Root, root, root for the Cubbies... one more year
COMMENTARY
Julia Mae Jorgensen

It never ceases to amaze me just how wrapped up I can get in a game. It could be called a sickness and in this instance, it’s a case of the baseball blues.

The Chicago Cubs were almost there, but Wednesday night, it was painstakingly obvious that ‘almost’ doesn’t count.

Now, in a period of grief and mourning, I’d cheer for the Red Sox or the Yankees in the World Series. Hell, I’d cheer for the Old Timer’s League, simply because they aren’t those fish from Florida.

As Chicago fans wallow in the sadness that is a Cubbies loss, we can neither forget nor neglect to be thankful for just how close America’s favorite baseball team came to winning it all and what a truly amazing ride their 2003 season was.

Not since that charming movie “Rookie of the Year” have we seen such fabulous, fairy-tale play from an American classic … the Chicago Cubs.

Since the franchise’s inception, the Cubs have arguably been America’s favorite baseball team. The Cubs are the team I think of when thinking baseball in America. Some might say the New York Yankees, but not me.

The Cubs have this ability to draw you in whether you’ve been cheering for decades or just hopped on the El train last week. I have not heard of anyone that doesn’t have a soft spot for the Cubbies.

What was great about Chicago’s chance at the World Series was watching a team who helped build the sport make a run at regaining its throne. You couldn’t ask for a more classic and fulfilling sports moment.

The Cubs won their only two World Series titles by beating the Detroit Tigers in 1907 and 1908. Since then, they have had four shots at the privilege of calling themselves America’s best baseball team, only to lose four times.

Two of those golden opportunities were destroyed by none other than the Red Sox in 1918 and the Yankees in 1932. Chicago’s chance at revenge this year is gone, but their drive for vengeance isn’t. Somehow, I think Chicago will neither forgive nor forget.

For the Cubbies, though, I think it wasn’t even about the title anymore. Well, that’s not true, it’s always about the title, but more so it came down to a strong desire to prove themselves as a ball club and they did that.

It never occurred to me not to cheer for the Cubs. My home team, the Colorado Rockies, haven’t even visited the idea of a pennant in their existence, yet I still hold out hope that one day those bright lights will shine on a World Series victory. Until then, though, I will throw my support to whatever team I think has the “baseballs” to take it all the way, and that team was and will be the Chicago Cubs.

Those Cubbies have waited 95 years, now 96, to retake the World Series. This season is over, but next year, who will stand in their way? If they want it bad enough, no team in Major League Baseball.

For the love of the game, I will keep wanting the Cubbies, because it’s about time.

Julia Mae Jorgensen is a junior political science major from Pueblo, Colo.