baseball
Hope springs eternal...
It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball, which is the one day of the year where I can be guaranteed that the Cubs are at least tied for first place in the NL Central.
It’s been a long time since 2016, but a new year brings new hope. Maybe the pieces will come together for a playoff run this season? A guy can hope.
Opening Day 2019
It’s been a long winter. Heck, it’s been a long week. Which makes today a particularly happy one: it’s opening day for Major League Baseball. (OK, the Mariners and A’s played two games in Japan a week ago that were officially regular season games, but today is the real opening day.)
I’ve enjoyed baseball since I was a kid, having spent many hours as a teenager listening to the Texas Rangers on the radio. Upon moving to Iowa after college I fell in with a bunch of Chicago Cubs fans and have followed them ever since. We took the kids to Wrigley Field last fall for the first time, and I have some kid-made Cubs fan art hanging in my office that dates back to Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. I won’t be free to sit and watch the Opening Day game with them today - darn workday afternoon games! - but I’m doing my best to pass a love of the game on to the next generation.
Play ball! Oh, and: Go Cubs, Go!
Opening Day 2018
Some of my favorite words: Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Cubs started on the road but started the season right with a win!
#FlyTheW
I’ve enjoyed baseball for as long as I can remember. I have fond memories of attending my first baseball game (the Omaha Royals) when I was probably 7, and of watching Game 7 of the 1985 World Series (Royals win in 7!) when I was 8. I followed the Rangers when I lived in Texas in high school and college, and enjoyed getting to see Nolan Ryan pitch and attending the 1995 MLB All-Star Game.
Then I moved to Iowa, and with a bunch of new friends who were Cubs fans, I became a Cubs fan. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
I remember sitting in a friend’s basement watching the famed Bartman game in 2003. They were so close to the World Series, and then collapsed. Again.
Then came 2016. The Cubs started off hot and stayed that way. I followed them more closely than I had in previous years, and my kids were now old enough to enjoy the games themselves. That the Cubs would make the playoffs seemed a foregone conclusion; the question was could they finally go all the way?
I told the girls that if the Cubs won the World Series, everybody would be getting new Cubs swag. As the playoffs progressed, I wondered a bit whether they were cheering the Cubs more to see them win, or to get new t-shirts. But cheer they did.
I pretty much lost faith around game 4 of the World Series. The Cubs were down 3 games to 1, and looked terrible doing it. I refused to watch Game 5. I didn’t want the stress. My wife turned on Game 6 after the Cubs took a lead. And then came Game 7.
You can’t not watch Game 7. And you can’t really send the kids to bed for it, either, even if it is a school night. We were feeling pretty good about it when the Cubs had a lead early. Addison was painting Cubs artwork in the basement during the middle innings. Then the Indians tied it up and my heart was in my stomach. Here comes the collapse, I thought.
Our youngest daughter finally gave up trying to stay awake about 10:30 and went to bed. When the game went to extra innings and a rain delay at 11:00, we sent the older two to bed. But 15 minutes later when the game resumed and the Cubs got a couple hits, they heard me yelp at the TV and came rushing back in to watch the game.
So at 11:30 on a school night, the four of us sat in bed and counted down the last three outs for the Cubs to win the Series. I hope it’s a memory that sticks with them as long as my memory of Bret Saberhagen coming off the mount to talk to George Brett prior to getting the final out in 1985.
Then this weekend we went shopping.
Maybe next year…
…they’ll win it again.
#FlyTheW
An app idea especially for Cubs fans
As a Cubs fan I set up my Yahoo sports iPhone app at the beginning of the season to pop up an alert with the final score at the end of each game.
My trouble is that the Cubs are, well, the Cubs. They’re currently 11-20 and 9.5 games back in the NL Central. (And it’s only May 7!) Which means I see a lot more alerts that look like this:
And not nearly enough that look like this:
Which gets kind of depressing, because if the Cubs' season continues as it’s going right now, I’m going to see a “Cubs Win!” alert only about 55 times this year, and a “Cubs Lose” alert more than 100 times.
So here’s an idea for some enterprising app designer: allow me to select the Cubs as my favorite team, and to get alerts for final scores, but add a flag that only alerts me when the Cubs win. That way every three or four days I get a nice surprise… and I don’t have to deal with the disappointment the rest of the week.
I’d buy an app like that.
Take me out to the ballgame...
It’s October 1st, which, among other things, means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. This has long been a favorite time of year for me. I love watching baseball, or if a TV isn’t available, listening to it on the radio. And today we get a trifecta, with the meat game of the baseball sandwich being the Chicago Cubs starting a home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
No sense in me adding to all the blather about the Cubs; just watching Sportscenter this morning they had features on “The Curse” (including the goat, the black cat, etc), the 100-year drought (there have been 4 states added to the USA since the Cubs last won the World Series!), etc, etc. As Lou Piniella said yesterday, the time for talk is done. Now it’s time to play ball. I’m too biased to make any good predictions here, but, as I told Richard on the phone this morning, I’d love to see a Cubs/WhiteSox cross-town World Series… as long as the Cubs win it. :-)
Go Cubbies!
[Wrigley Field photo by wallyg via Flickr.]
opening day
It’s opening day for major league baseball, and what a way to start: the Cubs scored 5 runs in the top of the first inning.
Welcome back, baseball, I’m ready to enjoy the season. :-)
UPDATE: And now they’ve let the Reds score 5, and Zambrano didn’t even make it through 5 innings. :-( Welcome to life as a Cubs fan.
...and the streak is at 6
You gotta love the Chicago Cubs. They brought a guy up from Triple-A to start last night’s game against the Dodgers, and he gets a win in his first major league start. He was the tenth different starting pitcher the Cubs have used already this season, and we’re only two months in!
For as miserable as the season has seemed at times so far, the Cubs are 3 games over .500, in second place in the NL Central (6.5 games back), have the league’s leading hitter in average, (tied for the lead in) HRs, and RBIs (Derrek Lee), and have managed to bang out 6 wins in a row, including a series sweep of the Dodgers.
I’m a happy Cubs fan this morning. :-)