World Series fever grips Cubs Nation
Chicago in celebratory mood as 71-year wait ends
Die-hard Chicago Cubs fan Jerry Pritikin’s life-long wait is nearly over.
Pritikin’s father took him to his first Cubs game in 1945 — the last time the unluckiest team in baseball made it to the World Series — and he was instantly hooked by the play of Andy Pafko and Wrigley Field’s ivy.
He begged his dad to get him tickets to the World Series, but his father said he was too young and promised to take him next time, Pritikin recalled.
“Seventy-one years later, and next time is finally here,” said Pritikin, 79, known around Wrigley as the Bleacher Preacher. “I feel like Moses seeing the Promised Land for the first time. But I don’t want to just see the Promised Land. I want to make it there.”
More than 108 years after Orval “Big Groundog ” Overall pitched the Cubs to their last title and 71 years after the Detroit Tigers beat the Cubs in Game 7, World Series baseball returns to the Friendly Confines on Friday with the series between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians tied 1-1.
Chicago experienced a World Series run in 2005, when the White Sox ended their 88-year ti-
“I’ve been going out there since ’63. If you think I’m missing this, you’re crazy.” Cubs fan Judy Caldow, on why she’s not selling her World Series tickets, which could fetch a big price on the secondary market
tle drought. But much to the chagrin of White Sox fans, fervor over the Cubs’ chase for the team’s first World Series crown since 1908 is at another level.
On sports radio, the triumphant return of Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs slugger who suffered what was supposed to be a season-ending knee injury in April, is being treated as a legendary moment in baseball history.
At the Art Institute of Chicago, the museum partnered with the Cubs to make and install giant batting helmets on American sculptor Edward Kemeys’ iconic lions that sit in the grand entryway on Michigan Avenue.
Around town, there’s no shortage of opportunities to “eat the curse” of the billy goat — a tavern owner famously put a hex on the Cubs at the 1945 World Series when his goat was refused entry into Wrigley — as restaurants have put goat dishes on the menu to mark the World Series berth.
More than 300,000 people jammed into Wrigleyville, the dense North Side neighborhood where the historic park is located, for last week’s NL Championship Series clincher. Police expect even more fans, the majority without tickets, will flock there for each of this weekend’s three scheduled games.
Hanging out in the neighborhood and soaking up the ambience won’t come cheap. The famed Cubby Bear lounge across the street from Wrigley Field is charging a $100 cover for the opportunity to watch the game on its big screens and buy its beer. Another neighborhood bar, HVAC, is charging $250 a person for a Game 4 watch party package that includes drinks and all-you-can-eat pizza and wings.
The inflated cover charges pale in comparison to the price of getting into Wrigley. Standing-room tickets for Friday’s Game 3 are going for a whopping $2,100 on the secondary market, while box seats will set fans back at least $13,000 for a pair.
But for many of the Cubs faithful, some who were skeptical this day would ever come, the moment is priceless.
Judy Caldow, 67, a longtime season ticketholder, said her husband suggested she sell one of her World Series tickets to help pay off the new roof on their North Side home. The suggestion did not sit well with her.
“I just looked at him,” Caldow said. “I’ve been going out there since ’63. If you think I’m missing this, you’re crazy.”
For season ticketholder Tom Peak, 52, scars from years of dis- appointment have prevented him from getting too confident about the Cubs’ chances. Before the series started, Peak joked that while the Cubs had the best record in baseball, “They’re still the Cubs.”
But after Wednesday’s Game 2 victory in Cleveland, Peak said he couldn’t help but to let his optimism grow.
“The past is less in the back of my mind,” said Peak, who plans to wear his late father’s Cubs baseball cap to Friday’s game. “Going back to Wrigley for three games and the first World Series game in 71 years, this is about the best that you could ask for.”
“Going back to Wrigley for three games and the first World Series game in 71 years, this is about the best that you could ask for.” Cubs fan Tom Peak