After looking too far ahead, Cubs fans fear looking back
On a chilly and breezy October playoff Opening Night at Wrigley Field, Cubs fans walk that thin chalk line between the effervescent hopes of "It's gonna happen" and the ever-present fears of 'Oh, no - it's gonna happen again."
The confident Cubs faithful roar when Mark DeRosa slices a 2-run homer into the right-field bleachers to give the Cubs an early lead. They rise as one to cheer Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster, who walks the bases loaded in the fifth inning but needs just one more strike to get out of the jam.
The fans hold their breath as Dempster's pitch flies off the bat of L.A. Dodger James Loney. They don't exhale until Loney's grand slam settles into the center-field bleachers to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead.
"It's gonna happen again. It's gonna happen again," moans a fan, grumbling on his way to the men's room, recalling the ghosts of 2007, 2003, 1998, 1989, 1984, 1969, or any other year since 1908.
"I don't think like that," says Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs starting pitcher who will try to even the score tonight.
"If we think about that and we keep that in our mind, it would be too much pressure for us," Zambrano says. "We don't think about that. We just think that we have a good team and we can win it all."
After all, this is the best-record-in-the- National-League Chicago Cubs.
"Best Cubs team ever," says Paul Maras of Elburn, who pulled his son Nathan, 9, out of school to see what they assumed would be the first step toward the World Series.
Maras won the chance to buy the tickets in the Cubs ticket lottery. Nathan won the lottery in his own family, as he beat out his mom, Jill, sisters Kailey, 18 (at college), 13-year-old Stephani (not a fan), 18-month-old Elli (too young) and his brother, Brian, 15.
"He (Brian) and I are going to the AC/DC concert at the end of the month so he got scratched off," the dad says.
Maybe that concert will end better than this 7-2 Cubs loss that turns the grin on Nathan's face into "a big lower lip and a long face," Maras says. The third-grader from Mrs. Messina's class at Blackberry Creek Elementary School is not alone in this baseball cathedral that turns as quiet as a church.
That fear of failure lies just beneath the waves of success that have washed over Cubs fans this year. It shows up Wednesday night at Wrigley Field. Fans walk in looking ahead to the World Series, and walk out looking back to see if all that bad history is gaining on them.
"They are waiting for something bad to happen, not to win the pennant. And so am I," says Earl Shaevitz, who has been selling Cubs gear at his Sports World store across from Wrigley for 30 years. "I've been around a while and have seen too much."
But one loss can't erase a season full of fun, or mean that this postseason might still be special.
"Best day of his life, man," gushes Mike Gimenez of Crystal Lake, nodding toward his 11-year-old son, Dylan Sombrano, who got a surprise visit in Mrs. Les' fifth-grade class. "I went to the school at 10 and pulled my son out."
"This is my first playoff game ever," Dylan beamed before the game.
"It's a five-game series," Gimenez says after the loss. "We've got plenty of games left."
Plenty of time for whatever is gonna happen to happen.