A skunk in red crashes Cubs party

The Cubs win, and a hopeful city comes together to don blue, rejoicing at the prospect of finally ending a century of futility.

Even the proud Sox fan from the other newspaper magnanimously doffs his hat and wishes the talented young team well.

An entire nation eagerly awaits the chance to join in the underdog’s fun.

And then I walked into work Thursday morning wearing my red ball cap.

Would this be a good time to mention that I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan?

No, it seems that it never is, but how can I resist.

For the first time in their long rivalry, the Cubs and Cardinals are going to play each other in the postseason.

Yet here living and working amongst you in Chicago like Communist infiltrators are the fans of the Birds on the Bat, eating your food, marrying your women, one of them even trying to tell you how to vote.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of a federal judge, a Cook County judge, a television political reporter, a former assistant U.S. attorney, a retired Chicago Police officer, the boss of a big trade association, a high-ranking member of Bruce Rauner’s administration, a top member of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s team and a former sports editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune, all of them Cardinals fans.

This is when somebody lobs a taunting email my way: “Why don’t you go back to St. Louis?”

That’s the thing. I like it here just fine, and what’s more, I’m not from St. Louis, hardly know my way around there beyond getting in and out of the ballpark, never even had a frozen custard from Ted Drewes.

I’m from central Illinois where the CubsCards rivalry is a raw affair dividing neighbors and families, the friction honed from a lifetime of conflict that has little to do with the cities behind the ballclubs.

Growing up there, I always thought it was split evenly between Cubs and Cards fans, but my childhood friends who favored the Cubs told me later they were the minority, a very oppressed minority.

Looking back, it does occur to me that discovering a friend was a Cubs fan was like learning of some disappointing character flaw I should have spotted sooner. Learning that a family member was a Cubs fan was worse, even if only by marriage. What did she see in that guy anyway?

At this point in the conversation, someone invariably accuses me of being a Cubs hater, which I categorically deny. Why would I bother hating a team that historically has posed so little threat to my own?

In fact, the Cubs have often figured prominently in great moments in Cardinals history. The Cubs were kind enough to play the fall guy for the 3,000th hits of both Lou Brock and Stan Musial and for MarkMcGwire’s 62nd home run. (It seemed important at the time.)

But there aren’t many great team memories involving the Cardinals and Cubs for the simple reason that it’s quite rare for both teams to be good in the same season.

The Cardinals have made 10 trips to the World Series during my lifetime, winning only five of them, a source of some frustration I must admit. Yes, Cardinals fans are greedy. We always want more, which brings me to the upcoming series.

Speaking only for myself, I’ve been dreading the possibility of facing the Cubs in the playoffs. For one thing, this Cubs team is good. Cardinals fans know it. We saw the young Cubs players come up, witnessed for ourselves their talent and sensed the shifting balance of power.

And now this whole Cubs history mojo is upon us, which normally would work in the Cardinals’ favor, except these young Cubs players seem oblivious to the hex thanks to free-spirit manager Joe Maddon, a sharp contrast to the Cards’ dour MikeMatheny.

Watching the Cubs and Cardinals these past two seasons has remindedme of whenmy younger brother started catching up to me in size and strength, injecting a new uncertainty into the outcome of our occasional fights.

For a few more years, I held him off with guile and cunning, but then came the day when I realized it was no longer a good idea to pick fights with my little brother.

The difference, or course, is that I could choose to avoid fighting him, while the Cardinals must keep playing the Cubs.

I expect the Cards have enough cunning, guile— and pitching— to get past the Cubs this one more year, and then I will pray they get stronger before next season.

You see, I don’t hate the Cubs, but I truly hate losing to the Cubs, and now I have gone and picked another fight.