The Curse of the Snarky

    Spring is in the air. One of my favorite days of the year is right around the corner. Major League Baseball's opening day. That's right, Rachel... this is another sports post. Yay sports! I started loving baseball when I was just a little bitty Snarky - just barely out of diapers, and still peeing the bed. Mrs. Snarky is glad I quit THAT habit a few years ago. My father told me that even as a very small guy, when I heard the Star Spangled Banner, I'd come running into the living room and jump on his lap to watch a ball game. With him, it was always the Chicago White Sox. It didn't matter that they were lousy... these were our guys. Jorge Orta, Ken Henderson and Wilbur Wood. Guys like that were who we rooted for. They usually had zero chance against players like Reggie Jackson or Nolan Ryan. The big name guys would always whip our butts. Didn't matter to us back then... at least not enough to make us quit watching, or to do the unthinkable - switch over to the Cubs.

Even thinking about it freaks me out     

    Through thick and thin we stuck it out. There were a few good years (1977, 1983, 1993, 2000) and lots of bad ones (I'm not actually putting anything in here... I just thought I needed more parentheses). In '77, they played well for most of the year and it was the first time I ever thought they had a chance to make the playoffs. The other 3 years, they made the playoffs, but never advanced past the first round. All through those years, I rooted for my White Sox first, Red Sox second, and Cubs third. As a Chicagoan, I was expected to pick one of our home teams as my favorite, and the other as my least favorite. Love the Sox, hate the Cubs, or vice versa. I never did hate the Cubs though. Two of my brothers and my mother were Cub fans, and most of my friends were as well. Now as you probably know, the Cubs had similar results as the White Sox did. Known as the lovable losers, the Cubs were the "Nice guys" who finished last. Until 2003, when they were within 5 outs of making it to the World Series. Then, the unthinkable happened. They blew it. If you want to know more, click that link. For the benefit of my Cub fan friends, I won't go into detail here. Let's just say that I hurt for my brothers and friends after what happened. I hurt for the fan who played a part in the collapse, whether it was his fault or not (I say not, but that's a story for another day). It was sad.

    Then, 2004 happened. The Red Sox, my aforementioned 2nd favorite team, beat the Yankees, my most hated team, by winning four straight after being down three games to zip, a feat that had never been accomplished in Major League history. They went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, breaking an 85 year drought. If they could do it, who knows?

    It didn't take long to find out. 2005 was a most wondrous year to be a White Sox fan. They had the best record in baseball from the beginning of the season all the way to the end. They went through the playoffs with 11 wins and just 1 loss, tying the 1999 Yankees record for best winning percentage in this era. By winning the Series, they ended an 87 year drought. I was happy that I got to root my team to a Championship, but mostly, I was happy for my father, who had been a fan of the team since the 1940's and had never before gotten to see this...

I broke down and cried with joy for my Daddy when this was happening.

    2016. You may have heard, but I'll tell you anyway. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series. It had looked like they were going to blow it for a bit, but they did it in dramatic fashion, ending their own 108 year Championship drought. Even though I lost a bet on them winning it all, I was happy for so many people that I'd grown up with getting to see their Cubbies take home the big trophy. My friends will attest that I was not remotely unhappy as many of my fellow Sox fans were. I was thrilled for my brothers, one of whom was probably near a heart attack while watching these games.

    That's over. I've heard lots of cockiness coming from Cub fans lately. Granted, mostly just on social media, but still. I read on a bulletin board that the Sox WS win was so long ago that it doesn't even count anymore. Right. And if the Cubs had won in 2003 and the Sox had won 2 years ago (same time difference) would you have said that the Cubs win didn't count anymore? I don't think so. Nope. I'm done rooting for the Cubs. They won't ever overtake the Yankees as my least favorite team, but now that you've gotten your Curse of the Billy Goat out of your system, I kind of hope you don't win another Series for 40 years. Is that terrible? Yeah, a little. Don't care.

Congrats on the World Series win.

Never do it again!

Snarky