To Attend or Not To Attend; That Is the Question...

I've been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember.  Some of my earliest memories from my childhood involve baseball.  Having grown up in the Chicago area, I began following the Chicago Cubs, whose home games (and most away games) were televised on WGN Television (Channel 9).

I had my first opportunity to attend a Cubs game in person when my parents took my brother and me to Wrigley Field during the 1969 season.  When we attended the game (which the Cubs won, by the way, on a late-inning, go-ahead home run by Billy Williams) on August 3rd, the Cubs had been in first place the entire season.  From our seats in the grandstands down the left field foul line, we watched Ron Santo after the game run to the Clubhouse door (at that time located near the left field corner at Wrigley) and click his heals 3 times.  Everything was good for Cub fans at that time.  But by September 10th, the Mets had passed the Cubs in the standings, and the 1969 season for the Cubs has since that time lived in infamy in the minds of most Cub fans who experienced it.

1969 for me began a personal streak of attending at least one (and often many more than one) Cubs game in person annually.  That streak lasted 15 years, until I was on the road full-time with a ministry team, and was unable to attend a game that season--in 1984. I found it ironic that the first year I didn't get to attend a game was the first year in my lifetime that the Cubs actually made it to the playoffs.

Over the next four years, I found ways to attend at least one Cubs game per season in person--even if they were away games for the Cubs in Cincinnati (the closest Major League Baseball venue to where I had re-located), with my streak again stopping in the 1989 season--the next time (and second time in my life) the Cubs had made the playoffs.

After that, my ability to attend Cub games dwindled, and I've probably seen less than 10 Cub games in person in the ensuing 25 years.  I do know, however, that during none of the seasons that I was able to attend a Cub game did the Cubs ever make the playoffs (despite the Cubs having made the playoffs several seasons during that time period).  It got to the point where I almost felt that if I wanted the Cubs to get to the playoffs, I shouldn't attend a game.

Fast forward to 2015.  The Cubs have already clinched a playoff spot.  I didn't know that this would be the case a couple of months ago when my son had the opportunity to get tickets to this evening's scheduled game in Cincinnati where the Reds are to host the Cubs.  I told him that sure, we should get tickets and go to the game.  So, Lord willing, this evening I will get to see a Cubs game in person during a season when they are going to the playoffs--a first in my approximately 50 years (in other words, as far back as I can remember) of being a Cubs fan.