“When you’re born in Chicago you’re blessed and you’re healed / The first time you walk into Wrigley Field.”
I was born in Chicago, my Dad born in Chicago, his Dad born in Chicago. All three of us are lifelong Chicago Cubs fans. My first reaction to Cubs winning the World Series was, “I’m so happy for my Dad.” My Dad’s first reaction to Cubs winning the World Series was, “I’m so happy for my Dad.”
This story is the same in many households globally today.
Although many Cubs fans refer to the team as, “my Cubbies,” what they’re really saying is, “my families’ Cubbies,” or “our Cubbies.” It’s not my, a championship is never about just one singular person. In fact, this one more so than any championship in history is about every player, person, fan and cheer that have propelled the Cubs for 108 years. But it’s hard, very hard to understand what 108 means, what this championship means unless you view it from a personal angle.
The reason most of us love sports is because an influential person in our lives loved sports and bestowed that upon us when we were young. Their team became our team, and unfortunately for many Cubs fans, that gift became yours alone as that influential person passed away.
The only way Cubs fans can celebrate their club’s championship is with a heavy heart and thoughts for the people in their lives that didn’t make it to today. It’s hard not to think about every single family, every single Cubs fan and how it’s almost ubiquitous, there was somebody who loved the Cubs from birth that never saw this day, hell you could’ve lived decades and never seen a playoff game like famous fan Steve Goodman.
Don’t worry Steve, even though you never saw it they will never play the Blues in Chicago again.
It’s essential to understand the personal experiences, the plight that many baseball fans went through for so long. It’s essential if you want to understand why baseball is so important to the fabric of America, as a staple of family and a reasoning of why we love this madding game dearly.
The game represents too much of us. We’ve spent hours worshiping at our given cathedrals and those hours were most likely spent with one or a handful of people that you loved. That love that you shared culminated in your mutual love for that club. You shared that love at your place of worship and there was no turning back.
Most people in their lives get to experience the peak of that love, seeing their team win a championship, some wait only a few years, some have to wait a lifetime. But once again it’s key to remember that many, too many Cubs fans, experienced that peak last night without the person they wanted to be with most.
As best put by Barry Petchesky of Deadspin
“This experience, very specific to Cubs fans, has universal lessons. Enjoy your victories when you can, and share them with the people closest to you. You never know how many you’re going to get. We all think fondly of family and friends who have passed when enjoying something we know they would have enjoyed, and there’s something comforting about knowing that after we’re dead and gone, the teams we loved will carry on, and our loved ones will take a moment to note just how happy they made us in life.”
People are writing the names of loved ones who didn’t live long enough to see this all along the Sheffield wall at #Wrigley #FlyTheW #Cubs pic.twitter.com/VRkdaI6HzT
— Alex Nitkin (@AlexNitkin) November 3, 2016
“A place where our grandfathers, fathers they grew / A spiritual feeling if I ever knew / And if you ain’t / been I am sorry for you / And when the day comes with that last winning run / And I’m crying and / covered in beer / I’ll look to the sky and know I was right / To think someday we’ll go all the way / Yeah / Someday we’ll go all the way”
