The other day my wife was looking at all my T-shirts and asked me a question that really got me thinking. My wife asked me why I am a Cubs fan, she understood my passion for the Bears, but doesnít quite understand my love for the Cubs.

At first I fired off saying theyíre the team I grew up watching on WGN during summer breaks and had the White Sox not been on cable, I might have been a White Sox fan. I added that over my span of watching the Cubs Iíve seen some magnificent moments in baseball like Kerry Woodís 20 strikeout game, Sammy Sosaís 1998 season. I got to see Andre Dawson patrol the right field long before Sosa, I watched Ryan Sandburg turn a double play with Mark Grace. I even got to hear Harry Carey sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game live.

Then I started thinking about the heartbreak. The 1989 Cubs falling apart against San Diego, the Steve Bartman incident in 2003. I can go on and on here, but for my own sanity I wonít.

As I pondered this question of my wifeís though I started to wonder why she was a Twins fan. When I asked her she said itís simply a way of life. To her the Twins and summer are like, ìpumpkins in the fall, you canít have one without the other.î

My wife told me that as a kid her grandma would be listening to all the Twins games on the radio and knew the names of ever player on the line up.

As she told me why she was a Twins fan her thoughts drifted to memories of going to the games with her family and other memories like the World Series victories. This got me thinking about being a fan in general.

I began to think about why I liked not only the Cubs but the Bears and Blackhawks.

I read a book last summer by Joe Queenan called True Believers and he asked the same question. Queenan examined the many different facets of being a fan, from the super fan to the recreational fan, but the one thing all the fans had in common is there was one team they liked over all others, but why?

I think there are two reasons people become fans of teams. The first reason is the team plays in the city they live in. Itís easy to be a Twins fan in Minnesota because most people in Minnesota are, but to be a Devil Rays fan in Minnesota wouldnít be as easy.

The other reason people become fans of the teams they do is because of their family influences. For instance, when I played youth hockey, one of my teammateís dad was originally from Detroit so he liked the Red Wings just like his dad did.

We all pick our teams for what seems to be pretty elementary reasons, but as we grow up and experience the growing pains we do with the teams we love, it becomes harder and harder to turn our backs on those teams and pledge allegiance to another team.

It would be pretty hard for me to turn my back on the Cubs after the excitement of the 1998 and 2003 seasons ó seasons that ended in heartbreak as usual.

I think I need to stop thinking about why Iím a fan of the teams Iím a fan of and try to figure out why Iím a fan of teams that just canít win championships. The Cubs and Blackhawks both hold their respective leaguesí longest drought between titles.

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