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I'm tearing up just reading this.
Thanks for sharing.
I remember arriving at my mother's house in Michigan (having driven for 2 days from my home in Denver, Colorado) on November 2nd, 2016, just in time to watch the last few innings of game 7, just in time to sit with my aging mom and watch the Cubs finally, miraculously, win it all. Even though most everyone around us were Detroit Tigers fans, and indeed that was my team growing up and certainly the team of my father and his family, my maternal grandfather was a life-long loyalist of the Cubs. There is much that I inherited from my grandfather (his looks, for sure) but probably the greatest thing was his undying love of baseball. He passed away in June of 1998, having never seen his beloved Cubs win a championship. After that my grandmother, in a less detailed but no less faithful way, carried on the Cub fandom for him. Then she passed in June of 2014. Even before then, but especially since then, my Mom has grown stronger and stronger in her support of the Cubs. And to be able to share that moment with her, and for both of us to celebrate in remembrance of my grandfather, her father, Cletus Heibel, one of the finest gentlemen I have ever known, well, that was special and bittersweet and even cathartic.
Some will say, and I myself have said it when I thought a little perspective might be needed, that baseball is just a game. And that is true. But that just is a bit problematic. Games are important. And to the extent that this one brings people together, bridges generations, provides joy and fun and even instructive pain and suffering, to the extent that it can awaken the senses and heal the soul and bring cheers and laughter and even tears, well, that's a pretty beautiful thing. Just a game, sure, but what a grand game it is.
(And just a little post-script: my Mom and I were both pulling for the Nationals this year and were texting back and forth last night as they pulled off the improbable Game 7 victory. My Dad was rooting for the Astros, but I love him anyway.)
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