A Cubs Fan's Responsibility

For years I’ve heard and read all the various Cubs fans’ congratulatory self-descriptions as the “greatest in the world,” etc. When I was a lot younger, I thought that was a very cool thing. I felt as though I were a part of a special community, one that has tons of intestinal fortitude or character or whatever aggrandizing descriptor you may want to attach to us.

Underneath it all, I felt certain my loyalty and my capacity to withstand the inevitable suffering the Cubs inflict on us would be rewarded. I started out as a Cubs fan in 1967. I fell head over heels in love in 1969. Even though my fan’s heart and spirit were shattered by the ’69 collapse, I knew that the Cubs would get to the World Series -- and win it! -- at least by the time I was an adult. I turned 21 in 1976. You know what happened that year.

One day while sitting in the box seats behind the Cubs dugout in 1993 I bet a guy a hundred dollars that the Cubs would win the Series before the 100th anniversary of the 1908 team. I based my wager on sheer probabilities. It seemed almost impossible to my rational mind that a team could go a century -- that is, one-fiftieth of the entire span of recorded human history -- without even accidentally winning a championship. You know what happened in 2008.

I’ve set other arbitrary drop dead dates. One day I said the Cubs would have to win before the turn of the century/millennium. You know what happened in 2001. Another day I said they’d win by the time I was 50 years old. You know what happened in 2006. This spring I predicted the Cubs would defeat the Yankees in the 2009 World Series. I have no idea what’s going to happen this coming October but I won’t bet the mortgage on this year’s team.

Much of the commenting done here and elsewhere revolves around a Cubs fan’s duty to remain optimistic. Keep wishing. Keep hoping. Nay-sayers like BLou are pilloried. If we’re real fans, we must continue to watch the telecasts, listen to the radio broadcasts and go to the games.

Well, I ain’t so young and naive anymore. When the Cubs went through their second big slump of the year earlier this month, I quit them. I had a flutter of interest when they kicked the hell out of the Pirates but then when they went into San Diego and looked like dopes I washed my hands of them. I refuse to watch, listen to, or attend any games for the rest of the year.

Now, I’ll happily renege on that promise should the Cubs miraculously turn things around. Sure, there’ll be some here who’ll razz me as a fair-weather fan should that happen. My response will be “I’ve been hanging in with this team through thin and thin (that’s no typo -- natch) for more than forty years. If you consider that being a fair-weather fan, then good luck to you.”

I believe we have a responsibility as a community to convey to those who run the team that we won’t take the abuse anymore. We’d advise a woman who was being beaten by her husband every week to leave him. If we hear about a restaurant that makes its customers sick, we’ll tell our friends not to go there. In 1991, people told each other not to buy Yugos. Simple consumer activism.

Yes, there are no more loyal fans than Cubs fans. But what has it got us? You’d agree with me that Yankees fans are loyal and passionate, right? Well, guess what - as soon as the team started losing in 1965 Yankee Stadium became an empty warehouse. Then when they started losing again in 1989, you could fire a shotgun in the Stadium and hit no one. True, Yankees fans are loyal and passionate. Yet when the product on the field stinks they speak with their lack of attention and withholding of dollars.

I love to blame Jim Hendry for the Cubs’ current woes. I also loved to blame Andy MacPhail, Larry Himes, Jim Frey, Bob Kennedy, John Holland and all the other chuckleheads running the Cubs since 1967. On the other hand, I attended games and paid close attention to the fortunes of the team in each of the following seasons: 1974 through ’83, ’85 through ’88, ’90 through ’97, ’99 through 2002, and ’04 through ’06. That’s 29 years of falling short. Total record: 2105-2461 for a winning percentage of .461. In only 12 years of my Cub-fandom has the team been a bona fide contender or made the playoffs. And they’ve yet to make the World Series. So really, I have nobody to blame but myself.

It’s as though I’ve happily come back for more even though the Cubs repeatedly give me salmonella or put me in a car that is guaranteed to fall apart. Every season the Cubs beat me up. Then they make promises, whisper sweet nothings in my ear, vow to change, and buy me gaudy presents like George Bell, or Alfonso Soriano. The abuse starts all over again the next season.

I’m done with the bastards.

Thank you for indulging me in this catharsis.