Waiting For a Miracle by CoreyBlack
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Description
Let me start off by saying that I don't hate the Chicago Cubs. I'm simply BORED with them. When I contemplate what an obscenely overpriced tourist trap Wrigley Field has turned into, I reel with ennui. However, as a longtime North Side resident I will admit to still harboring a subtle, if somewhat moldy affection for the team. A lukewarm curiosity about whether or not this might FINALLY be the year they win the ever elusive pennant. A weary curiosity brought on by 27 seasons of cautiously raised hopes, stunning highs, and the inevitable late season self destruction. It would have been easy for me to have totally lost interest years ago, but, unfortunately, I first became seduced by the Cubs during the 1984 season. After decades of being one of the laughingstocks of the major leagues, the team caught fire in '84. With the mid-season addition of Rick "The Red Baron" Sutcliffe joining an already strong line up of Ryne Sandberg, Keith Moreland and "Bull" Durham, they became unstoppable. By October, they'd handily beaten the San Diego Padres in two of three games in the National League Championship Series. In the bottom of the ninth, in the final game, with entrance into the World Series within their grasp for the first time in nearly FORTY years, Durham let a Padres ground ball SLIP UNDER HIS GLOVE, and all was lost. Four months of nail-biting excitement dissolved into sheer dismay within seconds. Nearly thirty years later, some of us still feel this moment as acutely as a punch in the gut. How do you turn your back on that kind of drama and excitement? You don't. You become a fan. Maybe not a jersey wearing, beer swilling jerk, but a fan none the less.
I didn't realize then that I was setting myself up for years of disappointment and lowered expectations. A simple glance at their mediocre stats in the decades before 1984 should have told me something, but as with any new infatuation, I was blind. I allowed myself the indulgence of a ridiculously over-priced $7 blue and red CUBS baseball cap (rakishly turned around backwards), and a life-sized wall poster of Andre Dawson. I would tune in games on WGN Channel 9, and wait for them to become as exciting as they'd been that first season. Occasionally they would, but more than anything, there was a palpable feeling of expectation; that SOMETHING was bound to happen any minute now. And then there was the color commentary by the ever sober Steve Stone and the endearingly goofy Harry Carey. He of the rubber lips, giant goggle glasses and gravely marble-mouthed voice, mispronouncing player's names and warbling his way through "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. Harry was a show in himself. Even if the game was dull, Harry never was. All this sandwiched between jingle-laden cheap local commercials for Empire Carpets, Victory Auto Wreckers, Cellozzi-Eddelson Chevrolet, and Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating.
My love of the Cubs was fairly short lived. By the late Eighties it had cooled considerably. With the exceptions of 1989, 1998 and 2003, (sigh), the passion fizzled to that of a relationship long past it's sell by date. Hatred, however, never developed.
Times change. Wrigley Field, like so many other American tourist attractions has become a gaudy monstrosity with extortionate prices and all the charm of a Las Vegas funeral parlor. And as to their current crop of fans? Let's just say that copious amounts of alcohol don't improve their already dubious behavior. I haven't followed the Cubs much this season. If they make it to the World Series, I'll watch, but 27 years is a long time to wait for a miracle.
Photographed at Clark and Addison Streets in the Lakeview area of Chicago on April 25, 2011.
Comments (11)
durleybeachbum
Most interesting. Don't get me started on 'fans', that is those who watch shout and drink instead of doing a sport themselves..
Chipka
I don't have too much love for Harlan Ellison, but I love what he said when someone asked him why he doesn't like spectator sports. His response was something along the lines of not needing porn. If he wants to play a sport, he plays a sport because he has those abilities (had, at the time of the statement) and so he didn't need to watch someone else doing it. Because of that, I've always seen a wonderful connection between spectator sports and pornography. Spectator sports follow the same pattern...there's the introduction of the scenario, the build up, and eventually, the money shot. The only difference between spectator sports and pornography is that porn actors don't require steroids, and fans of porn are often too embarrassed to congregate in large numbers with beer, peanuts, and organ music. Okay, that's and extreme view, but just think for a moment: how much more interesting would baseball be if, instead of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, cheesy 1970s porn wah-wah music played instead. How much more honest would things be? Okay, enough of that. I love this shot. Wrigley field is definitely... ...um... something You caught this at just the right time; there's no one vomiting! Amazing shot! I love the garish colors, and yeah, this does have the subtlety and of anything in Las Vegas; I'm surprised they haven't installed plush, (shag) Chicago-Cubs-colored toilet seats with flashing lights in all of the stalls...Oh, wait, they might do that next year. Okay, onto the actual picture and not my lopsided commentary. Great shot. I love the amount of activity and the oh-so-familiar neighborhood captured in all of its...um...glory. Fantastic!
auntietk
Ahhhhhh, baseball. I must tell you, my dear friend, that I would rather watch paint dry. Of course the team here in Seattle, the Mariners, does not inspire baseball love. Do you know we're one of only two teams in major league baseball to have never GONE to the world series? On the flip side is the fact that the Mariners won 116 games in 2001 ... a record tied only with the 1906 ... you guessed it ... Chicago Cubs. Can you say "Lou Pinella?" For nearly ten years Seattle had hope. Can you imagine the Hallelulia Chorus sung to his name? "Louuuuu Pin-el-la. Louuuu Pin-el-la. LouPinella LouPinella LouPinnnn-ellllll-llla!" It's a stirring version, and one Handel could never have imagined. Alas, those days are over. The Mariners were the first team in 2008 to lose 100 games, and that was with more than a $100 million payroll. I had to look up the stats, not being a baseball person, but I wanted to give you the flavor of the history of baseball in Seattle, since it's so much like your story of the Cubs. sigh Better days ahead ...
Sea_Dog
LOL, ah, the long suffering Cubs fan. I worked with a displaced Cub fanatic a few years ago and he lamented just as you have, Corey. All that aside this is a great shot. Wrigley Field is one of the most iconic parks left in baseball and this capture is superb.
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
blinkings
I don't know anything about baseball but I like the shot, cos I'm waiting for Larry Appleton to run past!
jeanebean
Great shot, Corey. I'm glad we moved away from the neighborhood before they turned Wrigley Field into a a circus. This is one of those scenes you wish you had never seen. Rather live with my memories. Nice shot though.
whaleman
I like your shot Corey but to me it only exemplifies everything that is wrong with all major league sports. They have become just big self-promoting businesses that have kicked aside the fans that allowed them to become rich. You would have to mortgage your grandchildren to buy a season's pass now, and with all the drinking that goes on you don't want to take your grandchildren to one of these anyway. It's a world of self-indulgence for players and promoters who keep tearing down stadiums with character to replace them with plastic ones that have all the ambiance of a prison for sex offenders. If North America slips into a serious recession, all these people may find out very quickly just what they are really worth. I stopped going when the first beer bottle flew over my head while at a football game with my young son (yes, the stadium drinking began with bottles before plastic cups).
sandra46
WONDERFUL SHOT EVEN IF I'M NOT FOR SPORTS
flavia49
fantastic capture!
KatesFriend
It's a beautiful photograph and the atmosphere is apt for your tale. The world weeps a fine rain of tears for your team can never seem to make it to the alter. A tale of unrequited love - love of the team or love of the game. Welcome to the life of a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. And yes, the tickets are too damned expensive at the Air Canada Centre.