Posted: 10/8/03

Pinch me, Iím dreaming

So there I was, sitting in front of my TV Sunday night, experiencing something no living person in my family has yet to experience.

The only family member who was alive last time something like this happened died a few years ago at the age of 101, and this happened when he was only a teenager. For the first time in my life, my Dadís life, and all my familyís lives, the Chicago Cubs won a post season series.

The series win over the Atlanta Braves was the first post season win for the Cubs since their 1908 World Series win. After the game ended on Fox, I quickly switched the channel to WGN to see the news coverage in Chicago. Years from now, when people go back and look at the pictures of the scene outside of Wrigley Field Sunday night, most people will think it was a World Series victory celebration.

To most people, the adulation of us proud Cubs fans may seem a bit premature or over jubilant, but take this into consideration. The team the Cubs will be playing in the National League Championship Series (NLCS), the Florida Marlins, have only been around ten years and have won a World Series. The Boston Red Sox, who cry about the ìCurse of the Bambinoî have won a World Series more recently than the Cubs. So what if Babe Ruth was their pitcher, it is still more recent than the Cubs. There has been two World Wars since the last time the Cubs won it all.

So now I think you get my drift. Cubs fans are celebrating and enjoying every win because we may never see something like this again in our life time.

Now there is the question of what will happen if the Cubs win the whole thing? What happens to Cubs fans then? What makes them so great? We wonít be able to say we are some of the greatest fans because we stick with our team despite 98 years of losing, weíll be fans of the world champs. What if this year is the ìnext yearî we have been waiting for?

Looking at the NLCS, the Cubs play the Marlins, with home field advantage. The Cubs are the better team. They have arguably the best young pitching staff in baseball. Then you bring a Florida team into Chicago in October and common sense tells you the Cubs would have the advantage there. My pick would have to be Cubs in five games.

If the Cubs do win the NLCS, Cubs fans will make New Years Eve in Times Square look like a small town high school pep rally.

Then there is the big dance, the World Series. I am not going to say much about it because I do not want to jinx my beloved Cubbies, but if they won, there would be a high rate of death in the days to follow because all those older people that were holding out for a sign that there is a God would now have their sign.

No matter what happens, I know I have seen something already that not many Cubs fans before me has seen, not even the famed Harry Carey. The only thing that keeps me from getting too excited is that I know the Cubs still have to win two more post season series, and odds are if the Cubs do make it to the big dance, theyíll be playing those ëdamní Yankees that got lucky and beat the Twins.

So until the last pitch is pitched, I have my fingers crossed because as Yogi Berra once said, ìIt ainít over till itís over.î

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