THE CHICAGO CUBS ARE AMERICA’S TEAM!
The lousy, losing loveable Cubs are America’s team! Think about it….America was discovered by a guy who was looking for India and China. Columbus and his shipmates from Spain were followed by others who thought they were sailing to the Orient.
The next group of “Americans” sailed to this wilderness because they were escaping some form of religious or political persecution This means they most likely would have lost their lives if they stayed and did not take that perilous journey across vast oceans in motor less boats to this new promised land of opportunity — people also came to America because there was no opportunity in their home countries. They were penniless and looking for a new opportunity. Most of the workers were indentured servants and had to work many years to pay for the trip to America. Most of the people from Africa were rounded up by their brothers and a few sailors and chained onto the ships for the long journey to America as slaves.
The ships from Ireland were nicknamed “coffin ships” back in the day because so many people perished on the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. My great grand pa Noland died on the journey across the sea but his two sons aged 11 and 9 made it across to become Americans and soon had jobs working long hours to earn their place in America. It took three or four generations and really not until after the Second World War in 1945 for most of the workers to really have a decent existence.
USA was started on August 2, 1776 when fifty six members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well, that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Of the fifty six members who signed, five were captured by the British as traitors and were tortured before they died, nine fought and died, twelve lost their homes, two lost sons and two had sons that were captured. It was a huge sacrifice and all took a step back economically. It took another couple generations to truly reap the rewards as after the war for Independence the Government owed the banks and other investors a real lot of money….
There is a poem on the plaque mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and the final verse of the sonnet by Emma Lazarus reads:
With silent lips, “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
America needed hard working losers to work long hours digging the cannels, butchering the meat, slinging the slag, making the steel, working in brutal sweat shops and living a miserable existence hoping their next generation would have it better than them.
The Chicago Cubs – well they been losers for 108 straight years and no team in the history of any sport can match this record of futility! Losing this long and this often in a major market is special and defies the law of averages. The Chicago Cubs have not only not won a World Series since 1908, they have not even made it to a World Series since they messed with “Murphy” the goat who cursed them in 1945. That’s four generations of Cub fans that never saw the promised land..
The Cubs last won a championship in 1908 and would not have won had it not been for “Merkel’s Boner.” Merkel “forgot” to touch second base as the runner from third scored on “the game winning hit” for the NY Giants. The game was at New York’s Polo Grounds and the fans rushed the field after the hit and 19 year old Merkel got spooked and ran to the clubhouse rather than to second base. One of the greatest “errors” in the history of the game.
They should put a plague on the side of Wrigley Field christened in 1914. They should inscribe the words of the great Italian poet Dante who wrote in 1314; “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” or “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” It has been 100 years and not one Championship in Wrigley and never a World Series Flag.
I know that the great Country singers Waylon and Willie sang that tear drops and laughter walk hand in hand but man it’s been four generations and we still haven’t seen the Promised Land…This wait till next year is starting to be eternal.
But like the little acorn that grew to be an oak –Cub fans have faith that next year will soon be here and we believe that Cleo and Tom Rickettes have a great plan.
The Cubs have sunk to an all time low as Wrigley is a “Historic place” so the battle over billboards with the government and lawyers dictate when and what the team can and cannot do at Wrigley Field must be finalized. These last five years have been really special for America and the Cubs. America has been paralyzed by partisan politics as old as time itself as the “politicians” joined by the media with negative political campaigns in the billions of dollars and have done their best to create a class war and destroy so much good that America did and represented. The Cubs well, their losing has risen to new lows as for the past 5 years they have finished in last place.
But this is 2015 and Cleo and the Rickettes have given Cub fans hope and we believe that next year just may be here. America too is a work in progress and some day we envision Republicans and Democrats talking together on solutions rather than arguing about who is to blame for the problems…