The wall above our piano is not filled with the pictures of composers like Bach and Mozart, but instead a photo of Wrigley Field, a picture of Lily at her first Cubs games, and Ed as a boy about the same age as Lily now, having his baseball signed by number 14, Ernie Banks.
Ed always remembers the anniversary of our first date, not because it was a life-changed event or because of his great love for me, but because it was on March 26. And number 26 was the number of the great Cubs player Billy Williams.
One night, before we had kids, we went out to dinner with a couple of friends in the north suburbs. While we were waiting for a table, who should walk in but number 10, Ron Santo, with his wife and another couple.
Unlike Ed, I haven’t been a Cubs fan my whole life. My dad bought my sister and me a Louisville bat and taught us how to swing and hit a baseball. We lived in Central Illinois, which is Cardinals territory. When we moved to the Chicagoland area, the first major league baseball game I went to was a White Sox game, since they gave free tickets to school kids for good grades. But then when I was in high school, the Cubs started winning and had a good season. My favorite player was Ryne Sandberg, although I may have liked him more for his looks than for his baseball playing ability, since I was a high school girl. But it wasn’t until I married a diehard Cubs fan that I really became one myself.
Not only have we gone to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play, we’ve also had a lot of fun watching the Iowa Cubs play. We saw Javier Baez hit a grand slam before he moved up to the Chicago Cubs.
If you follow baseball at all, you know that the Cubs don’t have a reputation of being a winning team. This is finally the year! Tonight, we are going to be glued to the TV, watching Game 7 of the Cubs versus the Cleveland Indians in the World Series!
Go, Cubs, Go!
P.S. CUBS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
