Opening Day is No April Fool's Joke

Today is April Fool’s Day.

As a Chicago Cubs fan, somehow it seems fitting that it is also opening day at Wrigley Field.

As long as I’ve been a Cubs fan I’ve been hoping and praying—as oh so many Cubs fans do—that this year will be The Year.

I don’t know how I became a Cubs fan. But, I’m sure it is because of my mother. She was a Cubs fan until the day she died.

I can remember her cursing the television and having a fit whenever they screwed up, which was often. As much as she loved her Cubbies, more often than not they would cause her to launch into a tirade, which usually ended with her changing the channel.

But, long before that, I remember with fond memories coming home from school on those beautiful spring days. You know the ones when the sky is that perfect Robin’s egg blue, there’s a slight breeze in the air, the trees and flowers have started to bloom again and the grass is green.

I just remember the smell of it and can’t help but associate those perfect days coming home from school with the Cubs and my Mom. The front door would be open, the screen door keeping all the bugs out and before I’d even grab the door handle, I could hear Jack Brickhouse on the TV. I’m old enough that this was before Harry Carey left the White Sox and defected to the Cubs.

Mom would be in the kitchen, her normal spot most days, especially in the late afternoon. She’d be starting dinner and the Cubs would be on the tube. If we weren’t at home, we were at my aunt’s house and she also was a crazy Cub fan. Neither my mom nor my aunt ever stepped foot in Wrigley Field, yet I’m sure they were bigger Cubs fans than many of the “die hards” who drops hundreds on tickets.

I can’t honestly remember the names of most of the players from way back then. I do remember Rick Reuschel  and Ivan de Jesus. I loved Ivan’s name and would pronounce it without the accent. But, mostly I just remember my mom happily working in the kitchen with her Cubs on TV.

Years later, she was still watching, though it seemed like a much more pained experience. Every year watching and waiting and no pay off. Then, she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001. My mom had always been a strong woman, but after her surgery in 2001 she had grown much frailer.

She still watched her Cubs and still yelled at the coaches as if she could tell them what to do.

I had so hoped for her that she would see the Cubs win the World Series and in the fall of 2003 it seemed like it might actually be possible. But, as most Cubs fans know that was the year of the Steve Bartman Incident.

Just as the Cubs didn’t survive that season, my mother didn’t survive her illness, dying in April 2004.

While I would consider myself a Cubs fan more than a fan of any other team, my devotion has never matched that of my mother. And, I think I was let down so much that fateful season because I had really wanted my mother to see them win. Loving the Cubs was just never the same.

Besides, the days of watching them only on WGN are gone. Half the time I don’t even know they are playing or where to find them.

Yet, I remain hopeful the Cubs will pull it together; that they take to the field and keep the errors at bay; that they make it to October and don’t blow their leads with poor pitching; that one day during my lifetime they win the pennant. I can imagine my mother and how happy she would be.

Maybe this season the Cubs could get all the kinks out on opening day. Let’s do that today fellas. And, then after that no more April Fools.