Opening Day

Today is the best day of the year. That is because it is opening day. The Cubs have 162 games remaining and I of course will live and die with the results from each and every one. Baseball, particularly Cubs baseball is my passion.

Having a passion is important, everyone should have one. For some people it is music, or literature or needle point art. For yours truly, my main passion is baseball. Sure, I like other sports but, I love baseball. It is so much more then a game to me. I guess it started when I was a young man. I fell in love with the game at a young and impressionable age. Of course my Dad and Uncles should be arrested for child abuse for raising me as a Cub fan but I guess that is my cross to bear.

Each and every April, the season starts anew. With the start of new season comes new expectations and the hope that maybe just maybe this is our year. I am not a greedy man, all I want is to win just one World Series title. I will then be happy and not ask for anything more. Just one magical summer where my Cubs are the kings of the game I love so much.

I think we have suffered enough with the last two years being particularly cruel. Our two biggest rivals have won World Championships the last two seasons. 2005 was bad enough having to endure the White Sox winning it all. But when you add that to the Cardinals 2006 championship it has become unbearable. It is like getting corn-holed, surviving it and then, having to endure the same pain all over again, in some sick twisted sort of hell on earth.

Some would ask, why I put up with this torture each and every season? Well, there are a number of reasons that I just can’t explain. You see, you either get it or you don’t. If you love something, and love it unconditionally you love it for everything that is great about it and you love it despite all of its faults. I love so much about being a Cubs fan, I just hate the losing.

That is a modern misconception of Cub nation. That we accept losing as long as we can party in the bleachers. I will agree, that there is a certain percentage of the population that comes to the park to drink Old Style and oogle scantly clad young girls in the bleachers. However, in my estimation that group is in the minority. Most Cub fans I know care deeply about winning. I want to win not just for me but for my Dad and my Uncle John and my Uncle Dan and all the other Cub fans that have lived with the misery for a lot longer then I have.

For as much as I whine about it, I could not think of being anything other then what I am. Being a Cub fan is like being in on an inside joke. It creates a bond that no other fan of any other team can share. No one not the Red Sox, or the Indians or the White Sox, know the suffering that we have had to endure. Being a south side Cub fan is even harsher. But, it builds character. It lets you dream. When they do win, and trust me sometime in my lifetime I believe with all my heart they will win, it will be so special for us die hards. That is what keeps me going. I may bitch and moan about the club or its performance, but deep down I love them.

So, today I look forward to another season and another year of trips to Wrigley field, the greatest ballpark on earth. I am hopeful that this is our year. My heart of course always tells me it could be while my head tells me not to get too excited. Still, today we are at 0-0. The nightmare of the last years 96 losses are forgotten. It is a new year and anything can happen. Maybe, just maybe it is our time. I have to believe, as all Cub fans have to. If you don’t then what is the point to being a Cub fan. I know it has been 98 years, but I think we are due.