Well, they may have been swept out of the playoffs yesterday, but the Chicago Cubs still had a terrific season, finishing with the best record in the National League. Was it the fact that they were under such pressure to end their 100-year losing streak that jinxed them in the NLDS this year? In any case, as we Cubs fans are wont to say, “Wait’ll next year!”
And while we wait for that shot at the World Series in ‘09, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has a great new song about the Cubs out, written after a request by the great Ernie Banks. It encompasses so much of what it means to be a Cubs fan that I thought I’d put it up here, along with the lyrics. “All The Way,” Eddie Vedder, which you can also download from Pearl Jam’s website:
Well, don’t let them say that it’s just a game.
For I’ve seen other teams and it’s never the same.
When you go to Chicago, you’re blessed and you’re healed,
The first time you walk into Wrigley Field.
Our heroes wear pinstripes, heroes in blue,
Give us the chance to feel like heroes too.
Whether we’ll win and if we should lose,
We know someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we’ll go all the way.
We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we’re in love.
Hold our heads high as the underdogs.
We are not fair-weather, but foul-weather fans,
We’re like brothers in arms, in the streets and the stands.
There’s magic in the ivy and the old score board,
The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score.
In a world full of greed, I could never want more.
Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we’ll go all the way.
Here’s to the men and the legends we’ve known.
Teaching us faith and giving us hope.
United we stand and united we’ll fall
Down to our knees the day we win it all.
Yeah Ernie Banks said, “oh, let’s play two”.
Did he meant two hundred years.
Playing at Wrigley, our diamond, our jewel.
The home of our joy and our tears.
Keeping traditions, and wishes made new,
The place where our grandfathers’ fathers they grew.
A spiritual feeling if I ever knew,
And if you ain’t been I am sorry for you.
And when the day comes for that last winning run, and I’m crying and covered with beer.
I look to the sky and know I was right to think
Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we’ll go all the way
* * *
And, as long as I’m posting Cubs songs, here’s Steve Goodman’s 1984 classic anthem “Go Cubs Go”
Go Cubs 2009!
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EAMUS CATULI
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P.S. Many thanks to my Australian mates who put up with me (some more patiently than others!) during this year’s baseball season. You all get a break now, until Opening Day – April 6th 2009!
UPDATE: More Cubs pics & logos & stuff here
UPDATE: The “Sox Suck” version of Go Cubs Go
October 6, 2008, 3:38 pm at 3:38 pm
I remember ‘84. I should, that was the year the Padres whomped you and whomped you good. Thought Garvey was old, thought Garvey was washed up. Told you off he did. Think you’d be happy that San Diego got reamed by Detroit instead of Chicago, but you have to be snotty about it.
But don’t you worry, San Diego has 13 rookies in the line-up who’ll be sophomores next year. You just sit back and watch as a major league baseball team handles them bums.
Chicago, if they had real baseball teams they’d still be number two.
October 6, 2008, 4:23 pm at 4:23 pm
Garvey just about won that game singlehandedly. Then in the next game when we were 2 up each Ryne Sandburg WHO WENT ON TO WIN NINE CONSECUTIVE GOLD GLOVES had that groundball just go *pop* right over the tip of his glove. That was a sad night chez Spot
Pffffft. Cubs’ve just had kind of an off century, is all. Next year, we take the World Series!
October 6, 2008, 4:23 pm at 4:23 pm
My grandfather was first baseman for the Chi Sox after the Black Sox scandal in 1920-21. He was 6′4″ which was gigantic back in those days. I still have the mitt he used during that time, a very early version of the snare first baseman’s mitt, and it’s still in perfect condition thanks to my dad and I keeping it dressed all these years. Unfortunately, he had a career ending ankle fracture his second year, but he continued to play minor league ball literally until the day he died. After a game one day, he collapsed and hit the ground dead. He was forty-three, and my dad was eleven. We’re not positive, but an aneurism is suspected.
There is nothing more heroic or pitiable than a Cubs fan. You have my deepest sympathies for the past and future years. The Cubs are a team that is cursed by God forever. LOL!@
October 6, 2008, 4:32 pm at 4:32 pm
Angus, no need for pity. As my grandfather told me, being a Cubs fan builds faith and character
Sorry to hear about your Grandfather, though – it’s a shame you never got to meet him.
October 7, 2008, 9:23 pm at 9:23 pm
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