What that Game Meant to Me
Positivity.
For as long as I can remember, I recall people not understanding why I am a Cubs fan. “Why do you root for the worst team in baseball?” “When was the last time they even won a World Series!?” “You’re a Cubs fan, do you even understand baseball?”
Honestly, all of that was okay because they didn’t understand what that game would mean to me.
I am the son of a Black man who grew up with 12 siblings, in the projects on the South Side of Chicago. I was never more humbled by that until I read a quote in my Uncle’s book this summer, The Book of 3. Recalling how my Dad grew up sharing a bed with his brother, “How comfy was that, not very but it was the only way I knew.”
Was my Dad a perfect person? No. The older I get, the more I understand. He worked a lot (it’s arguably where I get my work ethic and perfectionist nature from), but he always wanted us to have more than he did. Even with that, he instilled what that game meant to me.
Just off my father’s background alone, you’d think I would be another statistic if left to the mainstream media to portray what someone of that demographic would do. You would never guess “Drew”, the guy who looked like Eddie Murphy when I was growing up; the guy who was the favorite uncle that sent gifts from overseas; the guy who instilled what that game meant to me, would be the same person.
A lot of my memories as a kid were in Wrigley with my Dad watching the Cubs play, complaining about being cold (if you’ve attended the early spring games, you know to bring a jacket- in my case my Dad would bring a blanket), because at that time I didn’t know what that game would mean to me.
After moving to Virginia as a teen, I recall my Dad calling asking if I wanted to stay for the summer. Always the sentence, “We can get some Portillo’s and catch the Cubs.” The summer I gained 10 lbs off of my Italian beef diet, I definitely didn’t realize what that game would mean to me.
After years in public service, this year that game took a whole new meaning. People would think my options of service are all admirable career moves, and looking back, they are. They taught me so much about myself and human nature in so many ways I rarely discuss, but what it made me so appreciative of more than anything is the little time I get with my family and the few things we get to share.
For me, the Cubs have always been my Dad and I’s thing. I am not a intense sports fan, but the Cubs, that’s our thing. It’s something he introduced me to, something I grew up doing with him. The Cubs hold so many memories I can never relive again. John Mayer’s lyric constantly comes to mind as of late, “Don’t know how else to say it, don’t want to see my parents go. One generations length away from fighting life on my own.”
At the end of the day, we never know how much longer our parents have (or us for that matter in every occupation I have chosen). To see what is portrayed in the media as one of the most crime ridden cities ban together and show we are more than mainstream says- it’s humbling, exciting, vindicating. To know that in my Dad’s lifetime, we got to be here to experience what he and his Dad didn’t is unexplainable.
So, when I see all the new Cubs fan rocking their fresh gear with tags, I will try not to look with grimace, but remember the world is finally seeing what that game meant to me.
