Cubs Cubs Cubs (in progress...)

Friday, July 29, 2005

Cubs Cubs Cubs (in progress...)

I remember the first Cubs' game I ever listened to (we didn't have cable). It was a Saturday afternoon in 1986. Mom and my sisters went shopping for the day, and dad turned on the Cubs and the Expos. The Cubs lost 4-2. Don't quote me on this, but I think that Randy St. Clair got the win for Montreal.

A couple weeks later I remember my second Cubs game on the radio. This time I got brave and listened to a weekday game without my dad turning it on for me. And again the Cubs lost, this time to the Cardinals (4-2). Scott Sanderson suffered the loss for the Cubs, I believe.

And this is how baseball fans are born. Nobody told me I was a Cub fan. Sure I grew up in Illinois, but about halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. But man...the Cubs played day games. That was real baseball in my mind. Harry Caray would announce innings 4-6 on the radio. I actually thought he sucked. I could not wait until Dewayne Staats returned for inning number seven. I have since learned to appreciate what Harry did for the team.

But I didn't know the Cubs were loveable losers. I didn't know that they had a nationwide cable deal and that there were Cub fans in every city in America. I didn't know that I was supposed to hate the Sox, and I didn't know that Cub fans supposedly thrive on failure and deep down don't want the Cubs to win the World Series (as I've said before...not "Cub fans," but that's another debate...) Simply put, I didn't know the Cubs were any different from the Pirates or Mariners or Rangers.

Dad gave me a yearbook type magazine documenting the incredible 1984 season. That was Ryne Sandberg's first MVP year. I wasn't aware of the Cubs in '84, but Sandberg was certainly in his prime when I did begin to pay attention. So the fact that he was a skinny white guy who was good--coupled with the tall tales told in my yearbook--instantly made him my favorite baseball player of all time.

The book detailed the famous June 23rd "Sandberg Game." Incidentally that game is reruning on ESPN Classic today in celebration of Ryno's induction into the Hall of Fame. I reread the story over and over and over as I was growing up. The still images of Sandberg and his teamates from that book are forever cemented in my mind as the only way to visualize those men.

But the first time I saw the team live was not until 1999. It was in Cincinatti and the Cubs lost (something like 6-4). Larry Lubers (or Scott Sanders...one of the two) was the pitcher for the Cubs. That tells you all you need to know. It was a decent game, I suppose. But I don't remember any heroics from the team's stars--Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace, or Rod Beck. And the fact that I was accompanied by a gloating Reds' fan didn't help either.
I didn't get to Wrigley until 2001. My good friend Josh bought me a ticket for an early graduation present and drove me up there as we played hooky from both school and a work staff meeting. It was frigid. It was April 17th and 42 degrees. We had unbelievable seats...not too far behind home plate. Julian Tavarez started against the Phillies. I really did have the time of my life. We cheated and got better seats a few innings in. We bought hot dogs, but deliberated concerning how we were going to eat them without taking out hands out of our pockets. There was a man in an electric orange jumpsuit out in right-center field underneath the scoreboard. He was very distracting.

I tried to pee in the trough-style urinals but got stage fright. I spilled nacho cheese all over the sweatshirt that I had tied around my neck as if a scarf. Two members from N'Sync sang the seventh inning stretch that day. They were horrid. They sang in two different keys--neither of those being the correct key. I took pictures but my film was ruined somehow a few days later.

Speaking of film...there were some movie cameras and lots of extra commotion down the third base line seats as the game progressed. We never could quite figure out what was going on, but it seemed like some sort of production was going on. Everything was somewhat surreal.

The Cubs got way down early, but rallied and trailed in the bottom of the ninth inning. The bases were loaded with two outs and then, as if on cue, Todd Hundley struck out to finish the deal. Hundley was horrible as a Cub, and I got to see it in action. I can't stand that I don't have pictures from that day.

Looking back I am grossly disappointed with myself. Something happened between like 1992 and 2002ish. I had started working and became extremely busy. We didn't have the internet for the majority of that time and didn't get any newspapers. Whereas before, following the Cubs was my life, for about a decade there it was fairly hard work to keep up with stats and whatnot.

And by the time I was a senior in college, I was way behind. I suppose going into that game I knew the Cubs' record. I knew that Tom Gordon had been hurt and that Jeff Fassero was doing a remarkable job filling in as a closer. But approaching Wrigley that day was not quite sacred like it would have been for me in 1989 (or 2005 for that matter). I had just become so otherwise-focused (probably not a bad thing by any stretch). And while I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Wrigley that day, looking back I can't believe I didn't stop and drink it in a little more. I can't believe I didn't at least walk around the outside of the park or go try to find the Steve Bartman seat (Ok, that was before all that).

After graduation I had nothing but time living in Nashville, TN. The day I moved snapped a 12-game winning streak for the team. That's still the longest Cub streak I can recall in my lifetime. I once again learned the entire 25-man roster and the majority of the statistics. Not too long later I became a staff writer for a Cubs' website. It was my job to know the ins and outs and splits and projections. When Sammy Sosa corked his bat, I had to have an article ready the first thing the next morning.

When the Cubs made the playoffs in 2003 was the first time I had ever been able to watch more than two or three Cubs' games in a row. I had a good number of school assigments due in my graduate work, but everything (and I do mean most everything) took a back seat that October.

It was strange. My favorite thing about baseball has always been the relaxed feel of the game. Sure there's nothing quite like a good stressful playoff chase. But still one of my favorite things in the whole world is a meaningless early June baseball game. So when the Cubs started winning some, and I began to write for the website, every game began to matter--a lot. This was the first time that had happened with the Cubs.
The Cubs had been brutal in 2002, but I remember absolutely loving that season. They were out of it by the All-Star break, but there were so many subplots to follow. I found that season extremely enjoyable. They had stretches of good play, and I found small victories along the way.

So 2003 changed a lot of things. Since then they have had arguable the best pitching in baseball, but the pitchers haven't been healthy. Therefore, the team has underachieved in most fans' eyes. But my contention was that the 2004 team had no business even being in the Wild Card hunt in the last week. I thought they absolutely made the best of a brutal season (in terms of injuries and other distractions).

This year the Cubs have played the majority of the year without their three biggest names. Certainly Derrek Lee has risen to star status, and Aramiz Ramirez made his first All Star game, but Nomar, Kerry, and Mark Prior are the three superstars on this team.

And without those three the team has hovered around the .500 mark all year long.

(more to come...)