My distaste for the Chicago Cubs originated sometime around the release of *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” As the 20th century turned, my dad chose not to prepare me for the end of the world and instead began grooming me into the dedicated St. Louis Cardinals fan I am today. I quickly learned three important lessons: McGwire was good and Sosa was evil, regardless of their off-the-field friendship; a TV tuned in to WGN was unacceptable, unless of course the Cubs were playing the Cardinals; and being seen in Cubs gear was only permissible at the Junior Deputy Baseball Complex, where I played on the “Little Rock Cubs” for three years.
When they beat out the Cardinals to win the National League’s central division in 2003, my hatred for the Cubs had fully culminated. For a franchise that hadn’t won a World Series since 1908, Cubs fans were annoyingly upbeat that October as they asserted their signature claim, “This is our year.”
And then it happened. Cubs fan Steve Bartman reached out and caught a playable foul ball that would’ve clinched the National League Pennant for Chicago. Instead, the Cubs lost the game and the series to the eventual World Series champions, the Florida Marlins. As he snatched that foul ball from its plummet toward the glove of left fielder Moises Alou, he also snatched the World Series hopes of the Cubs faithful. It confirmed the hunch that the Cubs were cursed. It left Bartman receiving death threats. It was a story you couldn’t possibly make up. And I loved it. I may have even hummed to myself those *NSYNC lyrics I had been exposed to three years earlier as I watched the Cubs exit the playoffs.
In the following years, my Cardinals fandom had me feeling invincible. I celebrated World Series wins in 2006 and 2011, watched Albert Pujols crush home run after home run and never questioned manager Tony La Russa’s batting-the-pitcher-in-the-8-hole quirk. Meanwhile, Chicago continued to struggle as the acronym “Completely Useless By September” was popularized to describe their postseason woes. I began to rely heavily on baseball as my sport of good fortune (let’s not forget that I am, indeed, a Hogs fan).
This brings me to 2016. In a twisted turn of events this season, my Cardinals, who hadn’t missed the playoffs in six years, were beaten out in the NL Central by the upstart, 103-win Cubs. This coming after the Cardinals were beaten out by the Cubs in the playoffs a year ago. The playoffs are in full swing now and Chicago looks like the overwhelming favorite to finally win another World Series. I’ve been humbled by my three Cubs-supporting roommates and their unrelenting seizure of the opportunity to talk smack. It seems I’m the one now saying, “Bye Bye Bye,” to my reign of good baseball fortune. And unfortunately, it seems it may finally be the Cubs’ year.
