A Cub fans thoughts from inside Wrigley Field, and let me tell you, its not pretty.

I am a Cubs fan. Please direct your hate mail the the email address on the right. While, its easy to just assume that I’ve climbed aboard the most recent bandwagon (as I’ve never encountered a more trendy team to route for than Chicago’s own - and I don’t mean Old Style), unfortunately I’m what they call a die hard. My father, who grew up just blocks from Wrigley Field, cursed blessed me with a love of the Cubs at an early age. Although I’ve never counted how many games I’ve been to, I’m sure its well over 100, the majority of which were in the 1990’s when the Cubs were the laughing stock of the National League.

Despite a lifetime of California Penal League baseball, I’ve had the chance to see some great Cubs moments in person, including a Sammy Sosa three home run game in 1998 (the juice did Sammy good), the retiring of Ryne Sandberg’s number, and the Michael Barrett punch to AJ Pierzynski’s face. But gone are the days when you could walk up to the Wrigley Field box office thirty minutes before game time and purchase a bleacher ticket for $8. Wrigley Field has become a huge commercial venture, with plenty of corporate sponsorship options and modern upgrades to the bleachers, luxury boxes, and oh yeah, lights!

The Cubs, believe it or not, have actually been to the playoffs five times since I was born (1984, 1989, 1998, 2003, 2007), and despite never attending playoff game at Wrigley Field (or anywhere else for that matter), I found myself in front of a computer on a Sunday morning with multiple browsers open, waiting like the rest of the suckers for NLDS tickets to go on sale. I’d been through this process before. You sit in a virtual waiting room and watch the browser count down from thirty repeatedly, while your hopes of obtaining Cubs tickets become as likely as a LaTroy Hawkins save. Miraculously, one of my browsers flashed, and the words “Cubs Ticketing” were on my screen. I had gotten in.

After what could only be described as a YouTube-worthy reaction at the prospect of seeing my beloved Cubbies in the postseason, I settled down in enough time to secure four seats in the Upper Deck for Game 3 of NLDS. I couldn’t think of a better place to share a lifetime of frustration and jubilation than with the loyal readers of TMC.

The magnitude of this game was not lost on the Cubs faithful. I know that Cub fans have a stigma that they only go to Wrigley Field for the beer and to stare at scantily clad women, and to a certain extent the sterotype has merit. But is was clear that everyone knew the implications of an elimination game. Win on Saturday, take your chances with Carlos Zambrano on Sunday and suddenly this series could look a whole lot different. As you might imagine, the Wrigley Field crowd was fired up to the point they even cheered the National Anthem singer as if he had just hit a grand slam. The stands were actually full right at game time, which, although rare didn’t surprise me given the markup on the tickets. Just as the anthem was finishing and the Cubs were takng the field, it suddenly dawned on me that the Cubs were still in it.

Momentum exit stage left. My epiphany from just a few minutes before was gone as quickly as Chris Young’s lead off home run on the first pitch of the game. I don’t know if the announcers (why is Dick Stockton so confused?) caught on, but the air was sucked right out of the stadium. It had taken one pitch to dash any hopes of a magical performance by the sometimes Barry Zito-sometimes-Shawn-Estes, Rich Hill. The crowd, which had spent the better part of an hour before game time working themselves into a frenzy, settled in for what would be a long evening.

If the Cubs hit into another double play I am going to jump off the proverbial bridge! The story of Game 3 (and really the whole series for the Cubs) was their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. The Arizona pitching staff was effective, but in no way overwhelming. I am not a huge believer in statistics, but in each game of the series the Cubs left 9 runners on base, for a total of 27. The Cubs losing this series is not about pulling pitchers or pinch hitting . Its about the four crucial double plays the Cubs hit into Saturday night (I think I am going to petition MLB to change the official name of the double play to “inning killer”). It’s about the Cubs’ leading RBI man, Aramis Ramirez, going hitless AND RBI-less for the series. Cubs fans love to make excuses about goats and Bartman. But in this series, the Cubs just flat-out got beat.

In the end, my first Cubs playoff experience was disappointing. The food at Wrigley is never good, and my seat was partially obstructed by a pole. The lines for the bathroom and concessions were long. But its easy to forget all of the aforementioned when your team is winning. Working in sports, its a phrase we use often: “Winning cures everything”. Unfortunately for the Cubs, year 99 ended just like all the previous ones, without a world championship. But there is no doubt that the same fans that are frustrated and angry now will be right there cheering for those lovable losers in April. I’ll be there too hoping for a chance at playoff game number two, and maybe, just maybe…its been a long century.