"Take me out to the ballgame": PART I

Go Cubs.

So, who are these Cubs? In short, a Chicago baseball team who wear blue and give you the blues. Can you imagine a heart breaker receiving relentless, eternal love from millions of people at the same time? I have two apt words for you here; NO SHIT. The Cubs, christened 1902, have arguably the biggest and most loyal fan base who they happily let down year after year. They won their only world series (the world cup of baseball) in 1906 and have slumped for a frikkin' century!

Since this is part I , I'm making it as generalized as I can to suit all readers. If you're not into baseball, it is reasonable for you to ask “Oh what about the Chicago White Sox? Didn't they just win and shit?”. Well, here's the thing. The White Sox represent the south side of Chicago and the Cubs represent the north side. Sure, some of you might think “Oh, it looks like these dumb fans are being preyed by the media to bite into the inner city rivalry”. If you did, I hope you never say that aloud and if you do, I hope you never bump into me. The kinda fans that usually bite into media hype are 1) fair weather fans who jump onto the bandwagon 2) mentally crippled people who think its cool to be a baseball fan and 3) just plain dumb people. Most of the “real” fans, in my opinion, wouldn't give a rat's ass to whether the Sox slump or win five rings in a row. They only care about the Cubs' winning and our division rivals' losing. It does piss us off though, that our team isn't able to pull it off :)

So you get the picture. There's this baseball team, they wear blue, they lose all the time, fans still love them and don't care much about another team winning the world series in the same city. BUT WHY?? How come the Cubs aren't losing their fandom given their poor performance? I really don't know. I think it varies from person to person but overall its because no matter how they play, the Cubs are a very lovable team. You can almost equate the fans to a mom showering her daughter with love for 20 odd years even though she knows that one day, she'd be married and gone, just like that. We love you anyways, Cubbies :)

Why do I like the Cubs? Its primarily because my meek baseball knowledge (no modesty here, baseball is really an ocean!) was endowed by two Cubs fans, D and M. I loved the game, loved everything about the Cubs (except their losing streak), loved Wrigley field (like nothing else!!) and loved every single Cubs tradition. Whether its screaming “Take me out to the ballgame” with 40,000 fans or shouting “woo woo” along with one Mr. WooWoo who wears a jersey with “Woo Woo” written on the back and screams Woo Woo all the time :) (wow, too many woo woo's) or the fans throwing baseball back into the field when the opposing team hits a home run, its an unbelievable place to be and I love it.

All you Cubs fans out there, I know this is way too general but Part II will cut right into the chase, I promise :) To finish it off, I'm including a small verse written by my friend K, a Cubs fan now in Atlanta. If you don't watch much baseball, most of these references will be obscure; If you do, I'm sure you'll love it.

****
still, belong to chitown
still, the windy city is all i care for deep down

still, a midwesterner
and i could care less about the land of turner field;

still bleed cubby blue
still long to walk on waveland avenue

still a bleacher bum
still strongly despise the southside scum

still read the tribune
while "root for the cubbies" is all i wish to croon

still wlk the streets of Atown yelling eamus catuli
still hate furcal for bringing down dlee

still long to see the friendly confines
though with 2 bad seasons passion but hope is what still remain
*****

Go Cubs. Stay tuned for more.