Since Mother's Day was yesterday and I don't post on Sunday's (barring a TEXANS SUPER BOWL WIN) I thought I WOULD salute my mom on this Monday.
Maxine Roberts was funny and knew her baseball. Her twin brother-- my uncle Max-- knew his stuff too. Leave it to their parents to name both kids MAX. Both lived and died with the Cubs. I would come home from school eager to find out who won the day game at Wrigley and my mom would hit me with "Well, it wasn't the Cubs". I must have heard that hundreds of times. Look up the box scores, I hear it hundreds of times.
On a sunny May afternoon in 1979 I was working in Indianapolis about to make my way to Houston when the Cubs played the Phillies. The Cubs hit 6 homers, knocked out 26 hits and scored 22 runs. I could hear my Mom's voice on the phone telling me she called her brother to tell him the Cubs had scored 22 runs. He, being a long-time Cubs fan asked the obvious, "Did they win?"
Her answer was also obvious. "No, they lost in 10, 23 to 22. The game featured come backs by Chicago of 7 and 11 runs. 13 of the 45 runs were scored in the 1st. Tug McGraw of the PHILS gave up 7 in his inning of relief.
To think how successful the Cubs are this season makes me sad. My mom and her brother are long gone. They would love how it's going. They would have loved this season and understand how excited Cubs fans are this year. But as all-time Cubs rooters, they would urge caution. After all, they are THE CUBS.