100

The upside is obvious, the excitement all summer is contagious. The downside clear this time of year, when you live close to Wrigley you must pass Wrigley to get almost anywhere. Passing Wrigley today was just sad. Workers are inside closing the beast for the winter. Hot dogs, peanuts, hats, t-shirts and cases of beer are being packed up and shipped off to Los Angeles for the Dodger fans to enjoy. There will be no more celebrating in Chicago, this year.

Now I can say it. I have thought, all year, that the 100 year anniversary shot was a little too cute, a little too neat, a little too much. Wonderful certainly but so neatly packaged, Cubs fans are messier, although it was a wonderful year.

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. -- A. Bartlett Giamatti, "The Green Fields of the Mind"