Cubs Caring

I'm writing this post before the final game of the World Series between the Cubs and the Indians. It's assuming that the Cubs finally win, and if I'm wrong this will never see the light of day. I hope I get to publish it given how morose my last blog was.

Most people who've met me know that I'm far from athletic, and for the majority of my life I really haven't cared about sports. I just never saw the fun in watching a bunch of big guys run around and interacting with a ball in various manners. That started to change last year.
A large portion of my family are long time fans of the Chicago Cubs, which is somewhat unfortunate given that they haven't won a World Series since we immigrated to America, and the last time they were even in a World Series was so long ago that only my great-grandparents can remember it, and not even all of them. Nevertheless, my athletic apathy determined that my teams were largely determined by heredity. As I'm writing this I'm realizing that assuming this gets published both my football and baseball teams will have made it to the top this year.
Anyway, I'm nothing if not loyal so I've always stuck by the Cubs, Broncos, Ducks, and various other animals. That hasn't always been easy. So it's been somewhat fortunate for me that baseball isn't as popular now as it was in yesteryear because the Cubs were the butt of a lot of jokes for a long time. Back to the Future II made a joke about it almost 30 years ago, when the goat had only been haunting Chicago for 81 years (still longer than any other team has ever gone without taking the championship).
So I always followed the Cubs in pretty much the same way the I follow all my teams, passively. If I see a game on somewhere I will watch, but I never made an effort to be a real fan. That changed last year with the Cubs. I heard there was a good chance of the goat dying, so I actually started to follow, I think everyone agrees that it's pretty cool to see the hundred year streak broken, even people who don't really care for them.
I still wouldn't consider myself a super fan, but since then I've really gotten to understand why people like sports at all. When I shaved my head at the beginning of the summer, I needed to get a hat, and because I had actually been following the team, I decided on a Hawaiian print hat with the rounded C to go with the wallet I got for my birthday.
It was a lot of fun to just have some random person see me with my paraphernalia in public and start a conversation with a total stranger about something we shared a mutual love for. Even if they weren't Cubs fans, I could talk about there last game against whoever's team. I don't see myself becoming super involved or dedicated to any sport anytime soon, but it's been really cool to finally understand why people care so much and mostly to watch my laughingstock team take it to the top. Fly the W Chicago, you've waited long enough.