Editor’s Note: The following is a letter that Times-Union guest columnist Roger Grossman wrote to his mom after the Chicago Cubs were swept last week by the N.Y. Mets in the National League Championship Series. Roger’s mom was a huge Cubs fan who listened to their games on the radio with him when he was little. He has always credited her with not only making him a Cubs fan, but also with that time spent listening to the radio giving him a passion for becoming a radio announcer. She passed away September 11, 2012. She was 14 years old when the Cubs last went to the World Series.
Hi Mom! I hope you are doing well. Wait, you’re in Heaven – so of course you’re doing well! I don’t know what you know about what is happening down here, but the Cubs had a really good season this year. They almost made it to the World Series Mom … but not quite. You would have gone crazy listening to the games though Mom. There were so many new players on the team this year that I would have definitely had to print you out a roster so you could keep track of who was on our team. Most of our team was really young guys. The old guy on the infield was the first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, who is only 26 years old! But they were really GOOD players. They were kids that were high draft picks and players we got back in trades for the players you would have heard of before and remembered. They were exciting to watch. They played hard every day and they had fun playing the game every day too. They could run, they hit the ball all over the place, and they surprised a lot of people, including the Cubs front office people, by how well they played defense. And the part you would have liked most, Mom, is that they were an unselfish team. In the middle of the season the Cubs benched their shortstop and moved the second baseman to short. Well, the kid that got benched didn’t pout about it. He knew he was having trouble in the field and he wasn’t hitting, so he started working at second base. And he really worked hard at it, and it showed because they started putting him into games at second base and he really played well. His name is Starlin Castro, and I know you would have been as proud of him as I am. So they started the season out and they looked OK. Not great, but OK. You could certainly tell they were better than the last three years when they couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. They looked like they thought they were ready to compete with the rest of the National League, even though none of the experts thought they’d be doing that until maybe 2016. Then right before the All-Star break in July, they started to play a little better. They started getting the key hits with runners in scoring position that they hadn’t always been getting before. They were getting the leadoff man on a lot, and you know how important that is to having a chance to score runs in baseball, Mom. And this pitcher named Jake Arrieta, wow was he good. He went from July 25th all the way to the Mets series last week without losing a game. Heck Mom, he gave up four runs the whole second half of the year! He was unhittable, and you would have loved him, except you would have been on him to shave his beard, because you always told me “no fella should wear a beard during the summer … it’s just too hot.” They won 21 of 25 games during a stretch where they went from being a team to keep an eye on to a team that you expected to win every game they played and surprised you when they didn’t win. They won our hearts over, Mom. They made us start to wonder if 2015 was going to be a year to remember. And it ended up being just that. They made it into the postseason, and had to go to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates in a one-game playoff. This kid they brought up in the middle of the season, Kyle Schwarber, he hit a ball, Mom, that went out of the stadium in Pittsburgh and ended up in the river! The Cubs won 4-0, and that meant they had to go play the Cardinals. Yep, Mom, St. Louis. The Cubs lost the first game in St. Louis, but they didn’t look scared at all. They won three straight and ended up winning the series. The last game was at Wrigley Field, and I know if you would have been watching or listening it would have given you goose bumps. The Cubs had never wrapped up a series like that at Wrigley before, and doing it with these young kids against the Cardinals was just really cool. We have this thing now called Facebook. People can write to and about each other so everyone can see it on their computers and phones (we now have computers on our phones – never mind Mom you wouldn’t understand). When the Cubs won that last game against the Cardinals a lot of people wrote that you would have been so happy if you’d have been here. Maybe you were here … I don’t know if Heaven allows pass-outs. Then they played the Mets and they lost all four games they played against them, and their season ended. We were all really sad when it was over, but it was sure a fun season. Mom, the Cubs still haven’t won a World Series in over 100 years and they haven’t even been there since you were a teenager. But I will tell you this Mom, I’ve never felt like they were closer to getting there than they are right now. I can’t imagine how great Heaven is so I wouldn’t want you to come back here and live on earth again. But I AM sorry that you didn’t get to listen to this team play. They were really good and they did a lot of fun things, like dancing in the dugouts and rubbing the sides of their heads while looking at their teammates when they got a base hit. I think it’s gonna be fun to be a Cubs fan for the next few years. And maybe, just maybe, they will win it all in MY lifetime even though they never did during yours. I don’t know if I ever told you this, and if I did I didn’t say it enough, but I am so glad you raised me as a Cubs fan and you never let me stray away from it. Thanks for showing me how important loyalty is. Loyalty is the combination of patience and perseverance, and I am so glad that you instilled in me that never-give-up attitude. I love you Mom, and I miss you every day. And one of the times I missed you most was when the Cubs got that last out against the Cardinals. I wanted to call you so bad and share that moment with you. I guess we will share it … someday. Bye Mom … and until then, GO CUBS GO!
