By Liz Ciancone
It’s just one more indication that hope truly does spring eternal in the human breast!
Just the other day my Best Friend announced that the pitchers and catchers would be reporting for spring training. This means, of course, that baseball season won’t be far behind and we can begin hoping that this will be the year for the Chicago Cubs.
It was only a couple of years ago that we figured that 100 years was long enough to wait for a World Series win. We Cubs fans do not have to be reminded that it was 1908 when the Cubbies were last World Series champions and optimists among us began the season by assuring one another that “This is the year!”
It wasn’t.
It’s hard to sympathize with fans of other teams who think that 10 years, or even 15 or 20 years is too long to wait for the next championship win and the ridiculously extravagant champagne shower in the club house. Cubs fans have waited for a century for a celebration. Of course they have won division championships and even a league championship or two, but the ultimate prize is still waiting in the wings.
It’s funny. Chicago is one of the few cities to boast TWO major league baseball teams, but as far as fan loyalty is concerned, it might just as well be only the Cubs. The White Sox have “been to the prom” and even won it all. Fans were appreciative, but Chicago did not explode in a paroxysm of celebration. Fires were set and cars overturned when the Bulls won the basketball prize several years running, but the White Sox simply did not inspire that celebration of wild abandon.
It gives me pause. If, by some miracle of misdirected kindness, fate provided the Cubs with a World Series win, Chicago would explode in some sort of manic celebration that would make me glad to be 200 miles distant.
As for 2010, the pitchers and catchers are in place, the spring training season will begin, trades will take place (probably the Cubs will trade off their more promising players in return for an over-the-hill pitcher with a rubber arm) and the season will dissolve in yet another disaster.
As for now, it’s spring and hope springs eternal!
Liz Ciancone is a retired Tribune-Star reporter. Send e-mail to opinion@tribstar.com.
