Constable: Can Cubs fans grow tired of winning?

The Chicago Cubs are on the verge of making Major League Baseball's postseason for the third year in a row. The last and only time the franchise managed a postseason three-peat, Teddy Roosevelt was president. Yet some sports fans would rather talk about the Chicago Bears, which are the lousy football version of the even lousier Chicago Bulls. Could it be that Cubs fans, having finally gotten to the baseball mountaintop, find the prospect of an opening-round playoff series this season a tad humdrum?

"You tend to see some playoff fatigue," says Cameron Papp, communications manager for StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace. "The New England Patriots are an extreme example."

Fans of the Patriots, which have won five Super Bowls and made the NFL playoffs 13 of the last 14 years, have a "been there, done that" attitude when it comes to early playoff games, and they often are more than willing to sell tickets to those games, Papp says. The Cubs, winner of one straight championship, aren't in that league, but fans still might be willing to sell postseason tickets. Ticket prices on StubHub reached record highs last season when the Cubs gave fans that "once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list" opportunity to see the Cubs become champs, Papp says. Twice-in-a-lifetime opportunities generally cost a little less.

"We fully expect that to happen to the Cubs," Papp says, predicting more sellers and lower ticket prices this postseason. StubHub already offers tickets for a first postseason game at Wrigley starting at $199.

Even though the supply will be greater, the demand for Cubs' postseason tickets still will be strong, Papp predicts, adding that season ticketholders will be able "to make your money in the playoffs."

But to paraphrase French philosopher Voltaire and Spider-Man's Uncle Ben, "With great winning comes great etiquette."

The idea of profiting by selling a Cubs postseason ticket is an affront to longtime season-ticket holder John Pellettiere Jr. of Long Grove, who waited a lifetime to see the Cubs win it all last season and would like to see his team do it again this season. The thought of scalping his Cubs tickets entered Pellettiere's head for the first and only time on June 7, 2003. The New York Yankees were coming to Wrigley Field for a nationally televised Saturday game. Pitching legend Roger Clemens was trying to win his 300th game, against Cubs ace Kerry Wood. Cubs season-ticket holders sitting near Pellettiere were offering their seats to Yankee fans for $1,800 a ticket.

"Do you understand that our four tickets are worth more than $7,000?" Pellettiere told one of his sons, who immediately responded, "Dad, do you understand that we'll never see this again?"

Exactly. Pellettieres kept their tickets. Wood, who threw 120 pitches, beat Clemens 5-2 as backup Eric Karros smacked a clutch 3-run homer after starting first baseman Hee-Seop Choi suffered a bizarre, career-altering head injury on a pop-up.

Pellettiere, who also has season tickets for the Chicago Blackhawks, says he knows some fans, spoiled by three Stanley Cups since 2010, who scalp their first-round playoff tickets to help finance their season tickets. He once sold perhaps the most-coveted ticket in Blackhawks' history to his best friend at face value when a family obligation in Colorado forced him to miss the Hawks' victory in Game 6 of the 2015 Stanley Cup. But selling a postseason ticket just to make some quick cash?

"None of us would think about selling first-round tickets, for the Cubs or the Blackhawks," Pellettiere says. "It's sacrilegious."