Questions About The Bygone Era

Well, those last two losses were just taxing. What little enthusiasm the Cubs had inspired in some of us is nearly dissipated. Watching them lose a pair of winnable games to a team like Colorado, it's starting to feel like the Cubs will be lucky to win 81, rather than 89 or 90. Worse, it's been so much of a repeating, numbing pattern that it's hard to feel more than lukewarm disappointment. I hate that.

To be honest, my thoughts are starting to turn elsewhere, as my father has planned a trip for the two of us in September that will include at least 7 games, in at least 6 ballparks, in 7 or 8 days. Since my dad just retired, and I don't have a job right now while I'm working on some writing, this is a perfect opportunity for us to take this kind of a trip. I'm excited.

I think that this will mark attendance at 43 or 44 ballparks for my dad, and will bring me up to at least 23. (My mother has been to well over 30, and she doesn't even like baseball.) I plan on spending a lot of the time while we drive from Michigan to the east coast and back asking him about the old stadiums, and the old baseball games in the '50s, '60s and '70s especially. I'm hoping to gather material for some substantial writing about all of it, because I don't know of any better amateur authority on the subject. I don't know anyone who has paid more attention to Major League Baseball in the last 50 years who didn't do so for professional reasons.

My dad keeps score at every game. He also keeps score of every game he watches on TV, which is often. One of my favorite anecdotes is that when I was growing up in the South suburbs of Chicago, there were times that he would keep score of both the Cubs and the Sox while he watched one game on TV and listened to the other on the radio. He follows statistics religiously because it's a subject he taught for 40 years, and he has that sort of analytical mind that sees the game in the numbers. He also has a brilliant memory, especially for sports trivia.

I sometimes wish he would put some of his memorabilia out for presentation in a room somewhere. His collection goes back to the '51 Bowman baseball cards, and he has the '52 Topps set... but only the low numbers, which didn't include the famous Mickey Mantle card, because the high numbers weren't sold in his area. He has a ton of old scorecards, magazines, ballpark giveaways and a ton of other stuff like that. It's a rich personal collection of baseball artifacts, and I'm expecting there are rich memories that accompany them. I've heard plenty of them before, but I have a feeling there are a lot more.

A lot of his perspective has to do with the fact that he doesn't give supreme allegiance to any team. He just likes the sport itself, and cheers for the White Sox, Cubs, Twins, Tigers, or whoever else he's watching... except, of course, the Yankees. I think this afforded him a unique lens on American sports -- and culture. (It's not just baseball. He was at the very first ever Chicago Bulls game, at the old amphitheatre, back when area basketball coaches like him could get in for next to nothing.)

So, as I think about what I want to do with my future, and the Cubs appear ready to fade away in the present, a lot of my attention is turning backwards. Why not? I figure it will be worth it to spend time thinking about what I want to ask, so that hopefully I can frame it well when I begin to write about it (much for A & I) this offseason. Baseball is still a game friendly to narrative structure, and it's time for me to use this opportunity to trace a bit of his thread.

My dad writes e-mail like a lot of people from his generation, in stream of consciousness format as he jumps quickly from one point to another. A few weeks ago, he sandwiched this line between a sentence about my older brother returning back home from Colorado and a comment about the weather:

"Those cubs just win often enough to keep your hopes up before they tear your heart out."

No context, no analysis, just declaration of fact. It's that simple, and those words betray a lot of experience. I'll be doing my best to engage it well. The way this season has gone, I think we can all use a thoughtful diversion this fall.

I just hope I ask the right questions.