Congrats Cub fans. I used to count myself among your numbers but I just lost touch with baseball and didn't keep up with it.
When I was middle school age and we had moved to a different town in 1989, I didn't know anyone and there weren't a lot of kids around my age in the immediate vicinity. So I passed a lot of time watching the Cubs n WGN, which was just recently added to our cable package.
I loved that 89 team. Maddox, Sutcliffe Grace, Dunston, Dawson, Mitch Williams before he did his thing in Philly. My favorite was Ryne Sandberg. I bought into that team 100%. While it sucked seeing them lose to the Giants, they had a solid foundation and I followed the team throughout high school and the rest of the 90s in the Sammy Sosa era.
I hadn't watched a lot of baseball from that point but the inter-league play was still fairly new in 2003. I knew the Cubs had a good team so when they were scheduled to face the Yankees, who were still a top team, I watched, an the Cubs beat them pretty handily.
So when the NLCS came up vs the Marlins, I was pretty optimistic. Watching game 6 and game 7 were the worst sports experiences in my life. I've seen all my teams lose in disasterous and heartbreaking fashion, but nothing like that. I sort of stopped following baseball after that, and it actually affected how I watched my other teams in high pressure situations. Whereas before, I could deal with it, now I have a tendency to detach from the emotion of it. Its like the combination of a bad break up and avoiding that food you ate the one time you got really sick, even if it had nothing to do with it.
Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post, I'm honestly happy for you guys. My father in law is an Indians fan and has been one all his life so I'm happy for him too. I hope the Cubbies see it through to the end. Prior to 2004 I always thought it would be vs Boston, but Cleveland is more appropriate now.
