCS to the Florida
Marlins on the heels of the Bartman excuse. Just to be clear Alou wouldn't have
caught that ball anyway, and it's certainly not Bartman's fault the team fell
apart from that point on.
In
2016 I made it to my first in-person Cubs
game. Game five of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium
was the highlight of my baseball experience. Nine years after getting out of
the army where I made several great friends, I got to watch my Cubbies kick
butt against my battle buddy's Dodgers on his home turf. I felt joy in my soul
every minute of the experience. After the game I gathered with hundreds of fans
behind the visitors' dugout singing "Hey, Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!" That season
ended with their first World Series win in 108 years, an excited hug with both of my son's, and a
celebratory phone call to my dad to share the joy of the Cubs victory. There
was no choking back the tears this time, our dreams had come true.
Since
the World Series title, I have done what
I didn't think I could ever do and
continued to root for the favorite. The Cubs will always be my team, our team.
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