How did you become a Cubs fan?

[wekse]

Fred rules!

[ironchef21]

1980 - 7 years old growing up in Ohio. My first T-ball team was the Cubs and we got WGN for the first time.

 

Throw in a bunch of summer trips to Wrigley over the years and the rest is history.

[SauerFan]

I'm convinced that we are assigned certain things at the time of our births, along with our DNA: golf handicap, taste in women, club loyalties. Otherwise, nothing would make any sense at all.

 

Norm

[Andy]

I'm convinced that we are assigned certain things at the time of our births, along with our DNA: golf handicap, taste in women, club loyalties. Otherwise, nothing would make any sense at all.

 

Norm

But I'm a fan of a football team that wasn't even created till seven years after my birth. Tell me how this one makes sense, Norm. :wink: Just kidding.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I'm related to Fred Hornkohl.

 

Well.... we all have our crosses to bear, young fellow. :wink:

[1908]

Born into it as well. One of many fourth generation Cubs fans in my family.

[Rusch33]

Not sure, but one day I watched them on WGN and I was hooked.

[AcesHigh]

I was a fan of both the Cubs and the Sox until I was about 6. Then, my best friend took me to Wrigley for the first time and I became hooked big time. We've gone together every summer since. The Wild Card team of '98 was huge, too(I think I was in 4th grade).

 

I still have never been to Comiskey.

[BigbadB]

Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, Jose Cardinal, Randy Hundley, Fergusen Jenkins........

 

I loved watching these guys play together. I was officially hooked the day Milt Pappas threw a no hitter. I had never seen one before and I had never yet seen a guy get picked up and carried off the field in such jubilation.

 

Some of these guys didn't actually play together, but that was the era that got me hooked on Cubs baseball.

Edited November 10, 2005 by BigbadB

[gus_dog]

I loved watching these guys play together. I was officially hooked the day Milt Pappas threw a no hitter. I had never seen one before and I had never yet seen a guy get picked up and carried off the field in such jubilation.

 

Froemming screwed him out of a perfecto.

[littleburr24]

I was born into it, but it didn't become a passion until 4th grade.

[CuseCubFan69]

Well to be honest I looked at the standings in 69 and saw that Chicago was in first place. I then did a little research and liked the little cubbie they had on their uniforms and started following them. Dinosaurs were big with me too back then and if any team had a name with a dino on it I'm sure I would have picked them. I ended up loving Jenkins, Banks, Hands, Williams, Kessinger, Santo, Beckett, Holtzman and Hundley.

 

My first game I saw them play was on TV and they were facing the Pirates and Bob Veal was pitching. The Cubs jumped out to a 2-0 lead and I remember to this day watching Veal take his glasses off and wipe the sweat of his face with a handkerchief on the mound. It just struck me as funny that some guy that was that hot and looked so old could be pitching while in so much despair. The Cubs would surely win this game I thought. A little while later the Pirates started scoring runs like a bad case of diarrhea and the Cubs lost 9-5. The ironic part is that I don't even remember who pitched for the Cubs that day.

[biittner77]

I blame the Black Sox. They soured my then 11 year old Grandfather on the Sox and got him to become more of a Cubs fan. We've been Cubs fans ever since.

 

As an aside, My Grandfather was born in 1908. He still goes to Cubs games.

[bc2k]

I'm sure this topic has been broached by previous threads, but as a relative newcomer I was curious as to how everyone's Cub allegiances came about. I didn't really know which area to put this thread in so if it belongs somewhere else, mods feel free to move it.

 

Anyway, my story: I was a Braves fan, albeit a very casual one, for a while because they were the closest team to me when I lived in South Carolina as a little kid. Then when I moved up to South Bend, my now-best friend would basically make me watch Cubs games with him because he was a Cubs fan. After a while, we habitually started watching the games together and before you knew it I was bleeding Cubbie blue (sometime in 1999 was when my conversion was complete). I've been in love with the team and with Wrigley ever since.

 

Other stories?

 

Well, my father and his father were Cubs fans, so it was handed down to me. I vaguely remember one Cubs game that the three of us got to attend. It was my first game at Wrigley.

 

Also, it made my life as a kid to be "drafted" onto a Little League team with the Cubs name. I think that solidified my fanaticism, because that was a special summer in my life.

 

Mark Grace has been my favorite Cub for a long time, and I grew up idolizing him. I'm sure that had something to do with it too.

[Roast]

http://www.onlineathens.com/images/081001/sosa_sammy.jpg

[stitchface]

father took me to wrigley as a child (1976). Cubs blew a two run lead in the ninth to lose to the pirates.

[c3ci1]

http://www.wrigleyvillesport.com/istarimages/p/p-80650!MOU.jpg

[BeerHere]

I guess you could say I was born into it as my Dad is a Cubs fan as well. I got hooked by the day games, Jack Brickhouse, and Wrigley.

 

I love this game. If there's one thing I could give my Dad it would be a Cubbie world series championship. I struggle with "fandom" at times, but he's had 40 more years of struggles including the "dark ages" and I doubt anything would make either of us happier.

 

Bill Buckner, Leon Durham, Ryno, Ron Cey, Fergie Jenkins, Ivan Dejesus, Barry Foote, Jody Davis.

[VicCub]

Born into it. While my mother's family is from the north side, it is my father who made me a Cub fan. Dad and I would play catch while listening to Brick on the radio. At least once a year we would make the drive from eastern Iowa to Chicago. On Easter, Dad would hide eggs with the Cubs logo on them. We even chewed Wrigley gum, reasoning that it would help the team, if only a little bit.

 

Unfortunately, my Dad died when I was 10 at the end of the '81 season. Needless to say, I have lived and died by the Cubs ever since. Dad was born after the Cubs last WS in '45 and died before their next playoff series in '84. He was an original bleacher bum. He was a great Cub fan.

 

Switching teams is literally not an option for me.

[beersoakedivy]

I was simply born into it.

[hardcorecubfan]

On a "ladies day promo in 1944"my mother took me and prepared me for hell.

 

Wow, 20 years later same thing happened to me, my mom was thoroughly bored but a cub fan was born

[sweetpeteman]

I was born into it but didn't really become a megafan until 2003. That year plus the discovery of websites like this one really brought me into it completely. Now I'm obsessed... thanks Tim.

[cubs0097]

First time poster. I moved to Chicago w/ my parents when i was in 1st grade. I remember turning on the tv and watching Shawn Boskie pitching against the Phillies i believe. Ive been a fan ever since.

[grrrrlacher]

I started collecting baseball cards in 1980. I didn't really have a team growing up in central Indiana. There were a lot of Reds fans and some Cardinals fans and some Cubs fans. I watched the playoffs and some other games during the year for the next couple of years. I never really latched onto a team though. I had lived in Chicago while I was 4-7 years old. I had loved living in Chicago and missed it. I guess I knew I would be a Cubs fan.

 

In 1982 my parents got cable for the first time because they had a foster child that was 3 and wanted him to be able to watch Sesame Street and other child friendly shows. Lucky me!

 

I was 11 on April 5, 1982. The Cubs opened the season in Cincy. Bump Wills started the game and season off with a solo shot as the Cubs defeated Mario Soto 3-2. Doug Bird pitched 7 innings and Willie Hernandez got the save. Buckner and Moreland each had 3 hits. (I had to look up the game at retrosheet) Milo Hamilton I think was doing the game with Harry. I was hooked from then on.

 

There were many summer days I spent on the couch watching the Cubs.

[Guest]

My story is probably the same as many Cubs fans who aren't native Chicagoans: Afternoon games on WGN with Harry and Steve. I remember being really excited when I found out my first Little League jersey number was #20, the same as Cubs ROY Jerome Walton.