...and Scout is staying home.
Well, it is just a game, isn't it? Just a past time and a source of local pride, unless you're the type to be a Yankee's fan or a Cub's fan no matter where you live. While I was rooting for the Indians, if they had been playing the Cubs instead of the Red Sox, I would have had to cheer on the team of my youth. Losers all around.
When I was a kid growing up near Chicago, the Cubs were the team to love. There were no lights in Wrigley Field, so all the games were played in the afternoon. We never went to a game because my father thought "what kind of fool would want to sit there in the middle of alla that when you can watch it right here in your own house?" The games were on TV every weekend, and that was my exposure to baseball and the Cubs. That's all I knew until I moved to Chicago to go to college.
On warm sunny days in the spring, my friend Wendy and I would talk big about skipping class and going to a game. When we scraped up enough cash for a couple of tickets and a hot dog or two, we took the train to Wrigley Field, a neighborhood ballpark with gates right on the street--no massive parking lots or upscale venues for the Cubs. Just baseball.
Business men in suits walked in with us, skipping work to eat peanuts, have a couple of beers, and sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game with Harry Carey. It was such a great afternoon, we decided to cut class and go to a Cubs game anytime we could afford it.
A few years later, Wrigley Field finally installed lights after a big debate and argument from the neighbors. Being able to play night games was perceived as a loss to the simplicity of the game and the nature of the ballpark. It turned out to be a good thing, but it cut down on those afternoon games that let people be shiftless employees and absent students on any given day.
They say "once a Cubs fan, always a Cubs fan." I have been to Cubs games in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, and judging by the number of fans who show up in all of those cities, I have to believe that's true. They have lost time after time, almost making it but not quite. And at the end of each season, hearty Cubs fans from around the country say, "well, there's always next year." Go Cubs.
Well, it is just a game, isn't it? Just a past time and a source of local pride, unless you're the type to be a Yankee's fan or a Cub's fan no matter where you live. While I was rooting for the Indians, if they had been playing the Cubs instead of the Red Sox, I would have had to cheer on the team of my youth. Losers all around.
When I was a kid growing up near Chicago, the Cubs were the team to love. There were no lights in Wrigley Field, so all the games were played in the afternoon. We never went to a game because my father thought "what kind of fool would want to sit there in the middle of alla that when you can watch it right here in your own house?" The games were on TV every weekend, and that was my exposure to baseball and the Cubs. That's all I knew until I moved to Chicago to go to college.
On warm sunny days in the spring, my friend Wendy and I would talk big about skipping class and going to a game. When we scraped up enough cash for a couple of tickets and a hot dog or two, we took the train to Wrigley Field, a neighborhood ballpark with gates right on the street--no massive parking lots or upscale venues for the Cubs. Just baseball.
Business men in suits walked in with us, skipping work to eat peanuts, have a couple of beers, and sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game with Harry Carey. It was such a great afternoon, we decided to cut class and go to a Cubs game anytime we could afford it.
A few years later, Wrigley Field finally installed lights after a big debate and argument from the neighbors. Being able to play night games was perceived as a loss to the simplicity of the game and the nature of the ballpark. It turned out to be a good thing, but it cut down on those afternoon games that let people be shiftless employees and absent students on any given day.
They say "once a Cubs fan, always a Cubs fan." I have been to Cubs games in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, and judging by the number of fans who show up in all of those cities, I have to believe that's true. They have lost time after time, almost making it but not quite. And at the end of each season, hearty Cubs fans from around the country say, "well, there's always next year." Go Cubs.
Comments
We're mourning our lost rugby world cup final over in England, but there'll be another chance in four years so we're not too dejected.
How often does your world series come round? I'll be rooting for the Indians next time, too.