An Introduction

My name is Geoff Rynex, and I am a Chicago Cubs fan. Have been my entire life. I grew up cheering on Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston and Jerome Walton at the side of my grandfather. By the time my grandfather was born, the Cubs had already stretched their World Series drought to 16 years. 83 years later, neither my grandfather, grandmother, mother or I have seen the Cubs win one- and yet we remain. There's something magical about the team. There's something magical about the place- Wrigley Field, tucked away in a north side neighborhood, old, comfortable, exciting, grand... brick.

The purpose of this blog will be to record thoughts, occurrences and findings by me as a Cubs fan living in Los Angeles. I'll talk a bit about what it's like to be a Cubs fan abroad, as so many of us are and I'm going to do my best to find places where Cubs fans outside of Chicago can feel at home outside of the friendly confines. Also, there will be complaining- hopefully not too much.

Coming up on 99 years now Cubs fans have justified their stubborn, and perhaps, misguided existence as fans through the simple belief that a bad day watching the Cubs get crushed is better than a good day doing just about anything else. All that is and has ever been good about baseball is manifested in the Cubs. They are classic. The hot dogs, beer, bleachers and summer weather (we almost never get to experience fall at Wrigley) all come together at Wrigley like no place else.

Being a Cubs fan is an experience unlike any other in sports. Cub fans bond over their collective misery. You can find them everywhere. No matter how bad the team is or how fast they fall out of contention, people still love them. No one gets fed up. It's an extreme and interminable test of loyalty- a torch passed on through the generations, many of which have been born and died within the span of the Cubs drought.

We've come so close so many times, only to experience wrenching heartbreak each time. We saw them blow a 9 1/2 game lead in mid-August only to lose the division by 8 games. That season, while playing a Mets team that would eventually overtake them to win the division, Cub legend Ron Santo stood in the on-deck circle, waited for his turn at the plate and watched as a black cat- AN ACTUAL BLACK CAT- crossed his path on the field. Only the Cubs. We watched a routine ground ball trickle through sure-handed first basemen Leon Durham's legs to spark a loss in a decisive game of an NLCS. We saw a 3 games to 1 lead and a 3-0 game evaporate into an 8-run outburst in another NLCS thanks, fittingly, to a lifelong and overzealous fan trying to grab a souvenir. Of course we all know it started with a goat.

Still, through all the disastrous and seemingly impossible disappointment, the fans still love their Cubs. Attendance for home games is routinely among the highest in baseball and away games even usually see a high concentration of Cubs fans. The suffering is part of the charm. It just means it'll be all the sweeter when we finally win the big one. Whether that be this year or 100 more years from now, the fans will be there, cheering on their loveable losers. Hope springs eternal. This is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by the unwavering optimism of Cubs fans. After all, there's always next year.