Then I Cried

I've written before about how hard it is to be a Chicago sports team fan. Our teams have a tradition of finding ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Oh, sure, we have the occasional run of quality teams that bring championships to the fan base. The Bulls had a nice run with MJ. The Hawks more recently won the Cup three times in five years.

But mostly it is a one and done, if there is even the one. The Bears won a few championships in the fifties and sixties but only one Super Bowl in 1985 that the team and the fans won't let anyone forget while they struggle to reach mediocrity. The White Sox were world champs in 2005 much to the chagrin of half the city but the delight of the other half.

I laugh when friends from around the country sing me their sad song about the frustration of their team not winning a championship in three, eight, or twelve years. "Let me tell you a story," I tell them, and go back to doing whatever I was doing.

Most people are casual fans of a team. They are excited when they win and ignore them when they aren't. A real fan is invested in the team. We experience jubilation when they win and heartache when they lose. And I mean deep in the depth of our soul feelings not whoo, whoo, I'm excited we won, or lost, feelings.

Chicago fan bases are just different than other cities. Let me amend that. I believe that midwest cities are different with Chicago being the most passionate. The intensity of love for teams is strongest in Chicago and as the fan bases radiate out from there it loses a bit each mile away from downtown so that by the time it reaches Miami or Houston or Seattle it is mostly casual unless the team wins something then the fake fandom kicks in.

Now, before these two places lose their minds I must also say that the Red Sox fans are almost as nuts as Chicago fans. Or they were until the Red Sox started getting good. Now they are bandwagon fans like the rest of America. At the other end of the scale are Yankee fans. They are so spoiled that they believe a world series ring is a birthright and by not winning one for a decade or so they are entitled to be petulant children and complain about the injustice of it all. That is one of the reason the whole country hates Yankee fans.

Yesterday I was watching a show that included video of the Cubs getting the final out of the 2016 World Series as Kris Bryant slipped but managed to get the ball over to Anthony Rizzo and the celebratory dog pile ensued. By the end of the clip I was sobbing with joy.

Ten years later, and seeing the beloved win this series, still brings me to tears like it happened twenty seconds ago. I was not embarrassed to be crying either, I feel like I deserved to feel good after what we went through to get to this moment.

Back in 2016 on the night the world was finally in the right order, I couldn't help but think about all the games I sat through at Wrigley Field in my life watching teams that shouldn't even be in the major leagues they were so bad, or they collapsed and disappointed me deeply. How many games did my dad and I attend together? How many games did I go with my mom and dad? How many did I go with friends, uncles, aunts, cousins? How many did I go to alone and leave with a heavy heart? Hundreds of games.

In that moment when I could not believe that they had actually won the series I first yelled a loud primal scream of "yes" and then sat back down and sobbed for half an hour at least. The release of finally seeing my favorite team do something they hadn't done in one hundred and eight years was overwhelming.

My first thought was that I wished my dad was still alive so that he could share in the joy with me. And then I thought of all my family that were there in my early years as a Cub fan that were gone too and wished they could feel the joy I was feeling. That is what a fan feels when something wonderful happens. It makes up for the thousands of times we were disappointed in the losing and terrible teams we suffered through.

I was surprised that seeing them win a game that I already knew the outcome of and was bringing me to tears again made me realize how much of an effect it had on me. It isn't easy being a Chicago sports fan but when something great happens, man there is no feeling like it on earth.