02 | November | 2016 | Life of Wry

Easy to Be a Fan

November 2, 2016

I love baseball. My fanatical fan-ism for the last 13-14 years has been directed to one team–the one Peter played on, but I’ve always loved the game. I loved it from the time my brothers played little league, to the times I shared the daily recap of Dodgers games in the LA Times with my dad, to all the MLB games I got to attend over the years.

But these days, I don’t have a team. I can’t really claim to be a Dodgers fan anymore, and I’m not one of those crazy Giants fans–like both teams, but don’t keep up with either like a true fan would. I like the A’s and the River Cats, too, but really, I can like anyone.

2016 has been a crazy year and I pretty much missed the entire MLB season…. just like I missed the whole 2015 season and most seasons before that. Without cable, satellite or an MLB subscription, it’s sorta hard to keep up.

But…. during the World Series, the games show up on network TV… so even if I miss most of the season, I almost always tune into the WS.

Everyone knows the Cubs hadn’t won a world series since 1908 and the Indians hadn’t won since, I think, the 40s. Both sets of fans were coming unglued at the prospect of breaking the spell, so the World Series this year became quite the event.

And like good, instant fans, Jim and I watched the last few games together…and it was so much fun!

Tonight was GAME SEVEN! The Cubs had come back from a 1-3 deficit to even the series so tonight was the big championship showdown. Look how thrilled we are!

(Took this selfie to text to Peter, who was watching with friends at school.)

The game was one for the ages… Cubs lead through most of it, the Indians tied it 6-6 in the bottom of the 8th, the Cubs got two in the top of the 10th, and the Indians could only answer with one, leaving them one short. But wow… it was an exciting, tense game–lots of hits (24 total!), lots of home runs, tons of thrills.

Some shots:

Moments after the final out, Cubs hop the dugout fence….