Pitchers and Catchers Report

After months of wall to wall Bear coverage in Chicago it is a relief and a watershed moment to realize that it is now three days until Cub "pitchers" and catchers report. As a Cub fan it does two things. One, it is the hope that this is the "wait til next year". And two, of course, it reminds me that I am about to begin year 53 of attending Cubs games and----no pennant, no Series. So, since I have no legitimate winning team(s) to look back on I, like most Cubs fans, revisit our few and far between near misses.
For most of us they begin and are permanently fixed on 1969. After a glorious start those of us that lived and died Cubs in 69 began to believe. Ron Santo's "This Old Cub" talks about 69 and referred to the players as being treated as if they were rock stars. I think that is the best description I have heard of the attention and adulation those players were given. Their pictures were on everything and everbody, even Sox fans, knew the daily stories of each player. We all know what happened. The usual. There were many turning points in that season. The late August loss in NY when a black cat ran in front of the Cubs dugout is the popular choice. Don Young's dropped and missed flyballs are also legendary. But for me it was a few weeks earlier.
It was a Cubs - Mets game at Wrigley. Late summer, weekday afternoon and a highly anticipated series. About 5 or 6 high school/college friends got tickets and we sat in the rightfield bleachers. Old Cub fans remember that in those days 22,000 tickets went on the sale the day of every game. To buy tickets in advance was for box seat types or nonfans. It was to be the series of celebration. Most of the details have blurred over the 38 years but what most Cub fans can remember of the game is that it was the day Al Weis hit two home runs. Al Weis! To make it worse the ex-White Sox utility man probably had three homers in his career.
But that was not the death knell. In addition to Weis, one of the Mets infielders, either Garrett or Boswell, hit a home run into the rightfield bleachers to further sink us. The home run came sailing toward our group. None of us had ever caught a home run as we usually were parked in the cheapest seats in the back of the "grandstand". As we all smashed together our buddy Bob jumped above the rest of us and tried to make a one handed catch. The ball hit him on the tips of his index and middle finger on his right hand. He did not catch the ball and we all went after it but came up empty. Then we looked at Bob. His "web" between his fingers was split about two inches down toward his palm, and 'bleeding' would be an understatement.
Now, he couldn't stay. He had to go to the hospital. The dilemma was, were we all going to leave the game or could Bob take the bus to the hospital? The bus. This was a Cubs - Mets game in 1969. We had been waiting for this our entire sports lives. Seems ridiculous now but made sense then. Anyway, Pee Wee had driven and he decided he would drive him to the hospital. The rest of us "friends", decided we could not leave. We would take the bus home. So we stayed and the Cubs suffered a devastating loss. It was all downhill after that. Bob recovered but I do believe that because we chose not to leave the game and support our buddy the "gods" got pissed and created our/my Cubs Curse. 38 years later, we have not beaten the curse yet.

But, this is next year!

Oketo