Go Cubbies!
This is the time when I perennially give a collective sigh for the handful of baseball teams I root for…the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs, and the Boston Red Sox. It never fails that any or all of them approach the end of the season with less follow through than hope, and inevitably one or all of them fall by the wayside.
I spent my formative years in the Chicago area, so rooting for the Cubs is a natural thing. And I lived during the era of Ron Santo and company, and can recollect with fondness seeing him play and win a few games with his bat. Wrigley Field is a very special stadium, particularly now in light of all the hypermodern arenas built. There remains only a few of the old, ivy-covered playgrounds that have the richness of history in their soils. I’ve sat at Wrigley Field and Fenway Park and you simply feel the reverence and history sitting there. While Houston’s own MinuteMaid Park is very nice and great for watching a game, it doesn’t have the aura that these old parks have. I hope the powers that be can keep these connections to the deep history of baseball intact in the years to come.
Since I’ve lived in the Houston area for the last 16 years, my allegiance to the home Houston Astros has grown, and they are nearly as frustrating to root for as were the Cubs! Much promise every year only to dissolve into “almosts” by the end of the season. And finally, Boston is one of my favorite U.S. cities (lived there for a year eons ago), which gives me a certain fondness for the scrappy BoSox and an appreciation of Fenway Park.
But this year my trio of teams has given me fits of angst in my struggle over whom to root for! Towards the end of the season, the Astros and Cubs were neck-and-neck down to the last game. And now I’m faced with the distinct possibility that the Cubs and BoSox may actually have a chance at wrapping their pine-tar stained pinkies around the holy grail: The World Series. The Cubs seem likely to be there, but Boston will have to “fight” their way past the Yankees, and that appears to be a literal statement as well as a figurative statement!
I love watching baseball on TV because, besides love of the game, it lets me get other things done! Very easy to watch a game while reading a paper or doing stuff online. The action comes in fits and quips, so plenty of time to work in other stuff. Watching baseball in person isn’t quite the same, and instead of reading/computing, people watching takes over. As I watched the bruhaha in Boston yesterday, I imagined that people watching was at an all time high there, although perhaps not “quality” watching, it was morbidly fascinating I’m sure. At local Astros games I have to contend with idiots on cell phones relaying the game activities to someone at the other end, which in itself is harmless, but made comically by the fact that the relayee hasn’t a clue about baseball. “Jeff what’s-his-name just hit a ball really far. I think they made a field goal or something…anyway, what are you going to wear to school tomorrow?” Sigh. It’s bad enough to disrupt those of us who believe you should pay the exorbitant tickets prices because you came to WATCH the game, but worse to butcher our national pastime with ignorance. Had I been at Fenway Park yesterday and overheard a similar conversation, I can imagine that I would have been unable to replay it here, or at least not without a lot of !@#$%@#$ thrown in here and there. I also found it fascinating that the management at Fenway Park immediately stopped beer sales once the ruckus began. That’s like taking the gun away from the perpetrator that just shot you…nice politically, but a little too late.
But above all of this is perhaps the undeniable fact that this is the most entertaining baseball playoffs in a very long time, no doubt because of new teams in the mix added with a dash of the historically “close-but-no-cigars” Cubs and Red Sox. I’m happy to see good baseball, and so long as the Yankees don’t get to the final round, life will be good! It’s not that I dislike the Yankees…well, okay that’s true…but I like diversity in champion events and the Yankees have been there too many times.
2 Responses to “Go Cubbies!”
As a Chicagoan & lifelong Cub fan, I’m with ya here. I would freak out to be able to get to a game, but unfortunately, I don’t have the grand necessary to do so. But this girl that I know does, she’s been to every post-season game at Wrigley & has tickets for each of the World Series Wrigley Field games. She’s also a self-confessed “fair weather fan.” Pisses me off to no end.
Anyways, while I love my Yankees (a New Yorker for 2 years & at heart), I’d love to see the BoSox & Cubbies go at it this year. Nothing like rooting for an underdog to beat an underdog.
Can’t wait.
Happy viewing. I’m heading out of work right now to grab a spot at the Cubby Bear. Look for me on Fox in the masses after the pennant win!
“Look for me on Fox in the masses after the pennant win!”
Will do…if you’re there TONIGHT! Still reeling from the debacle LAST night…sheesh. I’d hate to be “that” fan after all that happened. Poor guy. He didn’t do anything that any other fan there would have done, but he’s taking the heat nonetheless. Oh well..SURELY they can’t fall on their faces TWO games in a row…