... I posted something similar to this, asking people to talk about their love for the Cubs and the game. It's permanently on the right sidebar, titled Why Are We Here?

You can add your thoughts to that post, too.

All I really know is that I love it. Compare it to lets say your parents, you know love despite all their faults.

When its not baseball season I am a little lost, my summer is so structures, set the tivo for the game, watch the game, watch the highlights on 3 different stations etc etc.

I LOVE IT

As a child I played baseball and that was fine. I loved hockey which was my main sport. My father, has always been passionate about baseball and when I was younger, I'd have to assume I was a bit of a disappointment (in many ways probably but this one was up there). I truly believe that it is the Cubs, the Cubbie experience, and the feeling when you are at Wrigley among "family" that has brought my love for baseball to the level of obsession (as my wife likes to refer to it).

It is funny, perhaps it is aging that has done this to me but I used to think baseball was slow and often got bored of it. Now, I wish there were 13 innings in each game and they would play 262 games a year (I know not possible, I am in mid dream here).

In some ways, baseball, and more specifically the Cubs, are my daily vacation from everything else. A time when I can live vicariously through other talented individuals who get to live their dreams each day they go to work. It is a place where I can dream too. Like watching late innings of a close game, and imagining what it is like to be that pitcher, or that hitter, and feel my heart racing...only to realize, it isn't me for a reason...but what a great moment that is while it lasts.

In short (or perhaps long), baseball is a place where we can dream, we can celebrate, we can commiserate, we can escape, and we can win, together. A place where we find friends, family, and we can all share something incredible (the Cubs of course).

Wow, that got a little wierd, but it's still the truth.

for anyone who has ever been on Dead tour (Grateful Dead), the environment is similar IMO, where most people are accepted for who they are becasue they are sharing in a love of something that everyone views as greater than themselves. Of course if someone walked into a Dead show with a Sox or Cards jersey, they probably wouldn't be messed with but hey, I didn't say it was exactly like Dead tour.

Less drugs too.

My dad and grand dad talking about the Cubs all the time. Even as a little kid I can remember my great grand dad talking about getting on the street car and going down to the ballyard.

When I finally made my little league team (in the day when there were actual try-outs) I think I began my transition to a baseball fanatic.

Growing up with your childhood heros was big. From Ernie to Ronnie and everyone alongside, it was part of me. And it will always be part of me.

Now as a parent, it's my turn to turn my kids onto Cubbie blue. My older daughter plays in 12U and may end up being a real player. She sure is learning to hit; ripping on BP cage pitches just last night at Players Choice Academy. But with so many acctivities like chess, band, swimming and gymnastics, who knows how her future will turn. All I know is I will expose them to the Cubs history like my dad, grand dad and great grand dad did.

But theres just something about springtime and summer. And maybe it just has to do with the slow, relaxed (in comparison) pace of the game.

All I know is that I'm pumped about baseball today. I just got out of class (student at Iowa) and on the walk home, had about a half hour talk with one of the homeless guys about the Cubbies. Baseball has the ability to put a smile on anyones face.

You can fall asleep in the second inning, wake up in the fifth and 80% of the time you haven't missed much :D

everyone in my family loves the game itself, have played it for most of my life, and to me or IMO there is no other game like it.

To me without sounding lame, baseball is eternal summer, a time to still feel like a little kid, its your moment in the sun. It's like the famous quote, "Grown men playing a kid's game." it represents everything that's good and pure in the world.

first it connects me with my past-especially my childhood-so many of my happiest childhood memories revolve around baseball...following the Cubs...collecting the cards...our annual family trip to Wrigley Field was like Christmas to my brothers and I.
As an adult, it also offers me a break from the harsher realities of life. I can get through a bad day at work a little bit easier knowing that, in the evening, there's a baseball game on tv; maybe only a temporary distraction but an important distraction nonetheless.

My Mom was a true die-hard Cubs fan, even after she left Chicago.

The other part? When I was young, it was the one sport in which I was better than all of the boys in the neighborhood, even the older ones.

Now, I think I'm just terminally crazy.