Fandom

This past Saturday, I sat in the bleachers of Wrigley Field. It was my thirteenth or fourteenth time in my life going to the ballpark, but the first time I’d sat in the famed bleachers of some of baseball’s most notorious fans. A friend of my sister’s (whose apartment is located a block, a freaking block, away from the stadium) got eleven tickets in an incredible deal on Craigslist for $45 apiece.

This friend had money to burn, as he got at least a dozen beers for himself and friends inside the stadium, giving two to me and my sister as charity. (I had made a pledge before the game to fill up on Miller Lite so I wouldn’t be spending $7 dollars per Old Style.) By the time the sixth ending had finished, I was yelling at people and dancing in between half innings, accidentally kicking over a beer that the person sitting next to me placed on the ground as he went underneath the bleachers…to order another beer. He was a super nice guy, but you think pacing would play a role in beer that expensive, no? Sitting in the bleachers of Wrigley was kind of like paying $75 dollars to attend a keg party held by a university’s most notorious frat party. There’s a reason the four largest team sports in North America love their beer contracts: they make a mountain—a mountain—of money off of alcohol sales in their stadiums.

So I sat in the bleachers, enjoying the buzz, making jokes with my sister (an exceptional host for my weekend in Chicago) and her friends, and watching the most dominant Cubs team I have ever seen in my lifetime. The day of writing this story is August 4th, and with a little less than two months of the regular season left, they might be the most complete team in the National League. The first three pitchers of their five-man rotation are All-Star caliber (Rich Harden was traded to us midseason, but had he started the season a Cub he’d probably have played in the game along with Zambrano and Dempster); the bullpen, made of quality guys like Carlos Marmol and Chad Gaudin, hasn’t disappointed its teammates in the way it might have a few seasons ago; and our batting order, which has been above average for a good ten years compared with other major league teams, is a phenomenally strong chain of hitters.

Yeah, I’m not sure how to describe our batting lineup without hyperbole. There’s recognized guys like Soriano, Ramirez and Derek Lee, and then there’s players such as Reed Johnson, Mark Derosa and Ryan Theriot—players who may not become household names in Chicagoland but make it very hard for pitchers to get around a slugger like Ramirez or Geovany Soto.

We always talk about things like individual achievement and the de-emphasis on “teamwork” when we compare baseball to basketball and football, but in the 21st century, and after seeing high-salaried rosters like the Yankees and this most recent Detroit Tigers team dissolve by the midway point of the season, I can assure you that’s baloney. You have to like the guys on your team, or at least respect them enough to trust they can do their job on the field. You can feel the chemistry that keeps these Cubs together. A guy like Reed Johnson, whom I’d never heard of prior to April this year, comes from the Toronto Blue Jays to bat around .290 and relieve Kosuke Fukudome and Jim Edmonds in the outfield with his impressive agility. Seriously, where does that come from? Is that the benefit of batting behind Soto?

Or is it this so called “playoff atmosphere” that pervades Wrigley Field? That’s what Harden talked about as he made his way here from Oakland; that every home game, more or less, is like a holiday in the Northside. Whatever the cause, home games present an advantage for our Cubbies; as of August 5th, after the Cubs beat the Astros 11-7, they have a staggering home record of 42-16, or a winning percentage of .724. That’s a staggering number, and if they could play a little more securely on the road, the Cubs would already be playoff preparations by the middle of this month (which would be too early…so maybe the road record is a blessing in disguise).
I can tell you from my experience Saturday, Wrigleyville is a magical place. It’s also a very drunk place, but then so is Notre Dame Stadium, Ohio Stadium, Paul Brown Stadium and whatever other big-time sports venues I’ve been to. Yes, there is definitely a tourist feel these days to the ballpark that didn’t exist in the early 90’s, when my father first started taking me to games (I definitely wasn’t drinking $7 beers then). But it’s helped the team tremendously. There is a tremendous sense of fandom with this year’s Chicago Cubs.

And that makes me wonder what it will be like if—when?—our team finally wins it all. In the short term, there’s rioting, drinking, and lots and lots of lovemaking (9 months from October you’ll see all these female new-borns in Chicago getting names like Carlita, Aramek and my favorite, Alfonisco). Long-term, do we stop caring? Does Jim Hendry actually take a day off then? It makes me wonder and worry about myself as a fan, because as friends will assure, my Cubs fandom is a good part of who I am. Do I stop caring, after moaning and whining for at least ten years about how my team’s been no good?

Hopefully not. Hopefully the fun I had Saturday carries along with my passion as a sports fan for a long time.