In case you’d missed it – and it would be hard – the Chicago Cubs are trying to do something they haven’t done in 108 years – win a World Series. They haven’t even been to the Fall Classic for decades. Lake Effect Avi Lank remembers someone who would truly appreciate this post-season:
Wrigley Field, which today/tomorrow hosts the World Series for the first time since Harry Truman was president, is more than just a graveyard for broken dreams. It is also a literal final resting place. Some of the ashes of Steve Goodman reportedly are scattered there. Who, you may ask, was Steve Goodman? The simple answer is that he was a Chicago folk singer best known for writing the quintessential American ballad City of New Orleans, albeit that Arlo Guthrie made the song a hit. Goodman also wrote a number of wry and entertaining songs, many about quirks of life in Chicago.
And he was the quintessential Cubs fan, a kid growing up in Chicagoland the ’40s and ’50 who watched his favorite team crush his hopes like so many beer cups, year after year, after year, after year, after year, “Till those hopes are just so much popcorn for the pigeons beneath the el tracks to eat” as he said in one of the best baseball metaphors ever written. It comes from his 1983 opus A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request, which has this wonderful chorus:
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League
Goodman died of leukemia at age 36 on Sept. 20, 1984. Four days later the Cubs qualified for the post season for the first time since 1945, before he was born. But the lyrics of his wistful song notwithstanding, he never gave up hope. Shortly after penning those words, he wrote what has become a standard, Go, Cubs, Go. Its strains rock Wrigley after every Cubs win.
Of all the spirits watching over the Cubs this weekend, Goodman’s will be foremost, with the best seats to boot. So here’s to you, Steve, Go, Cubs, Go.
Essayist Avi Lank is a former reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel and later the Journal Sentinel. He’s also coauthor of the recent book, The Man Who Painted the Universe.
