SB Nation User Blog: GeneticCubsFan

Spending wisely for short & long-term critical pitching and throwing needs

GeneticCubsFan — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:22:35 -0000

As I continue to read BCB, hearing about the potential pros and multitude of negative cons about keeping, trading, rehabbing, etc., involving Carlos Silva, I am reminded once again of the Cubs dire missing organizational/systemic need - scientifically-based pitching analysis and training.

How many posts, comments, and polls continue to deal with current and past needs involving pitching – short or long term relief, LOOGIES, "ROOGIES," 3rd, 4th, or 5th starters (middle and back end of the rotation), closers, and various pitchers' Injury Reserve list stints and rehab?

The “regular” use of this list pertains to some teams and players more than others, but appears especially true for the last six years and historically to the Chicago Cubs.

With new ownership, and hopefully a genuine performance-based accountability for personnel decisions, maybe the Ricketts family will be open to seriously explore a possible, low cost trial solution to the Cubs organizational pitching problems by using a small portion of the Silva deal money to hire Dr. Mike Marshall.

Many of you who have equally strong negative views (compared to my positive views) of Doc’s “worthiness” and risks will continue to re-hash all of the tired stories about his lack of credibility due to the absence of bonafide MLB pitchers currently or previously pitching as the “proof in his pitching methodology pudding.”

However, despite Doc’s accusers pointing to his “purported” acerbic personality, and having burned all of his bridges to MLB organizations, it only costs a very small amount of time and money to explore the possibility of “piloting” a rehab project with Doc directing it – without interference. The scientific data and performance will be the real “proof in the pudding!”

Doc is still capable, if willing, to prove his superior scientifically-developed pitching methods can work with MLB pitchers, even in a rehab assignment. Maybe now is the time for a dynamic new family-based ownership team to be truly progressive, innovative, and take the lead in this most critical part of a establishing a real system for consistently effective baseball pitching operations.

In a year of transition (in many ways), now would be an ideal time to explore Doc Marshall’s approach as a low cost, low risk, yet high positive upside possibilities. And all it would take is a bit of homework, a phone call, and an initial meeting, if Doc would still be interested.

Dr. Mike Marshall, PhD:

first ever MLB relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award;

use his MLB earnings to fund his higher education career;

teammate of Tommy John (whose initial surgeon “botched” the UCL surgery;

and was “saved”, because Doc advised Tommy exactly how to correct Dr. Jobe’s mistakes;

and dedicate his post-MLB career to perfecting his scientific, data-based “pain-free” approach to pitching

– all on a shoe-string budget, in tremendously underfunded facilities monetarily,

but powerfully "funded" and supported scientific principles and data to withstand the many unknowledgeable, ignorant, and prejudiced detractors;

many who are threatened by his scientific approach, and fear losing their “authoritative” non-scientific influence in baseball (jobs, careers, power, prestige, long-term contracts, etc.).

As I have written before, Galileo was persecuted by Church authorities and “put in his place” for trying to promote his scientific, data-based discoveries, that threatened the Church establishment. Powerful anti-scientific people who were "in-charge" labeled and accused Galileo of “Heretical” “earth-shattering” views and beliefs against the accepted longstanding dogma of a non-heliocentric universe (or at least solar/terrestrial system)!

http://drmikemarshall.com

An excellent Jeff Passan article (link below) was published during the weekend that I was attending Doc's 2nd Annual Pitching Research and Analysis Clinic. Ironically and to me tragically, the Chicago connection never occurred between Jim Hendry and the young Chicago area Doc Marshall protege!

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-marshall051007

As often happens in the world of sports and medicine, the real facts and "credit" are never presented or discovered. Read this 2003 Mike Dodd article from USA Today that features a photo and part of the story of Kerry Wood's success.

Doc Marshall believed that he could have "effectively rehabbed" both Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior, without surgery!
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2003-07-28-cover-tommy-john_x.htm

"Someday"

Complexity & the "Luck" of Winning It All

GeneticCubsFan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:40:44 -0000

I pledge not to enter into the "p**sing contests" about Jim Hendry, or any other commentators at BCB. I have grown tired and weary of the negativity, of which I have also been guilty.

The fact is that the 2008 Cubs won 97 games; the 2009 team won 83 games, and Jim Hendry was the General Manager for both years. The difference in wins between the two seasons was fourteen under the same GM and Manager.

The 2009 Cubs team was riddled with injuries, and never could find players to step in or step up to compete successfully or consistently for the Division title or Wild Card berth.

The "Blame Game" is not worth playing, especially when an accurate analysis of the complexities that injuries play cannot be made.

Lou P. wisely dispelled the myth of "curses" as blame for the Cubs long World Series drought. In typical Lou fashion, however, he did refer to "Cubbie Occurrences" as he got to know the team, and Cubs culture better.

The Yankees fail to make the playoffs just once and their management, players, and fans react as if the Cubs HAD won the World Series - Armageddon arrived and Hell Truly Froze Over!

The Yankees' brain-trust quickly regroups and recoups their World Series deluge!

Why?

Better players? Great judgment on "castoffs" from other teams? A new management group? A new stadium? Higher ticket prices yielding additional revenue? Weaker competition in the AL? Career years for several of their veteran players? A new rookie manager who selected to wear #27 for his uniform?

The questions are infinite, and the answers are always debatable, with the exception of the fact that the Yankees beat every other team throughout the playoffs and World Series. Yes, that is a trite and obvious "non-answer"; but it is the only common shared feature of ALL World Series Championship teams. The feature begs to be described further as "domination"; however, the 2006 Cardinals quickly come to mind, and the "D" word just as quickly disappears.

I do not view the 2009 Yankees as "lucky". They also had their share of injuries to work through. So where does "luck" enter into the "formula for winning it all"?

I like Branch Rickey's definition of "Luck" : "Luck is the residue of design".

When applied to the Cubs, where are the commonly defined "luck factors" that are "due to happenstance", "being in the right place, at the right time", or even "fortuitous Cubbie Occurrences"? None of these have materialized to a significant degree in my lifetime for the Cubs. Mr. Rickey's wisdom has been residing elsewhere.

Branch Rickey's "residue of design" has avoided the Cubs, as if it was kryptonite and the Cubs wear a large bold red emblazoned "S" logo under their patriotic unis!

What I read in some BCB fanposts lately is a boiling over of frustration, anger, and wishful insider knowledge with an outsider's armchair position. Some "fans" are sounding like they are abandoning faith and hope as if the Cubs and their new ownership team will NEVER unlock that elusive key to a WS trophy.

I do not enjoy the flood of recent "fan"posts and comments that serve no useful purpose other than venting frustrations, playing the "Blame Game", "who is king or queen of one-upsmanship", or who can "squirt the farthest"!

My posts and comments on BCB are infrequent - much more so lately as I have been hampered with health issues. I usually look forward to perusing BCB as a source of entertainment and stress reduction from the uncontrollable stressors in my life.

With over fifty years of faithfully following and supporting the Cubs, I can NEVER foresee the day that my devotion will change! I certainly have had more than my share of criticizing the Cubs, heart-breaking disappointment, excruciating painful frustration, and, BTW, many moments and even seasons of great joy and satisfaction!

Oh, and yes, no ultimate glory of winning it all - as yet!

People are designed to make mistakes and errors. This is how we learn- hopefully benefiting by improving in the future. With the Ricketts family as new owners, I am overjoyed that past mistakes and errors WILL be overcome!

As a wise prophet from the '60s so elegantly and simply stated, "Give Peace a Chance!"

I pity the people who represent themselves as BCB Cub Fans by behaving as if they are more like a "Pack of Hyenas", tearing and ripping each other apart during this recent carnage of off-season verbal attacks.

The Ricketts family's "unlocking the miracle"

involving the "complexity and luck" of winning it all has barely begun!

Pundits are like tea leaf readers - you only pay attention to them when they get "lucky" guessing the reality of the future. Otherwise, Vegas betting parlors would be rushing to corner the market on tea plantation prognosticators.

For those who will dismiss and deride as simplistic, the ramblings of an Old School Cub Fan, I invite you to first read "The Goose Story" (http://hotelnewsresource.com/studies/study0195.htm ) by Dr. Harry Clarke Noyes:

a fitting metaphor for the greater good that people (even people who make mistakes) can achieve against seemingly impossible odds, when they pull together, instead of tearing each other apart!

The Cubs did NOT shine in 2009.

BUT (ala Mr. Cub) : 2010 WILL bring glory again!

"Someday..."

This post is dedicated to Isabelle, my beloved oldest granddaughter, who celebrates her third birthday today!

Happiest of Birthdays to you Isabelle, and many more to come!

May you always view life as "Hope Springs Eternal!"

All my love, your Papou!

Lambs of the Summer Shepherd: My Poetic Memories of the 1969 Cubs, & Summer of Love

GeneticCubsFan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:33:07 -0000

NOTE: I prepared this to be posted on September 24, 2009; however, as Jack Brickhouse so often would lament after another Cubs loss,"...a day late and a dollar short."

**************************************************************************************************************************

As the 2009 Chicago Cubs season fades from the perennially optimistic hopes and dreams that followed Spring Training, I thought this would be an appropriate time to post a tribute to the 1969 Cubs.

Almost forty years to the date, I wandered despondently through a refuge of wooded Oak trees in a park off of Sycamore Road - a short escape from the NIU campus in DeKalb, IL.

Reflecting and trying to regroup from the most glorious and yet bitterly disappointing Cubs season in my life (at that time - and still remains so), I found a park bench, and began to put my thoughts and feelings into words -desperately trying to lay to rest the whirlwind season of Peace, Love, Woodstock, and the almost Miracle on Addison Street.

The poem that follows was written on that bright sunny September afternoon in those Sycamore woods surrounded by magnificent sturdy Oak trees, ablaze in colorful glory of another fall season; but ironically a season of fall for my beloved Cubbies.

Lambs of the Summer Shepherd

Green sun-soaked leaves of Summer lay heavy,

Drooping now on the tawny deer-like branches

Of October's oak trees.

Patches of crisp, red and gold leaves

Add plumage to masses of green foliage,

As Autumn's cold and heavy winds

Blanket the fruits of fertile Summer and Spring seasons.

Passing by is their golden loveliness.

In transition is Autumn's revelation.

Winds of Boreas are the harbingers of Winter,

As they twist and toss tiny acorns from the grasps of brawny thrashing oaks.

Boreas bellows he is master of bare plains and chilly skies,

Of icy times,

When warm rays no longer nurse

The lambs of the Summer Shepherd.

Dedicated to the 1969 Chicago Cubs and fans:

Before, During, After, Forever, &

Someday...

Miracles DO Happen! A "Goose Summer" for the 2009 Cubs!

GeneticCubsFan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:00:38 -0000

Someday...

Someday... and perhaps many more "Somedays" to come... until?

What scenario of a season do Cub Fans really believe will lead to our final "Someday"?

I have faithfully, loyally, devotedly followed and supported the Cubs for over 50 years.

1969 was worse than crushing--a major depressive funk until receiving my reply letter from Ernie Banks (on a wintry, but sunshiny bright first day back to begin my third trimester while at Western Illinois University)!

I have always believed that the kind of Cubs team needed to win it all, especially at Wrigley and on the road en route to a WS Championship, would require SPEED, GREAT DEFENSE, above average pitching, consistent and TIMELY hitting, and a manager who maintains an "even keel" with great players' support.

The 2008 season had many, if not all of these "ingredients"! Until the full-blown (pardon the pun) reversal in the pregame and Game One at Wrigley, when Crane Kenney, Lou, and the players all contributed to tanking.

I refuse, as always, to ever give up if there is even a remote possibility of the Cubs finally achieving their "MIracle" finish!

I hate looking back, lamenting, and second-guessing - at least until the season is finally over, or the Cubs are eliminated from contention.

Baseball, and especially Chicago Cubs baseball is a most erratic and unpredictable proposition.

I also like to believe in the proposition that somehow the Cubs and Cub fans are "owed". Not in the sense that we can collect anytime we want.

Rather, the clock has been ticking for all of us, with an isolated lonely reminder plaque of Cubs WS glory buried inauspiciously next to the Pharmacology Building on the UIC's Westside campus.

Time is a dimensionless entity just like space - very hard to define and grasp.

I believe this is where "Miracles" can happen - in the dimensionless, undefined parameters of time and space.

It happened for the '69 Mets - it almost happened for the '69, '84, and 2003 Cubs!

Perhaps our Cubs Miracle will finally appear when we least expect it. The current scenario certainly meets this possibility.

The 2008 Cubs with 97 Regular Season wins did not fulfill any destiny or cruise to any glory in the postseason.

Out of nowhere, with little or no expectations - maybe, just maybe, this is the kind of environment in which the 2009 or a future Cubs team will shock the world!

Giving up, lamenting, and losing faith and hope are just not acceptable for me. I could never have survived as a Cubs Fan for over 50 years with those negative attributes.

I will ALWAYS celebrate the wins and look forward with hope and optimism that Someday... will arrive; and how sweet and gloriously ecstatic that day will be!!!

This Cubs team like many of the past is like gossamer - from Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition: "a filmy cobweb floating in the air or spread on bushes or grass."

The origins of the word "gossamer" come from Middle and Old English (continued from Webster's). : literally "goose summer": with allusion to the warm period in fall (St. Martin's summer) when geese are in season and gossamer is chiefly noticed.

Here's to gossamer for the 2009 Cubs and their fans - where our Someday... may just be heating up, however thin, and flimsy, but gossamer summer may becoming noticeable!

--- Dedicated to the memory, true grittiness, and never-say-die spirit of Goose Gossage!

Someday...

Perennial Opening Day Poem

GeneticCubsFan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:17:17 -0000

It's been a while since I last posted on BCB - a tough 2008 with health/medical issues that kept me occupied; but never far away from my beloved Cubbies!

I am getting ready to head out to wet, soggy, glorious Wrigley Field - hopefully Left Field Bleachers, unless I opt for the protection in Center Field - "Put me in Coach!..."

I posted this poem in the past under my old screen name which changed when SBNation was introduced to BCB.

I still plan on merging this poem with some background music, which I did find - George Winston's instrumental on harmonica, 'Maris' Farewell'.

This poem was written on my first ever Opening Day game attendance at Wrigley - now twenty-nine years ago.

I hope to be inspired today to start penning a sequel or at least something memorable.

Go Cubs!

Someday...

Poem follows.....

The 17th of April 19 Eight O

An Autumn-Spring sky on Chicago’s North side,

Marked the most special occasion as Opening Day.

From season to season the structure had stood,

That was called Wrigley Field – Cubs Park, just as good.

The neighborhood, East Lakeview, where the crowds had arrived

By L, bus, and auto was coming alive.

Not Mardi Gras, or Christmas, or Fourth of July,

Could match the anticipation, the bravado, the high.

Loyal fans they were called- Diehards to some

Who weathered each Winter and still they would come,

With an indomitable spirit and hopes of the day,

When ‘Wait Till Next Year’ would just fade away…

In pregame festivities the fans milled about,

Buying hotdogs and beers to help with the shouts;

For their Cubbies were heroes from early childhood days,

No matter the fact that no pennant was won.

But now the game’s starting – the perennial chance –

To play Autumn-Spring baseball in October at last!

In this dreamlike sense of aura, thoughts drift to the past.

For here in the Friendly Confines, no time seems to elapse.

The young and the old, the new and the few,

All share in a time capsule which bridges the gaps

Of generations who will follow the footsteps, the tracks,

Which lead to Clark and Addison, Waveland, Sheffield, and back!

Building toward Someday…

GeneticCubsFan — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:30:01 -0000

There ARE environmental factors/stimuli that shape and affect people's behavior every day. This is what makes Madison Avenue so successful. It all started with a behavioral Psychologist, John Watson, who had to leave academia in disgrace due to a sordid affair that was not tolerated in that era.

Watson eventually migrated to Madison Avenue, and the birth of selling and advertising anything by using behavioral principles (in their infancy then) made a huge success for him - and the era of modern mass marketing was born.

The feature of frequency- highly repeated messages, blitzed to the public gets us to buy brand new Brand X over our old established Brand Y. The same holds true for baseball players constantly bombarded by media messages, and frequent visual reminders about purported curses, and a history of losing in the postseason - especially in Wrigley Field.

It kinda wears on Cubs players who need to focus and not get distracted when needing to be playing at their peak performance.

The new Cubs ownership (should they arrive any time soon - hopefully before the Spring Training season), needs to seriously analyze and develop a proactive positive playing performance environment plan ASAP. This long overdue plan should aim at prioritizing community and internal marketing for the "Friendly Confines", to help quash all the remnants and reminders of a "losing" environment and ball club.

Especially critical is to eliminate the negativism and opportunities for fans and probably some players (who may be prone to succumb or actually believe in this superstitious "curse" and "preordained losing history” in the postseason), by putting a final crush on all of the “curses nonsense”.

This constant never-ending and intensified barrage of (fill in your preferred unrealistic excuse here) nonsensical, but genuinely distracting, negative, and stress-inducing behavior that can and does "wear" psychologically on some, if not all the players CAN and SHOULD be buried forever and ASAP.

I would personally like to see the recent noisy and obnoxious PA system with its raucous and annoying "music" eliminated, in favor of more frequent, original, and unique organ music that DID serve championship seasons well in Wrigley (although sadly - no WS).

Keep the focus on the game and stirring up the crowd toward cheering sportively for winning baseball!

I love rock, pop, and most types of music, but I loathe that Wrigley should inch closer to any of the new ballparks that have abandoned baseball in favor of cheap, hollow, and mundane “entertainment”.

I love Wrigley Field, because it remains the purest place to watch BASEBALL!

The players' locker room/clubhouse conditions need to be another huge positive environmental makeover to help promote a modern and professionally uplifting place to prepare, relax, and retreat to for the Cubs during all periods of their games at Wrigley.

The Cubs' current clubhouse conditions reek of "below bush league" devalued environments that must constantly remind players, that no matter how much they get paid and praised, their private off-field Wrigley "home-away-from-home" is a dump that NO other Major League Team has to endure!

There is so much proud and gloriously positive tradition and history involving the Cubs.

This is the marketing strategy that needs to be blitzed at Wrigley, to the fans, through the media, and especially during promotional giveaways - more frequently ala John Watson's strategies, to displace the losing Brand X factors.

New Cubs owner/s:

Rebuild a truly "Friendly Championship Winning Confines" in and around and infused throughout everything Cubs!

We all agree - the losing debacles of "blown" postseason play MUST end! Positive planned and strategically implemented critical environmental interventions (changes) are an important piece of "turning this tired old sad song" around.

"The Lovable Losers!”

Whoever coined that oxymoron should be be first in line to receive an immediate "BleedCubbieBlue" Type "W" blood transfusion!

The fan amenities like the archaic and frequently inaccessible old restrooms need to be another high priority makeover by new ownership. This nature calls ordeal is just that for too many fans.

Bodily discomfort and disgust definitely contribute to the "emotional, psychological, and physical" state that the fans endure as Exhibit A of the devalued environment and experience in the "Friendly Confines"!

Please avoid misinterpreting my analysis and plans for Wrigley.

I will ALWAYS support the present location, and preservation of the many wonderful, historic, and unique charms, and mystique of Wrigley Field.

However, the same modern upgrade that was completed to the bleachers, and field, MUST begin ASAP to the second half of Wrigley to truly maintain Ernie's heartfelt and joyous dubbing of "The Friendly Confines"!

I also support acquiring a few more hard-nosed, "don't give a damn about anything but playing hard and winning" type ball players, like Reed Johnson!

"Someday..." is a much more realistic, positive, and optimistic slogan to promote, versus the trite and ho-hum fatalistic whimper of "Wait Till Next Year!"

We can all contribute to the start of a more positive and optimistic environment surrounding the Cubs just by abandoning and burying "WTNY" FOREVER!

Eddie Vedder got it right when he ignored "WTNY" in favor of venerating and catapulting "Someday" as the anchor of hope and infusion of faith into his winning love song about the Cubs and their beyond devoted fans!

“Someday...”

- I keep playing it repeatedly during my work commutes. My brain on positive Cubbies music feels better and closer to the “Hope Springs Eternal” sights and sounds of HoHoKam Park!

Glorious sunny bright Cubbie Blue Mesa skies where “Someday…” begins play toward building bridges with long, frequent stretches of bright blue "W's" starting and ending with a final WS "W" in WF!

Someday…

A Long, Bitter, Unhealing Winter Ahead

GeneticCubsFan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:31:59 -0000

As Cubs fans, it is a good thing not to have lived during the entire last century!

WARNING!

Review and relive the NYT's time line below at your own risk and torture!

SPORTS | October 1, 2008
Timeline: 100 Years and Counting
By JOE WARD and JAY SCHREIBER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series championship since 1908. Review the team’s postseason history including long-ago triumphs and bitter disappointments.

This NYT’s time line of Cubs futility replays the same trend: Cubs regular season outstanding play evaporates in the postseason.

Why? There is no answer! If not, wouldn't this agony be over by now!?

I learned long ago - winter's sole purpose is to provide time to heal, forget (if that is ever possible), & await another chance to try to live through a possible season for an opportunity to witness THE MIRACLE!

Forgive the sacrilegious sarcasm, but maybe the Cubs are the Armageddon Team. Jesus returns to manage or play for the Cubs, & when they finally do reach the Promised Land, it really will be all over!

For true believers & genuine Cubs Fans, maybe this is not such a bad way to go - the Cubs become the ultimate Champions with no team ever to win it all in such epoch proportions! OK - too far a reach - maybe the Cubs could help a bit by recruiting some more "Jesus" named players!

The 2008 Collapse - beyond ridiculous & embarrassing - it was faith shattering! Left me hollow & hope-depleted as I have ever been since first being Cubbie-infected a long, long time ago…

A permanent haunting reminder will plague my perennial “healing” time of winter - another spring season is approaching, & the eventual torture will begin yet again...

I am now ready to modify my "Someday..." slogan to reflect a more realistic time element:

"SomeMillennium..."

The HARD WAY!

GeneticCubsFan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:27:46 -0000

& probably the ONLY way that the Cubs will ever win it all! Ironically, Rich HARDen is pitching tonight.

Even after the phenomenal Cubs regular season of 2008, we, Cubs fans, and many media types had great expectations for this team to finally do the seemingly impossible.

Maybe that IS the point. To do the seemingly IMPOSSIBLE, the road can NEVER be EASY! The proof is in the trite and tireless (endless?) seasons of Cub teams’ futility and near misses.

Maybe, just maybe, this HARD WAY, MUST BE the Cubs ultimate road to baseball Nirvana!

And, if not this year, probably I will NEVER, EVER expect any other way for the Cubs to finally WIN IT ALL!

I coined the term and proudly refer to myself as a Genetic Cubs Fan.

I have no answer for myself, a Cubs fan from birth in 1951, to the question,

“How many times can a Cubs fan have their heart broken, tortured, and stomped on with NO realistic relief in sight?”

I will of course watch tonight, and pray, and hope for this Miracle of Miracles, but in the end, regardless the outcome, I now absolutely know in my heart of many, many seemingly infinite seasons of broken hearts,

that the Cubs WILL WIN IT ALL, Someday…

when the HARD WAY is the ONLY road to their ultimate World Series success!

GO CUBS GO! Someday… The HARD WAY!

Genetic Cubs Fans: The origin, naturally, from Mom!

GeneticCubsFan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:39:47 -0000

During the conversion of BleedCubbieBlue to the ranks of SBNation, I never recovered my original screen name, and have tried since with no luck. Nonetheless, I re-registered with SBNation as GeneticCubsFan.

I initially was going to post this to a recent thread about whether the Cubs and/or their fans needed to be called "nation", or some other far-reaching descriptor.

What follows in my post is a five year anniversary tribute to my Mom, Florence, who died at age 87 (almost 88) as a lifelong dedicated Cubs fan. She always referred to herself as a "Diehard", long before Sears branded their batteries with this name.

During the summer of 2003, my Mom was in her last months of life. She was living in a skilled nursing facility and receiving hospice services. Her medical diagnosis was Alzheimer's, but I believe she was just dying of old age, and accompanying senile dementia.

Her "state of mind" however, NEVER wandered for even a microsecond when it came to her beloved Chicago Cubs. She would still remark that "It was the stupid "upper echelon" that traded Mark Grace (one of her favorite players), and that he showed 'em, 'cause now he has a World Series ring with the Diamondbacks!"

I faithfully visited Mom daily on my way home from work, and continued to visit her regularly during the summer when I was "off work" from my public school job. Late in the Spring of 1999, I sat with Mom before her dinner was served, and in the midst of our usual conversation about the Cubs, I casually announced to her ‘that I finally figured it out - that I was no longer a Diehard Cub Fan!’

Mom just looked perplexed and with a puzzled look on her face, she gently asked me, "Does this mean that you're a White Sox fan now?"

Florence was not only a great woman, but also a true humanitarian and raised her kids (at least my brother and I) to be Chicago fans - no matter what sport was represented. Nevertheless, she and my Aunt only took us to Cubs games, especially on Ladies Days, and our allegiance and history was forged forever with the Cubs and Wrigley Field.

My Dad favored the White Sox more, but worked during the day and never brought us to attend a game in Comiskey Park. Dad was more of an all around fan of baseball, as he had played baseball at Lane Tech High School, in Chicago, and later sandlot (semi-pro) baseball around Chicago.

Therefore, I tried my best to withstand the insults, taunting, and derogatory comments from peers and adults who never missed an opportunity to gloat about the perennially better record and performance of their Southside team, at the expense of ruthless remarks and jokes about my beloved Cubs.

Nonetheless, over the years I grew to appreciate the rich and glorious, if not sparse, winning history and tradition of Chicago's two major league baseball teams.

My unequivocal answer whenever asked was "ALWAYS and FOREVER I am a Cubs Fan!" But I never developed a deep-seated hatred for the White Sox, just pity toward many of the people who shallowly proclaimed themselves as "Sox Fans" (an oxymoron was the fitting descriptor that I learned later in High School to characterize these juvenile and uniformed tormentors!).

I can still vividly picture the perplexed look on my Mom's face as she waited for my answer and explanation. I realized that I had unintentionally foisted a cruel and unfair conversational announcement to her.

Daring to deny my lifelong allegiance to the Cubs must have registered as startling and possibly hurtful! A cruel and thoughtless attempt at my second-grade level of humor was so casually announced to the wonderful lady who had given me my love of baseball, life, and so much joy with a proud and positive outlook in following in her footsteps by remaining loyal to her childhood baseball heroes – the Chicago Cubs.

In my eyes, my Mom was not only a Saint, but she displayed the unconditional love, trust, understanding, and support for me in that moment, as she had nurtured for me in all of my formative years, and continued unfaltering into my adult years as well. "So does that mean you’re a White Sox fan now?"

Mom’s question was sincere, non-accusatory, and only asked to continue in this most unsettling pre-dinner conversation that I had started. Rather than delve too long into my cleverly prepared explanation, meant as a tribute to her, I simply blurted out, "No Mom, I finally figured it out, I am a Genetic Cubs Fan – you did this to me!"

I immediately realized that I should have stated more positively, "that you did this FOR me!" I was so overwhelmed by my Mom’s continued bewildered look that I quickly added instead, a rather quick retreat and hopefully faith-restoring and confirming apology-of-sorts, "No Mom, I’m still a Diehard Cubs Fan – you raised me right!"

Mom took my hand that she was holding the entire time, smiled lovingly, and brought my hand to her mouth to kiss and give me a huge life-affirming hug.

She only added, "Well that’s good, but you know the White Sox are a Chicago team too!" I tried to fight through my tears as I smiled and told her, "Yes Mom, I do love baseball and Chicago, just like you!"

Mom died on July 8, 2003 as I sat by her bedside doing my best to fulfill one of her last wishes - that she have music to listen to as she was dying. In my rush to get to the Nursing Facility when I got the call that she was slipping fast, I forgot to grab a CD player and her favorite songs.

The hospice nurses told me that Mom was no longer talking, but it would be very worthwhile to talk to her. After sharing more personal messages, I updated her on our daily Cubbies conversations, that I believed the Cubs were going to turn around the season, and finally get the chance to win the World Series this fall.

I did my best to sing her favorite song, "Always", by Leonard Cohen (the Bold-printed words/verses were not parts of the song that Mom and I knew or sang together):

Always


(Oh friends, .. don't matter if you're a man or a woman.

If you're in love with somebody,

these are the words that you got to learn to say.

Now listen carefully. Here it comes...)

I'll be loving you always

with a love that's true, always

When the thing you've planned

needs my helping hand,

I will understand, always, always

Days may not be fair, always

Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always

Not for just an hour,

Not for just a day,

Not for just a year, but always.

I said that I'll be loving you, always

with a love that's true, always.

When the thing you've planned

needs my helping hand,

I will, I will understand, always, always

(Oh that's pretty ... that's pretty too ... Oh darling)

The days may not be fair, always

Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always

Not for just a second, or a minute, or an hour,

Not for just a weekend and a shake down in the shower,

Not for just the summer and the winter going sour,

But always, always, always

(Ok if you don't want to quit,

let's try it one more time)

I'll be loving you, always

with a love that's true, always.

When the thing you've planned

needs my helping hand,

I will understand, I will, I will understand, always, always

The days may not be fair, always

(Don't worry, baby)

That's when I'll be there, always

Not for just an hour,

Not for just a day,

Not for just a year, but always.

Mom was the original Genetic Cubs Fan,

even if she never understood what that meant.

It has been five years since I coined the term, to supplement "Diehard Cubs fan."

I wholeheartedly agree that the Cubs and their fans do not need a "Nation" or any other moniker to legitimize or provide a contemporary or clever descriptor of their uniqueness in baseball, sports, or life.

They are simply ‘our beloved Cubbies’ and every genuine Cubs Fan -

Genetic, Diehard, or Bleeding Cubbie Blue -

knows that this kind of love and devotion knows no boundaries,

and lives and dies in the hearts and souls of their beloved fans

– Forever and Always!