Go Cubs!

As we sit here today, the Cubs have a five game lead in the National League Central. The 2008 edition of the Chicago Cubs have taken over my life. This is the most games I have ever attended. If you have not been to Wrigley this year you are truly missing something special. The fans are into every pitch and there is magic in the air. No matter the score you still feel this team will go out and find a way to win.

When I am not at the game I am usually watching them. (God bless Len and Bob, the Cubs TV announcers.) During the All Star break I didn’t know what to do with myself. I live and die with every pitch and more times then not this season this team has given me a lot of joy. Which as a Cub fan is rare.

Being a Cub fan, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. A lifetime of losing will do that to a person. There are only two conclusions to this season. One is the Cubs will at long last win the World Series. Or, they will break Cub fans hearts in a cruel and unusual way. Of course I hope for the first outcome but there is a nagging feeling that the second outcome may occur.

Still, this summer with the Cubs has been nothing short of a blast. This is a good and confident baseball team. Pinella seems to be pushing all the right buttons and the team is hitting and pitching very well. Sure, I take every loss hard but, in the back of my mind I realize you can’t win them all.

I so badly want them to win this year. I am not greedy, all I want is for one time to have the Cubs become World Champs. Then I will move on with my life. Baseball is the greatest game ever invented. It makes me sad when I learn of others who don’t get it or haven’t found the beauty and strategy of the game. I was born to be a Cub’s fan for better or worse. I lived with all the bad teams and a year of Jim Essian. I think it is time to cash in on all the years of character building we have had to endure.

In my wet dream we beat the Mets, then the Cardinals and the White Sox to win the World Series. I realize this scenario is unlikely but, if that did happen it would almost make up for the all the shit we have had to eat lately. (In particular the two cruel years back to back of 2005 and 2006 where the White Sox and Cardinals won the series. I am still not sure which was worse.)

2008 will be a memorable year either way. One in which we will think back to with either a smile, or heartbreak. It has been five years since we were five outs away in 2003 and the memories of that 8^th inning still hurt to think about. There is only so much pain one’s hearts can take. I ask the baseball Gods, to please just once let us have our day in the sun. I think we deserve it.