March 12, 2006

• Since I have a lack of events to write about recently, I decided to
  periodically write about things that have happened before I started
  this xanga giving you, the faithful reader more insight into my boring
  life before xanga. Also, it gives me a chance to record these memories
  before I forget them due to the over exposure of hi-def tv waves. I
  will start today with one time in which my heart was broken and still
  has yet to heal. I speak of October, 2003.

  Ever since I was 9, I have been a huge, rabid foaming at the mouth Cubs
  fan. Being a Cub fan, you have to deal with a lot of losing, bad
  baseball and heartbreak. The previous generation had 1969, a year when
  the Cubs had a huge lead in the division over the HATED Mets (I hate
  them more than the Pistons) in mid-August only to blow it. Our
  generation had 1984 (Cubs blew a 2-0 game lead in the playoffs) but
  nothing of the ’69 magnitude. That is, until 2003. Before the season, I
  knew the Cubs had a good team and even honestly thought they had a
  chance to win the World Series. John had been saying, and I’m not
  exaggerating this at all, since about 1995 that in 2003, the Cubs would
  win it all. On the last weekend of the season, they won the division. I
  was very excited, because I knew with their pitching staff, they had a
  great chance. I couldn’t take my Cubs jacket off for about a week. The
  day after they won the division, Jt, Dave and I were playing darts on a
  Sunday night. We left the bar about 11:30 and I asked them if they
  wanted to go to Wrigley Field. They didn’t think I was serious, but I
  was and we drove 45 minutes late on a Sunday night just so that I could
  see Wrigley Field. I was pumped. A couple of days later, they started
  the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves, trading victories until the
  Cubs won game 5 in Atlanta to advance to the NLCS. This was the first
  time the Cubs had won any post season series since 1908. At this point,
  my excitement level was through the roof.

  On October 7, our 28th birthday, the Cubs played game 1 of the NLCS
  against the Florida Marlins. We watched the game at Mark’s house, which
  was routine for this post season. We must have watched about 4 games at
  Mark’s house the whole post season. In fact, I can remember where I
  watched each game. Each time there was a group of about 10-15 people at
  Mark’s house, and we had some weird superstitions as well. For example,
  John was not allowed to sit on the couch because the Cubs only seemed
  to score when John was sitting on the floor. Back to game 1, though,
  they lost in 10 innings. The won the next game huge, I think the final
  score was something like 12-3. Game 3 was a Friday night and another
  exciting game which the Cubs won in extra innings, which we watched at
  Tailgaters. Game 4 was held on a Saturday and we watched that game at
  Amy’s parents house, as they had a 50th birthday party for her mom. I
  remember meeting a guy there who was wearing a Marlins hat. I asked
  him if he was a Sox fan and he said he was a Marlins fan. I said that
  nobody was a Marlins fan here and he eventually admitted to being a Sox
  fan and hating the Cubs so much, that he went out and bought a Marlins
  hat just for this series. Sox fans were so upset about the Cubs, I also
  remember hearing a Sox fan that had called into the Score to say that
  this was hell and his worse nightmare. Anywho, the Cubs won game 4 and
  this put them on the brink of being in their first World Series since
  1945. On the way home, I remember listening to the post game show on
  the radio and them saying that the Cubs were one game away from the
  Series. It was a surreal moment. The next night, they lost game 5 to a
  dominant Josh Beckett, but I was ok with that because they were coming
  home for games 6 and 7 and had their 2 best pitchers going, Mark Prior
  in game 6 and Kerry Wood in game 7. Prior had been flat out filthy
  dominating in the 2nd half of the season. Wood was unhittable in the
  Atlanta series. I was convinced there was no way they would lose both
  games. I figured if somehow, the Marlins won game 6, there was no way
  they would win game 7. In short, I was giddy.

  At this point, the Cubs had more than consumed me. It was all I thought
  about. At the time, I was working 2nd shift at AAA, but I kept taking
  half days to watch the Cubs games. On Tuesday, Oct 14, I walked into
  work jubilant, after all this was the night. I told a co-worker that
  for girls, they wait their whole life for their wedding and for me,
  this was like my wedding, I had waited my whole life for this and
  finally, the wait was about to be over. That night, on the way to
  Mark’s house, Steve Stone predicted on WGN radio that right about 9:40,
  the Cubs would be celebrating their first pennant since 1945. This
  brought a smile to my face from ear to ear. I only got happier when
  Kenny Lofton led off the bottom of the first with a double and later
  scored to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. Eventually, they took a 3-0 lead.
  It got to the 8th inning. After the first out, we all started chanting
  “5 MORE OUTS, 5 MORE OUTS.” This moment represents the zenith and peek
  moment in all my years of a Cub fan. Now, it was time for it all to
  come crashing down.

   I don’t remember the exact order of events, but I know that Prior
  walked somebody. Next batter (I think it was Luis Castillo), as I’m
  sure you all have seen a million times, hit a foul ball down the left
  field line. I don’t need to tell you what happened, if you don’t know
  then you either were living under a rock or have some very serious
  memory problems that you should see a doctor for. A few pitches later,
  a ground ball to the sure handed Alex Gonzalez who forgot to close his
  glove. A wild pitch, a bases clearing double and 8 runs later, our
  hearts were torn out. I remember sitting there absolutely stunned and
  the room, which had been filled with promise and joy only minutes ago,
  was quiet. Mark and several others were  bitching about the fan (I
  don’t want to mention his name, I still do not blame him and do not
  hold him responsible) as I sat there, trying to fathom what had just
  happened. Of course, they went on to lose that game and one of the
  things I said was “its over.” John said I was being dick and tried to
  remain upbeat and positive. I on the other hand, looked at things
  realistically, and realistically, it could go either way. Most teams
  don’t lose game sevens at home, but on the other hand, most teams don’t
  come back from such crushing, devastating losses. I listened to the
  pregame show the whole way home. I stopped for gas and stood there
  putting gas in my car, just going through the motions, mind trying to
  comprehend what I just saw. I caught some of Letterman that night and
  he had John Cusack on, and they were talking about how this was finally
  it for the Cubs, they were finally going to win. Of course, the show
  was taped a few hours before the game, so they didn’t know the results,
  but it was like torture listening to them talk about what could have
  been. I even had trouble sleeping that night (which is nothing new, I
  have trouble just about every night), my mind replaying the events in
  my head like a Sportscenter highlight.

  The next day, I woke up and all I could think about was the game. In
  the shower, I kept thinking to myself “I don’t blame the fan, its not
  his fault…………but, what the fuck did he have to touch that ball?
  Why then, why not a game in mid May?” At work, it was all everybody was
  talking about, and I do mean everybody, even people who had never been
  to a baseball game in their life. That night, we watched game 7 at Dave
  and Kelli’s house. They fell behind early 3-0 in the first and at
  first, I thought that was it and I even said so to Jt. He told me to
  shut the hell up, he did not want to watch the game if I was going to
  be like that. Soon though, they came back and even took a 5-3 lead
  going into the 6th inning. But, things fell apart again, although not
  quite in the same crazy fashion. Once the Marlins brought in Josh
  Beckett, I knew the game was over and the unthinkable had happened.
  Still, I was convinced that with the Cubs pitching staff, they would be
  right back there in the years to come. How wrong I was, at least so
  far, as this year is another year.

  In the months after the collapse, I still thought about it a lot. Of
  course, it didn’t help that it seemed to be on tv or the radio every 10
  minutes. Still, I was excited for 2004 and could not wait for the
  season to start up. Such is the life of a Cub fan, though. Heartbroken
  one minute, hope the next.

  • 3:12 pm
  • 3 Comments