Next Year - I'll Pray to Saint Jude

A long time ago a friend’s father, who was an avid Cubs Fan, told me that the corner of Clark and Addison was where the “Street of Broken Dreams” meets the “Avenue of Despair”. I laughed! That was in 1980 when I could still laugh about my favorite Baseball team losing. There was always next year.

Last night, or should I say, in the wee small hours of the morning, I recalled what a 70 year old Cubs Fan had told me 28 years before. Now I understood the meaning of his words.

The Cubs were swept by the Dodgers in the Divisional Playoff Series. The team with the best regular season record in the National League lost three games in a row to the team with the worst divisional record in the Playoffs.

I didn’t read any of the Chicago Sports Writers take on this series and probably won’t for several days; when the angst wears off.

I really believed that this would be the year that the Chicago Cubs would go to the World Series. And perhaps even win the World Series. Other years I just hoped, but this year I believed.

This morning I received 2 consoling emails. One was from a Cubs Fan who said “didn’t I tell you not to get your hopes up” and the other from a White Sox Fan who wrote “I know how you feel, maybe next year.”

I don’t think that I have that many next years left.

The Beach Bum

No Joy in Wrigleyville

There is no joy in Wrigleyville tonight. The Chicago Cubs have just lost their second home game, in the divisional playoffs, to the LA Dodgers. It was a slaughter! Cub’s fans, like me, are crying in their beer tonight. Two Cub errors in the second inning (4 total in the game) put the Cubs in a hole that they couldn’t crawl out of. For the second night in a row the Cubs bats remained silent. They showed a little life in the ninth inning. It was too little, too late. As Maynard G Krebbs, from Dobie Gillis would say “for shame, for shame.”

It’s on to LA, where doubtfully, they will win two and return to Chicago for the series finally. I can dream, can’t I?


The Beach Bum

Barry Barry Bad for Baseball

Being a fan of the sport of Baseball and particularly a Chicago Cubs fan, I have been distressed this past week.

It started out as good Baseball week for me, with the Cubs winning the sweepstakes for Japanese Baseball star Kosuke Fukudome. More than likely he will be the Cubs’ Right Fielder on opening day. He will give the Cubs a desperately needed left handed bat. He is a two-time League batting champion, he led his league in on-base percentage three times and four times won a Gold Glove for defensive excellence in the outfield.

A left handed hitter that can catch a ball hit to right field on a regular basis. Wow! What are the Cubs trying to do? Win a World Series. I’ve always said “not in my lifetime.” But maybe the powers that be have decided to end my suffering and make my team a contender. The 2008 Chicago Cubs look very good on paper.

Just to burst my bubble the Mitchell Report is then released. I downloaded the PDF file from the Chicago Tribune. It is tedious reading; I have spent 6 hours reading it and have not yet finished the entire report.

There are some surprises in the report and there are some notable omissions in the report. I just can’t believe some of the names that were mentioned for steroid abuse. Others that did not appear on “The List” will probably make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If you are a player on “the list” you probably have a very slim chance of receiving this honor. Some of my favorite players from the past 15 years are on “The List”.

Personally, I am not against the use of performance enhancing drugs in Baseball. But I am against the players demanding more money because of the use of these drugs. That is what is bad for Baseball. Avarice by both, the Players and the Owners, threaten the game that I love.


Finally, I read yesterday that my beloved Cubs might be going commercial. That is dependent on the new ball club ownership; the ballpark may be renamed. To me it will always be Wrigley Field. I attended my first game there in 1954 and fell in love with Baseball. Since that day, the game has become my personal lifetime passion. Every year, year after year, I can’t wait for the first pitch of the season and last strikeout of the season.

The Beach Bum

Is This "The Year"?

I spent this afternoon watching the Chicago Cubs Home Opener against the Houston Astros on WGN Television. Although the Cubs lost, I still enjoyed watching the game. As a Cubs fan for more than 50 years, I am accustomed to seeing them lose. The relief pitching, which the Baseball pundits say is the best in the NL Central, blew the game.

It was good to see Wrigley Field again. The ivy that Bill Veeck planted on the outfield walls in the 1950’s was still brown, but the field itself looked as beautiful as ever. They have even re-painted the Scoreboard this year. I wasn’t too happy with the Ad that was placed on the outfield door, but it was not as bad as some of the other MLB Parks’ advertising displays.

I was hoping to see the son of one of my close friends when WGN panned the bleachers. I didn’t see him, but I know that he was there. Brad Zibung is the founder of a Website and Paper, named “The Heckler”. Brad is also a Chicago Cub Bleacher Bum. He is sarcastic and has a biting sense of humor; more like me than like his father. I admire his writing in the Heckler.

Not that Len Casper and Bob Brenly are bad broadcasters, but I really do miss Harry Caray and Steve Stone. Stone’s knowledge of the game and Caray’s witticisms made watching the Cubs lose more enjoyable. Harry would go mush-mouth from drinking too many Budweiser’s before the 7th inning stretch. After that point Steve would have to do both the play by play and the color commentary. Harry would rattle on about golf and fishing trips while Stoney called the game. And I really loved it when Harry would mispronounce a player's name or call a player by the wrong name.

The Cubs motto for this season is “This is the Year”. In the five games that I have seen, they could be right. The potential for a championship season is there. But I say that almost every year. Potential verses the actuality of a winning season is a Horse of another Color.

The Beach Bum

Maybe This Year

In just four days the Chicago Cubs will play their season opener in Cincinnati. Yes I am, unfortunately, a die hard Cubs fan. One of those guys who always thinks, at the beginning of each Major League Baseball season, that “this will be the year”. And then when the season ends in the fall, I’ll always say “maybe next year”.

Cub fans are always optimists at the beginning of the season. I am basically a pessimist, I look at the glass being half empty. As strange as it seems, I become an optimist every spring just before opening day. I love to watch baseball and I love my Cubs. I just wish that they would fulfill my fantasy and win the World Series before I die. Even seeing the Cubs get into the World Series would be a nice thing.

The Cubs haven’t played in the World Series in 62 years (this was shortly before I was born) and haven’t won a World Series since 1908 (seven years before my Dad, who was also a Cubs Fan, was born).

Cubs fans also tend to be hopeless romantics who live in a fantasy world.

This year the Cubs look really good on paper. But, then again, I have said that for the past few years. They have acquired via Free Agency a new center fielder that will probably hit at least 40 Home Runs and steal 30 bases. They have strengthened the pitching staff, and they have hired a new manager.

Writers that are critical of the ball club say that the Cubs will never go to the World Series again because they are owned by the stingy Chicago Tribune. The Tribune is spending the big bucks this year. The Cubs, whether winning or losing will almost always fill the Ballpark and therefore there is no incentive for the Trib to put a winning team on the field. I’ve read a commentary from a noted Sports writer who said that Wrigley Field is the largest Beer Garden in the world. Win or lose, Cubs fans will come out to Wrigley to drink beer.

The connotation here is that people only go to Wrigley to drink beer and party. While drinking beer and partying is part of the fun of going to a game, the fans at Wrigley are truly Baseball fans. Most of them buy programs and use the scorecards. Most Cubs fans can also quote the stats of the opposing team’s players. These are real Baseball fans, not just a bunch of drunks going to a game just to party.

We Cubs fans know the transcendent aspects of the game and love the game for what it is, “America's Favorite Pastime“. And we love the sound of the “crack of a bat” that sends the ball flying far into the Bleachers or out of the Ballpark. This is sweet music to our ears. And, I’ll drink to that.

Maybe this year!

The Beach Bum