By: Justin Jacobs
In the last 100 years the New York Yankees have won 26 world championships.
Or to put it another way….
In the last 100 years the Chicago Cubs have won one world championship.
That’s right on this day in 1909 Cub fans were actually getting ready for a year in which they would have a chance to repeat as world champions, something the Yankees have done 11 times. I have to admit that it was the Yankees prestigious history that made enticed me to abandon any notion of becoming a Cubs fan. My logic was why root for Mark Grace and Sammy Sosa when you could root for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. To be fair I didn’t take up baseball until my senior year of high school when Chad invited me to play fantasy baseball. As with my other favorite teams in sports (Lakers and 49ers) I went with the team that I thought would have the best chance of winning. Does that make me a bandwagon jumper?
Yes.
Does that mean I sold my sole to George Steinbrenner?
Yes.
Do I feel even remotely bad about it?
Hell no!
Here’s the deal. I’ve been around Cub fans my whole life and my god are they a sad group of individuals. For years I’ve tried to figure out why so many people would be so loyal to such a terrible franchise. I kept asking myself, “Does being a Cub fan drive you insane, or are all Cubs fans inherently insane?’
Well I’ve thought about this a lot and I think I’ve come to some conclusions.
Bare with me here.
I definitely think being a Cub fan will drive you insane. How a team can go a lifetime without winning a championship in a major market is insanity in and of itself. Some kids don’t have a choice in the matter because their parents dress them in Cubs’ gear from the moment they come out of the womb. These poor souls get socialized in an losing environment and will eventually adopt their parents losing mentality, I consider this child abuse at its worst. All I can think of are those late night commercials where someone with an English accent tells us how we need to send money to the starving children in Africa. I can hear that voice right now, “Thousands of perfectly normal babies are being brought up in a Cub friendly environment as we speak, and for only a dollar a day you can you can make a difference in these kids lives. Do the right thing, our operators are standing by”
Of course there are some who do actually chose to become Cub fans. At least they think they are choosing, but really they aren’t. I came to this realization the day my car wouldn’t start on a morning where the temperature was 20 degrees below zero. All I could think about was Spring, for the weather to change and how pleasant things would be. It’s so simple, the people who choose to become Cubs fans aren’t really rooting for the players on the Cubs they are rooting for an idea. They are rooting for hope. It’s really quite a disgusting concept to me. People root for the Cubs because they know how sweet it is when winter turns to spring. In the winter us northerners become bonded by the bad weather. We get into a, we’re all in this together mentality, and cheering for the Cubs is just an extension of that.
Every March, around the time old man winter unwraps his icy hands from around our necks, the Cubs are in Spring training, and Cubs fans are inordinately cheery. The happiest you will probably find any person from northern Illinois is during the start of the baseball season, wether they are a Cubs fan or not. Now think about October when the Cubs have either been eliminated or are on the verge of being eliminated. This is the time of year where you will find us at our lowest, again wether we are Cubs fans or not. .I really think that being a Cub fan can be an extension of the way we cope with the climate we live in. You could have said the same thing about White Sox fans until recently, when Ozzy Guillen lead his team to the promise land behind one timeless saying, “Fung is winning and winning is fung.” Wise words from a man who’s blood is so warm the winter has no effect on him. Thus his ability to shake the mid-west winter funk and win championships.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “Justin, you’re not a Cub fan, what gives” Well like I said, I only recently began following baseball. I think something very important happened to me that allowed me to see past the lie that is the Chicago Cubs… I started drinking. Once a person starts to drink getting through the winter gets a little bit easier thus making the return of spring a little less sweet. Although this year the winter has been so brutal that I’m probably more excited about spring/the Cubs then I have ever been in my life. Hell, it was either that or become a full blown alcoholic, and I really can’t afford that much alcohol. Fortunately, I’ve already made the decision to be a Yankees fan, and over the years baseball has become my favorite sport. So in another hundred years when the Yankees have won another 26 championships and Chad’s grandchildren are being perpetually disappointed by the Cubs, my grandchildren will have me thank for their happiness.
Me… and Jack Daniels.
-JJ
Editor’s Note: Barring any major set-backs from ESPN, Chad and I will be signing up for fantasy baseball. I have already ordered Baseball Prospectus and have started preparing for this years draft. Yes… I am sick like that. It’s pretty safe to say you can expect a column about fantasy baseball sometime this week, besides that, you’re guess is as good as mine as to what we will be writing about this week. I guess you’ll have to stay tuned in order to find out.
