Do you remember your first Cubs game?
With all of the frustration right now with our favorite team I thought today, hump day if you will, we would forget about this season, quit worrying about next season and think back to the first time we saw our beloved Cubbies play ball. Let’s use the next several hours before the Cubs take on the Indians tonight to remember how and why we started following the Cubs. Did you go to your first Cubs game at Wrigley, or was it somewhere else?
There is a very cool website called Retrosheet that you can go back and look at box scores from yesteryear and remember those games as a kid that you may have forgotten. So take a minute and forget about this year and think about the feeling you had way back when….the first time you saw the ivy or the first time you sang along with Harry. Whether it was the 50’s or the 60’s or like me the 80’s share your thoughts, who knows some of you might have been at the same game. My first Cubs game was at Wrigley Field on August 3, 1985 against the New York Mets. I still have the ticket stub and it is framed with a Cubs’ jersey that my father bought me that day….I have not been able to wear that jersey in more years than I care to count. I proudly display it in the Rec Room of my house along with other framed Cubs’ memories. The Cubs lost that game in 10 innings to the Mets 5-4 on a home run by Howard Johnson….his only at bat of the game and as I write this I can see the ball leaving the yard. George Frazier gave up the 1-out home run and it was standing room only that day at Wrigley.
Like Jason said on Monday, I would like to hear from as many of you as possible, even those lurkers out there….we know you are there and those that have not been commenting….for whatever reason. Forget your disgust for just a little while and remember why we all still care so many years later…..it did me a lot of good.