Why it's tough to be a Cub fan

I'm a Chicago Cub fan.

Being a fan of a team that is known throughout the sports world for its reputation as losers flies in the face of sports fandom. Think about it- most people pick teams to cheer for because they are good. See Kentucky, University of. People that don't go to and have never attended U.K. love "their Cats". Something about a long history of winning will do that to fans. Make them jump on the bandwagon, if you will.

But, what about a Cub fan? How the hell does someone decide to cheer for a team that loses? Always loses. Always, always.

Most are brought into the fold the same way they pick their political party or their religious beliefs- because that's what their parents were. And others, like me, are converts. Through some kind of "road to Damascus" awakening, some people get wrapped up in a team.

Maybe when you were a kid, you saw NC State make an improbable run to a national championship in basketball led by a 5-4 point guard and a shooting guard that drained 6 or 7 25-footers per game in an age where the three point line was still just a gimmick for the idiotic NBA. Maybe that made you follow the Wolfpack the rest of your life. That's a good conversion story.

For me, it was marriage. This is not a good conversion story.

I married into the Cubs. My in-laws have been Cub fans their whole lives. My father-in-law has been suffering heartbreaks for the past 60 years. Time and time again, he's gotten his hopes up only to see them smashed into eleventy billion pieces. Like a zealous convert to Branch Davidiansim, I jumped in with both feet after I got married and got lost in the team. And I've subsequently been heart-broken by a dork in headphones that stole a sure out in 2003 and wrote another chapter in the Cubs sorry history.

I'm telling you that story so I can tell you this one-

The Cubs clinched the NL Central last night. It was a division of bad teams, but they won it. And now that they're in the playoffs, anything can happen.

So, this should be good for me, right?

Wrong.

I had tickets to that game last night. The Mrs. and I packed up for a rare night out. We left for the game and hit a traffic jam on I75 that can only be described as a disaster of biblical proportions. We travelled 5 miles in roughly three hours. By the time we even reached an exit to get off the interstate, the game was entering the third inning and we were still 75 miles away.

At this time, we decided to give it up, eat our 30 dollars worth of tickets, and go to a sports bar and at least watch the game. So, since the Cubs aren't a guaranteed television selection at Lexington bars, we opted for Trumps on Southland. A sports bar with a satellite and 30 t.v.s

It was closed. Like permanent closed.

We finally got to watch the last three innings, but there is somthing poetically ominous about our misadventure. Even when things go well for a Cub fan, it still sucks.