"Do You Believe in (baseball) Miracles?"

The Cubs are in the World Series!!!

I almost can’t believe I wrote that last sentence but there it is, how sweet! They need to finish the season with a win of course but just getting there is a feat that this team hasn’t seen in 71 years—of just appearing in a World Series! Since 2003 I’ve been an occasional watcher of the north side abysmals, but always a fan. Why that year?(head drops...lets out a long sigh) This was the infamous Bartman year where that poor S.O.B  reached for the foul ball and ‘interfered’ with Moises Alou’s ability to catch it. The entire city knows now that it was a foul ball, out of play, and Bartman was within his rights to reach for it. Alou overreacted (shouting at him) and so did the tipsy outraged fans at Wrigley. He was escorted out like a criminal by some security guards who protected him from beer-throwing, cursing, threatening fans—a sickening display really.

ESPN did a brilliant documentary on it called “Catching Hell” outlining everything from crowd behavior and crowd psychology to rules governing fan interference. They even selected a sermon from a minister on the connection between Steve Bartman and Hebrew scapegoat traditions.

2003 was my junior year of college. I had time to spare and the Cubs were good! That meant skipping the occasional class to catch an afternoon game and rushing home from late classes to catch the last few innings. Not a lot of work (school or other) got done that year and the biggest let down was that playoff season where we lost to the Marlins. They were just better. Bartman or not, our guys couldn’t strike out the Florida club and managed to create additional problems by overthrowing runners, missing ground balls and walking batters. They were abysmal. Our pitching led by Kerry Wood and Mark Pryor had been almost automatic until the 6^th game of the series (the Bartman game). Kerry Wood threw the last game poorly. Marlins advanced. Cubs stayed home. Wrigleyville faithful drowned their sorrow in Old Style and raised their fists toward heaven—Greek tragedy style. It was further proof their ivy walled stadium was cursed. 

Until last Saturday…they never got over it.

   

The most I could muster since that heartbreaking fall of ’03 was watching WGN (when they still played games) on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Cubs had stars in those years and reached the playoffs a few times; in 2008 they got swept and of course just last year the Mets knocked them out with AMAZING pitching. Last year made a believer out of me like it did for so many. This team was built to win. The front office made purposeful decisions to spend money on young talent and develop it. The General Manager Theo Epstein had similar results with the Red Sox in the early 2000s and he made good on his promise to Chicago to invest long term. Fans sense a dynasty is being put together in the best place in the world for baseball, Wrigley field. Nothing is guaranteed of course but the talent this team has trained, traded for and developed is unlike any team before.

I can’t imagine having the time or passion that I did in ’03 ever again. Baseball is just too slow a game for me to sit down for 3 to 4 hours a night and watch. I suspect this is true of most people, even Cubs fans. The pace and regularity of the sport makes it difficult to focus exclusively on the game. We just don’t watch TV like that anymore and even with the DVR recorders, who can catch 50 games a year let alone 162? 

 I’ll be watching every pitch of this historic World Series though. I might even record a few next season and follow the club better in 2017. So I am not the most dedicated fan anymore but like so many others who have hoped, and believed this day would come—GO CUBS!!