Cubs fans' Blues (2)

Links weren't functioning properly today, so they're numerically listed at the end of the post. Sorry for the inconvenience.

In St. Louis, most Cardinals fans revere Cubs fans like the black, tarry substance which gum becomes when spit out on concrete over several years. It's disgusting, unsightly, and nearly impossible to get rid of. But every time we embark on a trip to Busch Stadium for a Cardinals Cubs1 series, they are there. 

During the last month of the season, I believe I was cheering just as hard for the Cubs to fail as the Cardinals to succeed. I hated the Cubs this year. They eliminated the Cardinals mathematically ... by losing ... to the my other least favorite National League team, the Mets2.

However, before I get into this baseball season any further, I would like to look on the Cubs in the past. When I was  growing up, I had neighbors around the corner. Two ladies, very nice ones as I recall. I can't remember their names anymore, but my best friend at the time, Blake, and I spent countless summer afternoons at their house watching baseball. Cubs baseball. WGN was always on when we were over, and the Cubs played even more day games back then(in the late 80's and early 90's) than they do today.

Blake and I were fed cookies and other treats, and with all of this junk food from Cubs fans, it was hard to believe the team they cheered for could be so despicable. After all, it never seemed like the Cubs affected the Cardinals that much anyways. With a balanced shedule, the Cubbies only came in a couple times a year, and if the Cardinals weren't at home, it seemed to me they weren't playing.

My father took me to a Cardinals game at old Busch Stadium against the Cubs during one of these Cubs-filled summers. We had great seats, slightly off to the first base side, but very close to home, on the second tier.  Ryne Sandberg came up to the plate. He wasn't leading off, but he was the first batter that we got there in time to see in the top of the first. And boom. A home run out to left field. As Sandberg rounded the bases, I understood.

The Cardinals were losing one of the rare games I got to go to in a season, because of the Cubs. Most six year olds are content at baseball games with some cotton candy or ice cream, regardless of the scoreboard. I was not most six year olds. I didn't like leaving games early, which is why I liked it better if my little sister Natalie stayed home with a babysitter. Leaving the game in the seventh inning might as well have been a grounding. I wanted my team to win, and I wanted to see it happen. The Cubs and Natalie seemed to be the two biggest obstacles to this, and I despised them both until I was about fourteen. 

Now, Natalie has come around since getting into high school. The Cubs and their fans? Not so much. Cubs fan, with rare exceptions like my down the street neighbors, are mean because they're bitter, and they're bitter because they never win. Sure, they're repeat National League Central Division champions. But this doesn't mean a whole lot becasue the Cards have the same total of playoff game victories the last two years as the Cubs3, and we've missed the post-season both years.

Now, back to 2008. The Cubs are done. So is the wait til next year mentality though. Cubs fans are beyond being sad. They've finally reached the breaking point. They're flat out pissed that their team not only lost, but didn't even show up. In 27 innings of playoff baseball, they only led after three of them, the second -fourth of game one. Some fans have even taken to selling their loyalty to the Cubs on ebay4 because they're so tired of losing, and having nothing to celebrate. Maybe some of them will become fans of the White Sox, who at least showed up for their series with the Rays, and won the whole thing just three years ago.

Maybe some of them will see the light and cheer for the Cardinals. If that's the case, welcome aboard. Our owners are cheap, but occasionally we have miracles occur5, as opposed to anti-miracles6. Or maybe they'll just forget about baseball, at least until the next time the Cubs draw them back in with a regular season like 2008. For the typical Cub fan who is belligerent, and will pour a beer on a fan of another team that ventures into that bar they call Wrigley Field, I feel no sympathy.

But for the occasional, good-hearted baseball fan that had the misfourtune of becoming a Cubs fan, like my neighbors, I am sorry. I felt the same way until 2006. Before 2005, I always got the same sinking feeling. We were done, the season would be over in a few short at-bats. And then Albert Pujols put a Brad Lidge slider into orbit7. This gave me hope, and one short year later, my hope was rewarded. 

Never bail on your team, even in its darkest hour. Because there really is always next year.

1 http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2008/05/cardscubsfirst

2 http://www.pitchershiteighth.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pondscum.jpg

3 http://www.cubssuckclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/cubs_swept.j

4 http://shop.ebay.com/items/__cubs-loyalty_W0QQ_kwZcubsQQ_kwZ

5 http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/TRND/FP4108.jpg

6 http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/writers/richard_deitsch/09/25/m

7 http://blog.kir.com/archives/pujols%20and%20Lidge.jpg