What does it mean to be a Cubs Fan?

by AZCubbieFan on Aug 28, 2008 12:51 AM CDT

Hello all! I am doing research about the Chicago Cubs and I wanted to get your input about what it means to be a Cubs Fan. You can share anything you like from experiences to emotions, etc. Growing up in Chicago I know what being a Cubs fan means to me, the highs , the lows, the excitement and no matter how far you are down, we always know we can pull out of it somehow. But I would love your input as well. Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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Not sure what it "means" to be a Cub fan

But I can tell you my favorite story from being one. Shortly after we married, I took my wife (a lifelong Pirate fan) to Wrigley Field for a late-July game against the Phillies in 1995. Two middling teams that year. It was a picture-perfect day at the yard. The Cubs led most of the game, but in typical fashion, coughed up three in the top of the ninth, and trailed by two heading into the bottom half. We were bummed, but figured that (a) it’s par for the course, and (b) it was still a gorgeous day. The first two in the bottom of the ninth went down without incident. The third batter hit a grounder to third which Charlie Hayes booted. The next batter (McRae?) gets hit with the first pitch. At this point, the crowd is getting a little excited, but I’ve seen this way too many times to get myself worked up yet. Shawon Dunston deposits the next pitch into the basket in left. The place goes nuts. We’re hugging people we don’t know. We stayed there and screamed for about ten minutes. After we exited the stadium, we turned down Sheffield, which is just a throng of people. There’s a little brass band on the corner playing some Dixieland tune, and everyone is dancing, drinking, and having the time of their lives. After a relatively meaningless game in July.

For what it’s worth, my wife has turned in her black and gold (at least during baseball season). She’s as much of a diehard as me. God bless Shawon Dunston.

by hoosierdaddynow on Aug 28, 2008 7:38 AM CDT reply actions

Me

There’s a pic of me at 6 weeks old in the family 3rd generation gorgeous irish lace and silk christening gown with a Cubs hat on.

Go Cubs

by puckishcubsfan on Aug 28, 2008 9:03 AM CDT up reply actions

Being a Cubs fan....

… is a part of me since I was a wee one….

-Charlemagne
"Cubs Win!" "Yes, Sir!" - Pat and Ron, June 12, 2008, Walk off HBP, bottom of the 11th

by Charlemagne on Aug 28, 2008 8:51 AM CDT reply actions

It means...

…that if the Cubs win the World Series, I won’t know what the hell to do with myself. Will my life have more meaning and worth? Nah… It’ll probably just be more fun.

Proud recipient of a hot dog shot from the Iowa Cubs hot dog gun.

by IowaCubs- on Aug 28, 2008 8:55 AM CDT reply actions

I had a tshirt made

I have a tshirt that says “Please God let me prove that the Cubs winning the world series or me winning the lottery won’t spoil me!”

Go Cubs

by puckishcubsfan on Aug 28, 2008 9:05 AM CDT reply actions

Being a Cubs Fan...

It’s the same thing as being a fan of any team – you support them and cheer for them win or lose. We just happen to always lose.

by 10 14 23 26 on Aug 28, 2008 10:13 AM CDT reply actions

Lots of material here...

You might want to start with this thread called “Why Are We Here?”, featured on the main page under BCB Specials. It should give you plenty of anecdotes.

by daubs on Aug 28, 2008 10:27 AM CDT reply actions

agreed

There are lots of great stories there. I check it all the time to see if there are any new posts. Good reading!

"That guy is a gamer." said Ron Santo of Reed Johnson on 07-25-08

by love the ivy on Aug 28, 2008 10:44 AM CDT up reply actions

I just reopened comments on that post...

… if anyone wants to add a new story.

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

by Al Yellon on Aug 28, 2008 2:47 PM CDT up reply actions

Heart break but undying enthusiasm

except for this year when that first part will finally be eliminated.

Sweet Lou for Mayor in '11.

by blackhawk24 on Aug 28, 2008 10:55 AM CDT reply actions

In my mind—it means respect for the game—demonstrated by the great Cubs players who gave the team their all, even without championship adulation. These players gave their best because it was RIGHT, not because of a ring or a big salary. It means a love of tradition—playing in a true PARK with character and history, throwing the ball back after the other team hits a home run, and all of those other traditions that we all love. It means being the eternal optimist, even in the face of pessimistic reality. Loyalty—we all keep coming back year after year.

and oh yeah—a thick skin.

by queenmamarah1 on Aug 28, 2008 12:33 PM CDT reply actions

+25

Love it love it love it .. loyalty to Cubbie blue .. in a world of scam, deceit and superficiality, the Cub Nation IS loyalty and tradition and joy and heartbreak all at once. It may color the day when we lose, and it hurts like the dickens when we don’t make it .. but I am sooo looking forward to the glorious possibility that THIS indeed, as DLee texted two years ago, THIS IS THE YEAR .. and the CUBS ARE REAL.

My own essay on this question can be found here, FWIW

Well, Next Year is here .. and Jack's century's gotta end some time .. GO CUBBIES!

by cubnational on Aug 28, 2008 2:33 PM CDT up reply actions

Sharing the history and emotions of others who you know feel exactly as you do

I often wonder about this. I was born in 1945—a fateful year both globally and for the Cubs—so maybe that has something to do with it in my case. Some of my most vivid and lingering early memories are wrapped up in the Cubs—Hank Sauer pocketing packets of chewing tobacco thrown to him by appreciative bleacher fans after he’d hit a HR; Ernie rounding the bases in his particular running style; a Jack Brickouse call.

When I was growing up the White Sox were the much better and more popular team. At times, I even asked myself why it was seemingly more important whether a seventh-place Cubs team won or lost a particular game than, say, how I did on a test at school. It defied all rationality. But I knew there were others out who lived and died with the Cubs no matter how miserable the team or meaningless the game. Although I haven’t lived in Chicago since the 1960s, BCB has reinforced my sense that Cubs fans immediately connect with other Cubs fans on a level that’s not only distinctive but higher than typically is the case. Fans of the Dodgers in their Brooklyn Days and of the Red Sox (at least through 2004) are the only ones who come close.

"Earthly fame is naught but a breath of wind, which now comes hence and now comes thence, changing its name because it changes quarter." -- Dante, Purgatorio, Canto XI

by sweetswinger on Aug 28, 2008 1:24 PM CDT reply actions