World
Series
Has Bittersweet
Irony
for
Cleveland Indian's
Second
Baseman
Jason
Kipnis
The 2016 World Series
starts Tuesday night at 5:00pm on
FOX (Channel 5) and two great "long suffering" teams
will be "at it" to determine the
Champion of Professional Baseball.....
...who haven't won a World Series since 1948.
&
...who haven't won a World Series since 1908.
The last time the Indians appeared in
the Fall Classic was in 1995, but the
Cubs....
...it's been since 1945.
In 1995 the
Indians were beaten in the World Series by the Atlanta Braves due to the superb
pitching of FORMER CUB and Hall
of Famer, Greg
Maddux.
When the Indians last won the Series in 1948, Harry Truman was our President...
...the Marshall Plan was signed,
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, the Hells Angels were formed in California, the
State of Israel was founded, and the mighty Babe Ruth died at the young age of
53...
...but the
Cubs...
...well in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt was
winding down his presidency.
...and in that same year of 1908 there was even a rumor that Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid were killed in Bolivia, Henry Ford introduced "The Model T", and a new sports song became popular as well....
"Take Me
Out to the Ballgame"
So...what does this World Series mean
to both cities?
EVERYTHING
WHEN IT
COMES
TO
THE NATIONAL PASTIME
but
What does any of this
have to do with
Jason Kipnis
???
???
Poor Jason....no one
should have to go through what he'll have to... in the next week
!
Why?
Because Jason Kipnis might be the Cleveland
Indians second baseman, but he's also a CHICAGOAN !
...and still a CUB fan !
...and all of his family
(parents, brothers & sisters) and friends have been DIEHARD CUB fans their entire
lives.
Jason claims all of his
"friends" and "family" are "with the Tribe" all the way" in this
series...
...but as one of those DIEHARD Cub fans from
Chicago...I can assure you....
We don't like White Sox
fans, much less those from a foreign land on a contaminated Great Lake
!
But for Jason the
tradition is even worse.
Turns out that this kid
grew up in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook...
...and...went to the same
school (St. Norbert) and LIVED DOWN THE STREET from
another infamous Cub fan named...
Steve
Bartman
...and I can assure you...there is
not a single person in Chicago who's not familiar with that name
!
To this very day....since
2003...
Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat
113
is known as "The
Bartman Seat" and is one of the most heavily photographed (and spit on) areas of Wrigley
Field.
Then...we discovered that
poor Jason Kipnis has yet another "tie" to the
Cubs.
One of his uncles, a
doctor, delivered one of Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne
Sandberg's children.
Ryne
Sandberg
Sandberg's position on the diamond...THE SAME AS
KIPNIS...
SECOND
BASE
When Jason Kipnis was
confronted by all of this, his comments were the best that we could expect in
any professional athlete:
"This
is tough. The 10 year old kid in me is saying...
Why Does it Have to be the Cubs? My whole social media and
Facebook and everything is Cub posts...and I have to try to disappoint all of
them".
Well, it all begins
Tuesday evening...and..Jason Kipnis will be at 2nd
base for the American League Champion Cleveland Indians as they welcome his
childhood heroes, the Chicago Cubs.
And...though we make no
excuse as to whom we want to win this affair, it appears that Jason Kipnis will have the irony of being the biggest winner (and loser) of
them all !
When these two teams face
off against each other, many of us Chicagoans will not only remember the days of
Ernie Banks, Ron Santo,
Billy Williams, Fergie
Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, and Greg Maddux, along with Hall of Fame broadcasters Jack Brickhouse and Harry
Carey...
...but personally I want this one for a young 36
year old "kid" who lost a battle to leukemia one week
before the Cubs would play in the 1984 Divisional Series with the San Diego
Padres...a series they also lost...
....whose music will live on forever in the hearts of every true
Chicago Cubs fan....
Steve
Goodman
"Go
Cubs Go"
"A Dying Cub
Fan's Last Request"
It's time
to...
PLAY BALL
Dick
Arendt
Anthem
Opinions
No comments:
Post a Comment