Some people you should meet

I often get asked how a girl who grew up in West Texas could grow up to be such a big Cubs fan.

My answer: a combination of two older brothers and having cable with WGN, the superstation that back then would broadcast nearly every game.

 

Now, that’s HOW I started watching, but I started watching in 1994, the year of the strike and when Turk Wendell totally ROCKED in my eyes. What? You don’t know who that is? My point exactly. It took a lot more to KEEP me watching. Wins. Losses. Losses. Losses. Wins, then BIG Losses, but 15 years later, no longer an 11-year-old girl just wanting to have something to talk about with her big brothers, but actually caring if they win or not, I’m still here as are many other crazies out there.

 

At the risk of being cheesy, being a Cubs fan has taught me a lot.

 

A few weeks ago, the week after training camp, I had the privilege of watching my team lose to the Atlanta Braves with racers Aubrey Rainbow, Geoff Shepard, Paul Iwanaga and Braves fan

Matt Patch (pictured to the left admiring my shirt). Early in the game the Cubs were up 5-0 and I was happy, excited and even rubbed it in a little to my fellow racer. But in true Cubs fashion…they totally blew it.

 

During the game I noticed a little girl a few rows ahead of where we were sitting. She was proudly donning her Cubs shirt even though her friend and the two adults she was with were wearing Braves jerseys. To my complete and utter HORROR, when the Cubs started losing, she and her mom, or chaperone or whoever she was, went and bought a Braves jersey for her to put over her Cubs shirt!!

 

I pointed her out to Aubrey and said, “Can you believe that?! What are they teaching her?! You can’t just abandon the team when the going gets tough!”

 

To me, truly being a part of (yeah, yeah, I know I’m not really a PART of the Cubs, but sometimes I really believe they can hear me through the TV or from the stands if I yell loud enough) a team means sticking together through the good and the bad. You make it through the rough days, knowing that there’s always tomorrow to make things right. You get frustrated, yes, but you don’t stop loving and most importantly you don’t stop believing in them. There’s no abandoning or giving up NO MATTER WHAT.

 

So to my teammates AKA Team Fuel, I promise you my loyalty even when the going gets tough, because I know it will. I promise not to switch jerseys when we totally blow it. I promise to believe in you even if I get frustrated. I promise you my patience, even if it seems like we’ve been in turmoil for more than 100 years (OK, maybe that was a promise to the Cubbies). I promise to try and not compare our wins and losses with others, because I know that God’s game isn’t competitive. And most importantly, I promise to make you my family. To love you, not because I chose you, but because the great General Manager upstairs decided that this team could win it all…for His Kingdom.

 

To every other reader out there, I present to you my family for the next year. Subscribe to their blogs, encourage them, pray for them or adopt us as a team!

 

Here is Team Fuel: