Baseball Fans

April 17th, 2010 - With both opening games of the Cubs and Soxs behind us, the fued is already in full swing. Because if you live in Chicago or any of it's suburbs you are either a Cub's, if you grew up on the North side or a Sox's, if you grew up on the South side, fan. From that very first game of the season, diehard fans begin plotting out revenge, determining the odds for being the winning team, and planning how they will celebrate when that big day comes. Not IF, but WHEN.

My brother started his love affair with the Cubs when he was 6 or 7 years old. He followed the stats faithfully and was ready to come to blows with anyone who did not see the Cubs in quite the winning favor as he did. When he got started I always held my breath, because he wasn't that big of a kid, and I was not much of a fighter. Dressed in his cubs shirt he would proudly shout, "There are only two kids of baseball fans. Those that are Cub fans and those that wish they were Cubs fans." I can still see my mom ironing clothes with my brother on the couch, as Channel 9, hosted a Saturday game. They were always telling me to be quiet, like my talking would make the Cub's batter have bad luck. Ofcourse, that only made me talk louder, jump around more, and laugh longer if indeed the batter did strike out. Names like Ron Santo, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris (Mantle and Maris the M&M boys, and I thought we were talking candy all that time), and Jack Brickhouse were common names in my house. If you listen hard you can hear the famous Brickhouse call out. "HEY HEY A HOMERUN. And later Bill Buckner, Sammy Sosa, Ryan Sanburg and ofcourse Harry Carey. It was only in my forties that I realized Harry Carey was not a ball player, tells you how much I followed the game. When I was 15 or so I went to the Cub's game with a group of neighborhood kids. We sat on the bleachers and were called, "bleacher bums". Loved being a part of that but had no idea about the game. But I did have a favorite part of the whole event, and that was...yep you guessed it...the song that was played loud, slow and in it's entirety...Take Me Out to the Ballgame - sang at the seventh inning stretch. As you can guess I was the loudest one, singing with pride with a huge grin across my face. Made the whole trip to the ballpark worth while.

I thought my brothers love affair with the Cubs would pass, it was just a phase, as an adult he would out grow it. WRONG. His love affair is going strong, he has season tickets, still wears his many Cub shirts proudly and has passed on his love of the game to his two sons, my son, my son-in-laws, and now my three grandsons. Now I can really go crazy when they all get together and see who can talk the loudest and boast his love for the game the most. As for me, I kinda get the game now, still don't think it is that great, still don't own a Cubs Tshirt, but am searching frantically for one (that fits) for my grandson's 4th birthday party, which of course is a Cub's theme. Oh, and also, my favorite part is still the .....7th inning stretch Song.