Losing Made Us Love

by FutureGroundscrewMember on May 8, 2008 4:19 AM CDT

I originally made this as a response to Al's "What Made Us Fans" but i wandered around got carried away, so i thought i'd put it up as my own post and see what happened. The original title was, "Losing Made Us Fans" and i found it was inappropriately named, so i changed it to something i found more suitable. It's something I've thought about for a while, and maybe you think it too.

As unpleasant and daunting as it may seem, I find losing has its appeal. In movies, who do you feel for and who can you relate with? Its probably the downtrodden beat up loser who wont let go of his dream, The Pursuit of Happiness anyone? In classic books like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye, our favorite characters were the flawed, personable and outcast characters. I used to sympathize and cheer on the "Bahstan Red Saks" but after they won the WS, wasn't it different? We weren't alike, we were no longer birds of a feather. Nope, opposites don't attract. I think, and I'm gonna get philosophical here and you probably know where I'm going, that we, as natural people, find it incredibly easy to love the cubbies because they're just like us. We could say, "Oh they're the lovable losers, so I love em" but do we love em because they lose? A cubs world series would be the end all be all for every one of us, for many the greatest october/moment of our entire lives. But would that change our draw to the North Siders? For Bleed Cubbie Blue-ers, probably not, but for many, as it did for me and Boston, the allure and intrigue of the franchise would begin to fade. We wouldn't be set apart from anyone, how unique would we be? Would we be like the Phillies, who have one only one title in the last 125 years but have no where near the fan base? Or would we be the Red Sox, going Johnny Damon on everything that the Cubs used to be, for a chance at some championships? Would I still be a fan if we won, for sure, but i don't think they'd still be my cubs. The Pirates have stunk for as long as i can remember(I'm only 18), but their losses don't bring in the fans. Same with the Nationals, Royals and a lot of other MLB franchises. So why are we different? You can blame history - '45, '84, '03. We all know where we were when these things happen, if we even were, and its a memory that lives on forever, something we can/have told our kids and grandkids. No one has failed and come up short in so many ways like the Cubs have. The franchise is basically human. So close to attaining monumental success, an then having "There's Always Next Year" to show for it. We ride fresh hope (Prior) only to let us down, and continually wait for old knowledge(Piniella, Billy Goat) to come through. Maybe its the curse that makes it easy to displace our misery, and place the blame - another thing people love to do, that brings the cubbie appeal to life. Is It the hope of next year that keeps us going? A World Series would be great- wouldn't it? Our Father's and Grandfather's made us fans sure, but what keeps us fans? Usually losing and despair drive us away, but why not with the Cubs? We're an interesting breed Cubs fans, drawn together by a century of lovable losing. Why? Who knows, I sure as heck don't, but there's something about the Wrigley faithful, and their ball squad that has got us at the heart, and whatever it is, i don't see losing that any time soon.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation, Bleed Cubbie Blue, or Al Yellon, editor-in-chief. FanPost opinions are, however, valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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Not me, not because they lose

It’s because of the three generations before me were Cubs fans. That I got to go to Wrigley field with all of them. How my dad told me stories of how he’d get to go to a game for free if he brought back a home run ball from the previous day; sometimes even the street car conductors would let him ride for free.

How my grandfather told me about the day this big ballyard was built on the grounds of the seminary that was there when he was a boy. That the Cubs moved there a couple years after they played at what’s now part of the UIC. How he was excited to take his boy to his first game at Weeghman Park.

How my dad used to play against Phil Cavaretta when he was at Lake View and Phil was at Lane Tech; only Phil was a much better player. How Phil invited my dad and his family to Wrigley Field as his guests during the 1945 World Series.

I didn’t take to the Cubs as a youngster like previous generations, or at least I wasn’t hooked as a youngster even though I watched. In the 70’s my dad took me to games when they had ticket specials in the un-reserved grandstand (we call it terrace reserved today) and we’d stop at Joe’s Piano Tap at Grace and Clark for “a shot and a beer”, well at least for my dad. He’d explain how things were when he was my age. I can still remember on some days he’d say, “hey look, the upper deck is open today”.

Becoming a teenager, then I got hooked, now I pass that on to my kids. My older daughter – learning to play fastpitch softball – loves the Cubs. She thinks D-Lee is “the man” and Fukudome even though “he bats a little funny” is really good. She can’t wait to get to the ballpark on game days and watches BP like a hawk; well mostly for the opportunity to get baseballs thrown up to her by the players. She’s amassed dozens of them the past couple years.

That’s why I’ve been a fan.

by blackhawk24 on May 7, 2008 9:35 PM CDT 0 recs

Interesting

There’s some deep thoughts there, but their “losing” never made me a Cub Fan. I became a fan because when I was 10, we got WGN. It was 87 and Andre Dawson owned the NL. I became a fan because I got to watch so many of those games, and both saw, experienced, and participated in something very positive, which was the year of the Hawk. Most of my childhood was horrible, but this period really brought a sense of joy into my life. I became a Cub fan this year, and have spent the last 20 years of my life watching Cub games. It all began this year, and I knew NOTHING of them not being in the World Series since ‘45, or last winning one in ‘08. I had no idea… To me, it didn’t matter. I fell in love with a team, and have held on every sense.

by TheHawkRules on May 7, 2008 9:49 PM CDT 0 recs

Disagree

I became a fan because my Mom, grandfather and uncle were big Cubs fan (My Dad’s not a big baseball fan). I became a fan in the late 60’s not because they were losing. They were actually pretty good but in a kid’s eyes they were even better than they really were. It took me a long time to realize that Kessinger and Beckert were not good at the top of the order.

It has absoluely nothing to do with the Cubs losing.

by rlpete on May 7, 2008 9:55 PM CDT 0 recs

Became a diehard as a 14 year old in 1977

Coincided with my family moving to the Chicago area. $1.50 bleacher seats, Bill Buckner, Rick Reuschel, Bruce Sutter, Herman Franks, eternally struggling to reach the .500 mark each season…

Favorite Cub of all time is Buckner. Most disgusting memory of Wrigley? A bunch of us kids went walking around the concourse during a blowout on a swelterning hot day. Happened to walk by an open closet door next to a concession stand. Inside was this sweating 400 pound of a man sitting on a stool and dipping cooked smokie links for sale into a jar of mustard before laying them out on a pan. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. From that day forward I NEVER ate a smokie link at Wrigley again.

Lou, stop being obstinate...bat Soriano # 6.

by MDBNIU on May 7, 2008 10:29 PM CDT 0 recs

Record didnt factor into my fandom at all...

In fact I was probably too young to even realize it mattered, I was five, my dad stuck me at second base, ryno was the best one at the time, so that was that…I probably didnt even know how teams got to the world series at that age anyway..hah.

so for a twenty something Cubs fan like me, it hasnt been that bad, multiple playoff appearances, the Sosa Craze, the oscar snubbed “Rookie of the Year”, Will Ferrells Harry Carrey impressions etc.

So i dont think I was drawn to the underdog aspect, but I can see how that would attract some people, the Yankees of the world have enough fans I suppose.

Okay, just so I understand it... in your wildest fantasy, you are in hell. And you are co-running a bed and breakfast with the devil.

by bren on May 7, 2008 11:03 PM CDT 0 recs

I agree with all of the above.

Like many, my dad took me to my first game when I was 7… and then I found I could come home after school and watch every home game on TV. Got hooked that way. This was just before they woke up from two decades of losing in the late 1960’s. By that time I was in junior high and I lived through the disappointment of the ‘69 team.

You mentioned the Pirates. Until 1992 the Pirates had been a decent to good team for three decades and won a few World Series and were perennial contenders. Their management has been pathetic for the last 15 years, but it wasn’t always that way.

None of us, I think, is drawn to losing. All of us want to win as badly as the fans of every other team. Will winning change us, as it has appeared to change Red Sox fans?

I don’t know. But I know this: I’d give just about anything to find out.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on May 8, 2008 3:29 AM CDT 0 recs

I've been a fan since birth

And ive got the hat to prove it! Their losing never attracted me to them, it’s only made me frustrated with them. My dad was a Cubs fan and he passed it down to me, I will love this team through anything. The thing about the Cubs is they do something every few years that gives you hope, I know we are going to win the WS in my lifetime. GO CUBS!!!

"We Are Not Fair Weather But Foul Weather Fans, Brothers In Arms In Streets and The Stands." -Eddie Vedder, Someday We'll Go All The Way

by ryanbrixenivy on May 8, 2008 7:30 AM CDT 0 recs

Losing not the cause.

We aren’t fans because the Cubs lose, but I do think the losing adds a distinct poignancy to the experience.

You are on to something important, though, which is sort of the flipside of your proposition – We are not fans because the Cubs are winners. There is something else that draws us so strongly to the team. In this time of ownership transition we should all keep that in mind. The Cubs should never become a “win at all costs” team. If that’s what you want, go be a Yankee fan.

by MikeIowa on May 8, 2008 9:02 AM CDT 0 recs

oops

I didn’t mean for the whole rest of that post to be bold.

by MikeIowa on May 8, 2008 9:03 AM CDT up 0 recs

The YMCA

took me to Wrigley Field on a field trip when I was 8 years old, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I lived in Hyde Park during the Go-go Sox days of the 1950s, so most of the time I was swimming upstream. Most of my friends were Sox fans. But Wrigley’s formula of a beautiful ballpark and one transcendent star (Hank Sauer, Ernie Banks) kept hope alive.

by Clark Addison on May 8, 2008 10:06 AM CDT 0 recs

I hate losing.

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Two, I don’t love the Cubs; I love my wife, I love my family. I like the Cubs. I’m a fan of the team, but not because they lose. Who knows why I’m fan. I find sports fandom one of the hardest phenomena to explain. It’s like trying to explain one’s religious beliefs.

"I've always felt that starting pitching is the most important part of the rotation." - Joe Morgan, Sunday Night Baseball 8-12-07

by gary varsho on May 8, 2008 10:17 AM CDT 0 recs

Hmm, I wonder how gary feels about losing.

Alan Trammell: Assistant (to the) Manager

by northsider on May 9, 2008 9:49 AM CDT up 0 recs

It wasn't the losing that got me...

it was WGN, my unlce & Harry that made me the fan i am today. My uncle would babysit me as a child, sit me in front of the tube with him and watch Cubbie day games. I’m a fan of many professional teams BUT nothing compares to the way I feel about this team.

by SoTxCub on May 8, 2008 10:49 AM CDT 0 recs

there's some really good stuff in the post

while i don’t think any of us have fallen in love with losing, i think the losing does shape much of the fan base.

As Al noted in the “Cubs Forever” special many of the people interviewed not only talked about “what it would be like if…” but they also talked about the life lessons being a Cubs fan teaches you. Losing is a big part of the life lessons we’ve been taught and really helped shape us as fans and as people.

With that said, I don’t think any of us love losing and I think most of us would admit there would be little change to our love for the Cubs if we were to win a title. What it would change are a few things: 1) the casual fan 2) the national perception. These two things interact with each other and I’d argue even recently the taste of winning and coming close (‘03,’04,’07) has impacted many of these “casual” fans. I’ve noticed as we’ve gotten closer to winning people have become more volatile in their feelings towards the Cubs, especially since ‘03.

In my opinion its brought the “ugly side” of the big market fan base to the forefront. Instead of the “die-hards” or whatever you’d like to call them representing your franchise’s fans, you get the fans who now “expect to win” as if they just hopped on and are so disappointed with the way ‘03 ended, that they’re now starved for it. This isn’t solely the bandwagon jumpers, as die-hards have lost their patience as well, but i think in general these are now the more boisterous fans we see. This is what’s happened with the Red Sox. I went to college in New England when the Red Sox hadn’t won a title and when the Pats had just won their first. At that point in time I didn’t mind rooting for friends from school who had suffered much like I had. But then things changed, as the winning came about, more and more obnoxious fans took the face of the franchise’s fanbase. The look of the fan-base became abrasive and brash. They looked to trash-talk and rub it in.

Now, my friends from school (in my opinion, the die-hards) they never changed. They were appreciative of the title and it made them think of family immediately after the title, as opposed to finding the first Yankees fan to rub it in their face. The “die-hards” cherished the moments and cherished rooting for a good baseball team, but they were no longer the face.

The face had become some obnoxious guy on the street trash talking Yankees fans with his brand new “Yankees Suck, Jeter Swallows” T-Shirt on.

I firmly believe this same type of thing will happen to the Cubs fanbase if we’re fortunate enough to win it. While many of us will be thinking about all the time we spent with our parents at Wrigley or how we were lucky enough to see it happen, we would now be in the minority, and the face of the fanbase would change.

I think the losing has built character for each individual Cub fan and helped build our love of this baseball team, while also teaching us how to appreciate the journey.

by DartmouthCubsFan on May 8, 2008 11:02 AM CDT 0 recs