I am a Cubs fan because my dad is a Cubs fan. In the summertime, my dad’s favorite thing to do is turn on the baseball game and fall asleep on the couch. When I was little, we only had one regular TV (blasphemy right?), so unless you want to watch the fuzzy, 6”, black and white portable one in the kitchen, you got to watch the ball game. The first good season I remember was 1988, I think, with Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandburg, and Mark Grace. When I was in college, my bulletin board studiously tracked the Sosa/Maguire home run race/debacle.
I don’t wanna talk about 2003.
Scott Simon is a big Cubs fan too. Unlike me, he actually lived in Chicago and had really close friends who worked for the ball club. He has even thrown out the first pitch twice in beautiful Wrigley field. Simon is the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, and he read the audio book that I listened to. There is just something extra about an audio book when it’s read by the author. 
Simon’s also older than me, so his memories go back a lot farther than mine. He remembered the epic 1969 season, complete with black cat. I knew about the Curse of the Billy Goat, but I didn’t know about the sinister game-killing kitty. The Cubs were an unlucky enough team. We didn’t need, not one, but two curses. No wonder it took 108 years to win. That’s a lot of bad juju to throw off.
I’m so used to my Cubbies snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, that I almost don’t know how to handle a winning Cubs team. It was nice that they won on my third wedding anniversary. I couldn’t have asked for a better present. (Although, my husband had to convince me to watch because I was sure that my viewership was jinxing them. It seemed like things started to go bad every time I turned on the TV.) I’d love for the Cubs to win it again, but I’m also ok if we don’t. After all, we know how bad it feels when your team goes out early, so we’re glad to let someone else have the spotlight.
We can wait.
Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do ya say? The Cubs are gonna win today!
:) Amanda