Mondays with Mike: Mission accomplished

Last week Beth posted about her humanitarian plan to remove me from Chicago while the Cubs played their first home World Series games since forever. Awhile ago, when it looked like the Cubs might just win the pennant, she determined that we’d go to the city of whatever American League team was in the Series.

Well, I’m glad that city ended up being Cleveland, and elated to report that the trip was an absolute success. I escaped Chicago, and Cub fans were spared me.

We saw our longtime friends (dating back to when they were Ph.D. students in the English department at the University of Illinois), Bob and Lauren. They have a great big old house on the west side of Cleveland with lovely views of Lake Erie, which is a short walk away.

I was pretty well-behaved. Most of the time.

We got to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and spent some time in a terrific little a neighborhood called Gordon Square. For Chicagoans, think of Logan Square just before it really got to be Logan Square.

Mostly, though, it was about the baseball. Friday night we ate a scrumptious dinner Lauren and Bob made and watched an absolutely terrific, tense, well-played baseball game that ended with Cleveland winning 1-0. Saturday, Beth and I watched the beginning of the game out at a bar in Gordon Square, and then came back to Bob and Lauren’s to watch the end.

The World Series is a big deal in Cleveland, but it’s different than here in Chicago with the Cubs. There are no W flags, but just a quiet, constant flow of conversational exchanges between friends, clerks and customers, and total strangers wearing Indians garb that invariably ended “Go Tribe!” Cleveland fans don’t care much about Cub fans suffering—they’ve suffered plenty themselves.

They were aware of their status, as our friend Bob termed it, as the Cubs’ generic “opponent.” Or, as this Boston columnist put it, a “prop” in the Cubs drama. Saturday morning, a Cleveland Plain Dealer column in the print edition was headlined, “Just in, Chicago not entitled.”

The visit was also confirmation of the universal sense among all sports fans that announcers are biased against their teams. Here in Chicago, Cub fans detest Joe Buck, largely because of his ties to St. Louis and the hated Cardinals. In Cleveland, they felt like Buck was partial to the Cubs, and that he couldn’t stop talking about the Cubs players, and in particular, Kyle Schwarber.

They also were irked about how the media narrative has been more about the Cubs losing than Cleveland playing well and winning. This is a Cub thing, as the Clevelanders are learning. For example, the 1969 season is still seen by Cubs faithful as the Cubs collapsing. Except: The Cubs won 90 games that year. They were very good. The Mets won 100 games. They were better. They went on to beat a great Baltimore Orioles team in the World Series 4 games to 1. In other words, the Cubs simply lost to a better team. I realize that’s not as much fun as goats and stuff….

Fans packed Progressive Field to watch the games at Wrigley. (Click image for video.)

Generally, fans just seemed very happy to be watching their team in the World Series. Some watched at Progressive Field, the Indians ballpark. Tens of thousands of loyalists paid $5 each to watch the games on the enormous jumbotron. Part of the proceeds went to local charities. The fans hooted and roared as if they were at the real thing. (We thought about going but it was sold out.)

The best part? Hanging with friends. Bob and Lauren subscribe to the print versions of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the NY Times. We hung out both mornings, sitting at their dining room table, drinking coffee, trading sections, reading passages aloud to one another, kibitzing about the game, about the election, the old days, the current days.—and laughing a LOT.

And so, Bob and Lauren, Beth and I—and the Cub fans of Chicago—thank you for putting up, and putting up with, your crazy friends.