An Angry Cubs Fan Says Goodbye...Again

I'm an idiot. If you are a regular reader of mine, you are probably thinking, "Yeah, we pretty much already knew that." But I'm talking about the fact that I have spent more than 45 years of my life living and dying with a baseball team that for a century has not been able to win a goddamn championship.

When I was a youngster too stupid to know any better, I fell in love with the Cubs, and the fact that they were a lousy team didn't matter to me. I just loved the Cubs and I loved baseball. My heroes were Ernie Banks and Ron Santo and Billy Williams, and even though the Cubs didn't win anything, I believed that one day they would win it all and when it happened, I would get to enjoy it.

So I kept hanging in there, year-after-year, through all the bad teams and bad games, believing that someday it was going to happen. Next year would finally be here and my faith and loyalty towards the Cubs would be rewarded. I was proud to declare that I was a Cubs fan. My team played under the sun in baseball's most beautiful ballpark--a cathedral filled with the greatest fans in the world. It was fun. It was special. I couldn't imagine my life without the Cubs.

But now I am in my mid-50s and I sincerely doubt that the Cubs will ever win a championship in my lifetime. And because of this, I have become a bitter, cranky, old man for whom the joy of following my favorite team playing my favorite game has disappeared and been replaced with pain, anger, and despair.