As a lifelong diehard Cubs fan, I thought I'd share this little bit about a glimpse into the life of an even bigger Cubs fan. My dad. Seasons ticket holder for about 30 years. In 1968, when his dad (my grandfather) died, my dad had him buried in the cemetery about 4 blocks away from Wrigley, making sure he was buried facing the park. I also had seasons tickets for about 15 years after my dad let his go. We were at the "Bartman" game against the Marlins. I was always very angry with Moises Alou, the Cubs left fielder, who made such a big deal out of that play, and ruining a young man's life. You could feel, in that moment, the grip of absolute fear and choke creep right into the ball park after that unfortunate play.
Fast forward to game 7, 8th inning, 2 outs, when Chapman gave up that homerun to tie it. My father was sitting right next to me at my sisters house (the entire family was there, including grand kids not away at college). He dropped out of his chair to his hands and knees, and just began to sob. I'd never seen that from him before, other than the usual grief when his mother passed. This was much, much worse. All this from a pretty tough old guy, former MP in the US Army. After he gathered himself, he went and sat in the other room, away from the tv. In his own words, he was "finally done." Very sad to see him defeated like this.
After the rain delay was over (which I'm pretty sure was sent by my uncle Bob, his older brother, who had died last year at 84, an equally huge Cub fan) he gathered himself enough to watch. When Schwarber led off with a single, he turned to me and said "OK, this is it!", and a smile went back on his face. When Kris Bryant fielded that weakly hit squibber and threw to Rizzo for the final out, my father jumped higher than I'd seen in quite a long time. He turned to me again, hugging me, as we jumped up and down together, he looked up, yelled his brother's and father's names, and screamed at the top of his lungs "It's finally OVER!" We had a great, happy cry together. After a while, we gave up watching all the stuff on the tv. It was late. I left my sister's house, and for the first time in 10 days, I didn't have a headache anymore.
Crazy, I know. But I'm glad they won, selfishly, for my dad. He, like so many other lifer fans, endured a lifetime of heartache and heartbreak. I'm glad it's finally over.
I really, truly, honestly think they'll win it all again next year, too.
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