FanPost

On dreams denied and yet to come




Bart Giamatti once said of baseball, "It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart." As a lifelong Mariners fan, these words echo like a church bell, reverberating in the streets and clanging in the hearts of every person who has ever staked their joy on the exploits of the men who take the field. Our springtime dreams turn to autumn commiserations, leaving us to seek warmth in other comforts. Football is there, sure. But it's not the same. The ins and outs of baseball, the everyday pace and happiness in knowing that the ballpark is always there, waiting to welcome you with open arms, cannot be replaced.

This heartbreak is even more potent when the team you call your own sits on a big stage, judged by the nation. The 2001 Mariners, the darlings of the American League, lost in the ALCS, denying Mariners fans their greatest ever chance to take a World Series title. The 1975 Red Sox, for all the bluster that came with Carlton Fisk waving the ball fair over the Green Monster in Fenway Park, did not win the World Series. They lost the next game, and watched the Reds celebrate a title on their home turf. The 2011 Texas Rangers twice came within one strike of a World Series title. Five years later, they still have not held a trophy above their head in ultimate celebration.

Only one of these remaining four teams will end this season happily. For everyone else, their magical run will come to an end. Fathers will console their sons and daughters, as the television set in front of them broadcasts their pain, flashing the lights of the other team's celebration off the living room walls.

It hardly ever ends the way we think it will. This year, the Cubs are heavily favored to win their first World Series since 1908. But being a heavy favorite can be a curse. The Cubs have MLB's best pitching staff, starting Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks in back to back to back spots. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo anchor the lineup. They don't appear to have a weakness. But this year especially, invincibility means little. The Carolina Panthers went into the Super Bowl 15-1, with an MVP quarterback coming off one of the most dominant seasons ever. The Golden State Warriors won a record 73 games, with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry leading the way on what looked like the greatest team of all time. Both teams lost the championship, ceding their place in history to a team led by a league legend desperate for a championship.

What could be more poetic for baseball than a Cubs championship? Maybe a Cubs loss to an Indians team, celebrating the return of franchise hero Coco Crisp, and their first title since 1948. Maybe a Cubs loss to a Dodgers team that wants to pay one last tribute to venerated broadcaster Vin Scully. Heartbreak flows in the veins of baseball fans, a poison that kills them in the fall and brings them back to life once the weather gets warm and the springtime fields of Florida and Arizona are filled again.

It is well past time for the Cubs to win it. It gives me hope as a Mariners fan that one day we can see and experience the crazy insanity of a Seattle post-season run. Every team has a shot, or so we're told. We all tell ourselves that this is our year, a 1-in-30 shot to solve all our woes and make us feel like everything is right in the world. A championship will solve all of our problems. To echo the final line of The Sun Also Rises, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

We live lives of labor, doing our daily work and coming home to watch our team and feel like we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Why do we keep coming back for what is almost certain to end in sadness? For that peak of sunshine that lights up the darkness. To feel that sense of satisfaction for a job well done. To feel young, back to the days when dreams were boundless, and not yet sullied by the harsh realities of life. Baseball is timeless. We watch to see history made and created, and to help fulfill our crazy dreams.