As anyone who knows me or reads this blog regularly knows, i grew up in iowa. Northwest iowa to be specific. Growing up there, you had three choices of baseball teams to root for: The Royals, the Twins, or the Cubs.
Back when i was young and growing up, the Royals were actually good and had George Brett, who was a great player. In fact, my first professional baseball game was at Kaufman Stadium to see the Royals.
The Twins were also good back then, winning the World Series in 1987 and 1991, when i was 6 and 10 respectively. In fact, my first memory of any World Series was listening to Jack Morris pitch Game 7 of the '91 series for a 1-0 win over the Braves.
Then there were the Cubs. As usual for most of the last 50 years, the Cubs were terrible. Though they had some great players, with Mark Grace, Shawn Dunston, and Ryne Sandberg. To be honest, i don't really have any memories about the Cubs as a kid except for a poster of Sandberg my friend had in his room.
When you're young, allegiances to teams are formed mostly arbitrarily, born out of things like 'this is my favorite player!' and 'this is the first team i saw live!'. It can also be passed down from family, from a mother or a father or an older brother.
So which team was i a fan of growing up? None of them. In fact, to be honest, i didn't really like baseball all that much growing up. I thought the game was boring. I never played Little League. Hell, i never played tee-ball. I played hot-box occasionally with my friends, but that was the extent of my baseball interest as a kid. I was more interested in watching and playing soccer and football and basketball.
Fast forward 15 years, to when i'm in college. By this point my interest in baseball had increased only to the point that i would watch the World Series every year. I remember Game 7 of the Indians-Marlins in '97, The Blue Jays repeating in '93, The great Braves winning their one Series in '95, and of course watching the Yankees dynasty in the late '90s.
It came to a head in 2001. I was amazed by what the Yankees had been able to do the previous 6 years, and with them in the World Series again shortly after 9/11, i was captivated. Of course, i also happened to be in Phoenix for my brother's wedding at the same time, who was a huge Diamondbacks fan. We watched Game 1 during his rehearsal, Game 2 during his wedding reception. That Series turned out to be one of the best Series ever played, and to be honest transformed me into a baseball fan for the first time.
Then came the 2003 season. In July of that year, halfway through the baseball season, i moved into a house with 10 other people (Yes, you read that correctly). A majority of those people were from the greater Chicagoland area; As such they were all huge Cubs fan. Cubs games became appointment viewing, playing every night on every tv in the house. Because i watched them every day, and because everyone around were big fans, and because they were actually good that season, i got swept up in Cubs fever.
I became a fan of the Cubs. I even went to a couple games that summer in Wrigley. I can't say i completely immersed myself in them like some of my housemates, but i definitely cheered for them and followed them closely. When the playoffs rolled around and the Cubs were rolling, it was an exciting time.
We all know what happened from there. In ways that can only happen to the Cubs, they collapsed and did not make the World Series. The rest of the house was heartbroken but not surprised. They seemed to sense something like that might happen. I was more dumbfounded than anything. How could that happen?
The following year i moved to Kansas City as baseball season was getting in swing. Royals games were cheap, therefore i went to quite a few that first summer. I started following the Royals. not because they were good (they were terrible), but because they were the local team. As i said, i was a baseball fan but never a fan of any certain team. I followed whatever team i had the most access to.
Two years after that i moved to Phoenix. I moved in with my brother, who was still a huge Diamondbacks fan. As a result i became a Diamondbacks fan. Only this time was different. I became a fan not of the local team, as i had with the Cubs and Royals, but i became a fan of the Diamondbacks. I started following the team, looking at statistics, paying attention to the farm system. Things i had never done with any other team. The Diamondbacks became my team. And they were terrible that year.
Since then they've remained my team, and to be honest will always be my team wherever i go from here. I've had season tickets each of the last two years, and was at each of their playoff Series' last year.
All that said, the Cubs still have a special little piece of my heart due to that 2003 season. I keep my eye on them, to see how they are doing, and to be able to talk to all my friends from back home who are big Cubs fans. I will always root for the Dbacks first, but i pull for the Cubs.
This long rant was to focus on one thing, as i sit here and watch Game 2 of the NLDS between the Cubs and Dodgers: The Cubs fans suffer. A lot. That is one tortured fanbase. Game 1 starter Ryan Dempster gives up more walks in 4 1/3 innings than he has in any start this season. In the 2nd inning of Game 2 the Cubs commit 2 errors and the Dodgers score 5 runs. This is a cursed franchise indeed.
I feel bad for the Cubs and their fans. It's been 100 years since their last World Series win, and it's looking like it's going to be at least one more. The Cubs and their fans deserve more than this. No other fanbase is as loyal to their team as the Cub fans, and no other franchise has waited as long as they have for a World Championship. Things happen to this franchise that happen to no other franchise in baseball, from curses to bad luck to collapses.
As this game goes on, i keep getting texts from my die-hard Cubs fans friends, and they all have varying ways to same the same thing: Of course this is happening. This is the Cubs. Why would i think anything else would happen?
I used to laugh at the futility of the Red Sox until they broke through; I can't do the same to the Cubs. It's too painful. The Lovable Losers are becoming less parts lovable and more parts loser by the year. And it is a sad sight to behold indeed...
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