Spring Break
Cursing the Cubs
Terry Horstman
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Sports
Do you believe in curses? I do and I don't at the same time: it's hard for me to believe that an outside source can have such an impact on something without being explained or scientifically proven. Yet there are certain instances where I find it almost impossible to deny the existence of a curse. The latest victims to help prove my point are the 2008 Chicago Cubs.
As a diehard sports fan for my entire life, the question of curses in sports has always roamed somewhere in the back of my thoughts. It resurfaces at the tip of my tongue often when one of my teams loses a frustrating game or goes through a frustrating season; being from Minnesota, this happens to me a lot and the only world championship my hometown ever won during my lifetime occurred when I was three years old and I don't remember any of it.
So when I watched the faces of Cubs fans on TV the other night when the Cubs were swept out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers (after posting baseball's best record in the regular season), I saw a lot of faces that I could relate too. However, one face in particular really shook me and was something I'll never forget.
It was an old man wearing a Cubs hat and a Cubs Jacket who looked older than he was, watching the Dodgers celebrate after the game. The camera stayed on him for just a second but it was a second that felt like an eternity. That's when I realized that this man, as old as he looked, had never witnessed his team winning a championship. He wasn't crying, he wasn't swearing, he wasn't even talking, he was just staring into the heart of the latest and probably most painful chapters in a disaster that I have a hard time describing without using the word "curse".
This year marks 100 years since the Cubs last won a world series - they haven't won it once since 1908. Think of all the changes in the country and in the world since 1908 and it makes it seem even longer. The Cubs have certainly had their chances in the last century, but for whatever reason it just always seems to get taken away at the last minute in as heartbreaking a way as possible.
As a diehard sports fan for my entire life, the question of curses in sports has always roamed somewhere in the back of my thoughts. It resurfaces at the tip of my tongue often when one of my teams loses a frustrating game or goes through a frustrating season; being from Minnesota, this happens to me a lot and the only world championship my hometown ever won during my lifetime occurred when I was three years old and I don't remember any of it.
So when I watched the faces of Cubs fans on TV the other night when the Cubs were swept out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers (after posting baseball's best record in the regular season), I saw a lot of faces that I could relate too. However, one face in particular really shook me and was something I'll never forget.
It was an old man wearing a Cubs hat and a Cubs Jacket who looked older than he was, watching the Dodgers celebrate after the game. The camera stayed on him for just a second but it was a second that felt like an eternity. That's when I realized that this man, as old as he looked, had never witnessed his team winning a championship. He wasn't crying, he wasn't swearing, he wasn't even talking, he was just staring into the heart of the latest and probably most painful chapters in a disaster that I have a hard time describing without using the word "curse".
This year marks 100 years since the Cubs last won a world series - they haven't won it once since 1908. Think of all the changes in the country and in the world since 1908 and it makes it seem even longer. The Cubs have certainly had their chances in the last century, but for whatever reason it just always seems to get taken away at the last minute in as heartbreaking a way as possible.
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