Cursing the Cubs

By: Terry Horstman

Posted: 10/7/08

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.

I'm not just talking about the Steve Bartman fan interference debacle, or the pathetic performance in the playoffs this year, or any other single traumatic event in Cubs history. It's just when you start thinking about all of them put together and realize that many good people have been born, raised, and lived good full lives in north Chicago and have now died without seeing their Cubbies win it all in their lifetime. This is when it hits home for me.

If I was 100 years old with no titles, I'd be claiming curse too. Heck, I'm only 20 and I'm basically doing that now. A curse has just become a comforting way of describing the indescribable; it knocks you out in ways you never thought would happen and torments you beyond belief, but in the end the curse has to be lifted.

For Cubs fans' sake, I hope that is how the course of events works out. Until then, Cubbies, you're just going to have to keep on believing, believing that there is a god who's not going to want to torture you for another 100 years. But if that indeed is the case, then I guess you're better for it.

So after thinking of all that, I guess I'm still not sure whether or not I believe in curses, but I definitely believe in tests and this could easily be one very long and painful test of Cubs fans' characters. It's just like they say - the tougher the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. I challenge anyone to think of a tougher obstacle to accomplish than the Cubs winning the World Series. Go ahead. I can wait.