Theology of Baseball

I ask my Lord why I bleed Cubbie blue;

I ask him, what it all means to be one too,

I ask what it takes to suffer, to give thanks for the lover,

To reach for the heavens, and all that is within it;

I ask my Lord why they can't win it.

I was bumbling around the piano a couple weeks ago when I wrote these words. It rings pretty appropriate today, as the Cubs lost yet another series, and are playing .500 ball. Granted, that's not so terrible, considering the many seasons they endured in last place and losing over 90 games. Anyway, I wrote down several other lines, but I don't know if I'll use them. It's interesting how, after the Cubs won Game 4 in the NLCS in 2003, they were one game away from going to the World Series. I was chilling with a fellow Cubs fan friend, and I mentioned in passing that if the Cubs went all the way I would write a song about it, exclaiming the finality of the so-called curse and the euphoria that we would experience. [Of course, the rest is history and they still are searching for that elusive championship.] In a way, writing a song about their failures and the divinity/theology of it all seems more appropriate in the big picture sense.

People say God is a Yankee fan, but I know that is absolutely false. If it were true, that would mean Jesus would be getting laid every night without ever getting STDs or women pregnant. If it were true, it would be OK in the Bible for people to steal, cheat, lie, commit adultery, dishonor their parents, and worship other gods (ultimately forget about God himself). The world would be utter chaos. Yes, even worse than what it's like today.

I propose that God is a Cubs fan (at least until they win a World Series). Generations of people have suffered through mediocre seasons, horrible seasons, even excellent ones that turn sour at the end, but they have remained loyal to the team. There aren't too many bandwagon Cubs fans (except for morons) the way there are bandwagon Red Sox fans, or bandwagon Yankees fans. In the "old days" (i.e. before I was born) most Cubs fans would go to Wrigley Field just to have a beer and enjoy the sunny afternoon. The baseball game was merely a bonus, and it didn't matter whether the team won or lost. These days, more fans who go to the games focus more on the team, and pour their heart into cheering when the team does well, or booing when they don't do well. But none of these mean switching loyalties. The fans learn about the history through their parents and/or other older generation Cubs fans who have suffered with the team their whole lifetime. And they share that pain, because they are lured into hoping that they will watch history go down when the Cubs finally do win. It would be that much sweeter to watch a Cubs team lift up the World Series Championship trophy than, say, the Baltimore Orioles or the Cincinnati Reds, because most people in the older generation would have been alive for those events.

I could go on, but what I just posted is merely an introduction to which I would look into history and make more references, and when I would need stats to compare players or teams, or to look at what decisions were made by the manager (during games) and general manager (in shaping the team) over the years, to see what went wrong, study what was common around baseball (spitballs, dead-ball era vs homerun era, etc) and suggest what the Cubs should do to keep themselves ahead of the times. I might write a tell-all book, but then I'd have to major in English, right? Well, did Jose Canseco major in English when he wrote his book claiming several players were on steroids? I don't think so. :-)

Anyway, I know some of you might have questions about the line "to give thanks for the lover," especially since it doesn't have anything to do with baseball. I was mostly trying to find a word that would rhyme somewhat with "suffer."