Between the elections and the World Series, I lived in a state of confusion for a few weeks. I watched the ball games in a daze, and when I blinked there was a presidential candidate on my TV trying to drill a hole in my head.
Thankfully, that is behind us. We have a new President, and no matter your opinion, how you voted or how confused the outcome left you, we now have a new commander-in-chief. Get behind him and hopefully we can regain some of the pride Americans are noted for.
While the candidates were trying to convince us to vote for them, there was a barn-burner taking place on the baseball diamond. The Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs were slugging it out for a place in history as the 2016 World Champions. The Cubs won and I can finally put away my aspirin. It may seem odd that I was rooting for the Cubs, but I like cheering for the underdog.
It is odd that I should find myself in this position, because there was a time in my life when I viewed the Cubs as an enemy. When I was just a sprite, I would spend part of my summers in Chicago with my pop, who was at the sports desk of The Chicago Defender. I spent my days riding the Jitney, a taxi that would carry you as far in one direction as they could go without running into Lake Michigan. The fare was a quarter and I only got tired of riding when I got hungry. My other favorite was going to the Riverview Amusement Park with my pop on his day off. We would ride the ferris wheel, shoot guns and take a speed boat ride out into the lake. This was a routine I never tired of. Baseball was the farthest thing from my mind. Besides, the Cubs were a Chicago team and as a Washingtonian, I was a Senators fan.
The day came when Larry Doby joined the Cleveland Indians and I dropped the Senators like a hot potato. It wasn’t hard because at that time Jackie Robinson had joined the Dodgers and my baseball rooting interest was getting a little complicated. Now I had the benefit of a team in each league.
My trips to Spring Training gave me an opportunity to meet some of the White players and my place as a fan became rock solid. My AL team was Cleveland and this left me with a tough choice in this year’s World Series.
Although I had history with the Indians, I was rooting for the Cubs. When they wound up down, 3-1, in the series, this fan’s loyalty became a little shaky. I celebrated the Cubs’ come-from-behind win, and made noises like I knew it would happen the whole time. Winning the World Series is like eating a bowl of ice cream, and waiting 108 years for another bowl is rough. Chicago finally got that second bowl and this one was served with a couple of cookies.
Cleveland fans were disappointed, but their basketball team won last year’s championship with a come-from-behind series win so they were able to experience the weight of the saying, “Chances go around.”
To add to the mix, the Cavaliers were at the White House at the same time as the new President. I wonder if Donald challenged LeBron to a little one-on-one?
Well things have settled down and I have put away my aspirin and antacid. I wonder what’s next?
