This weekend while I was busy having fun at my family reunion, the Chicago Cubs won and are now off to the World Series. Good for them and for the Cleveland Indians who’ve both had a long drought of championship games. I love the World Series. Not as much for the baseball but more to see who they pick to sing the national anthem. Maybe if the Nationals were there, I’d feel differently.

Tomorrow night we start off with Rachel Platten. Usually they try and get singers that have some sort of connection to the town the game is in and sometimes it is just a good performer. Not sure why she’s the choice but it doesn’t matter, I can’t wait. Jennifer Hudson is from Chicago – she’d be great and Ohio has some good choices – The O’Jays and Chrissie Hynde.  I remember watching a game with my dad one night and Smokey Robinson sang the national anthem. He sang it in a less-tradition manner than most and my dad finally asked what song he was singing. When I told him it was the anthem, he asked for what country. Some people don’t appreciate artistic interpretations.

Much to my dad’s dismay, I got into baseball one summer when I was home from college. I worked in the evenings at a radio station, what is now Mix 107.3, and my job was to call people during their dinner and ask them to rate 10 songs. Songs people liked got more plays on the station. This evening job left me all day with nothing to do and I got hooked on watching baseball. I mostly watched the National League and the Cubs along with the Mets, were my favorites. My dad thought that watching baseball was extremely boring. The games were endless. He had no appreciation for the sport. My mom enjoyed it and told a story of attending Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford’s wedding with her uncle. She never explained why she went but I think the story is true.  Even with her brush with baseball royalty, my dad could not be convinced to watch.

One of the great things about baseball is that the teams play each other a lot and so you not only learn your team’s line up, but the other team’s as well. That summer I faithfully followed my boys – Ron “the Penguin” Cey, Keith Mooreland, Ryne Sandberg, Jodie Davis, Leon “the Bull” Durham, Davey Lopes, Lee Smith and Gary Matthews. At the same time, on the Mets were Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and Mookie Wilson just to name a few. 1984 was the Cubs’ first postseason since 1945 so it was a good year to start watching.

When my friend Louise moved to Milwaukee, I drove with her to WI and we stopped in Chicago. We didn’t get to see a game but I got my picture taken in front of Wrigley Field. I’ve not met any of the Cubs from that era but I did get to meet Keith Hernandez at a lobbying day on Capitol Hill for the Alzheimer’s Association. His mom had the disease and he was there like the rest of us lobbying on the Hill. At the time I had two fish, one named Dezi, for him and one named Davey, for Davey Lopes. I told him this and he smiled that smile you do when you are actually praying the roof caves in so you can get away from a nut that’s cornered you. He told me that was the first time he’d heard a fish named for him as he beat a hasty retreat but not before I got my photo taken with him.

Tomorrow in addition to watching Rachel sing, I will be rooting for the Cubs. Sure it’s 32 years since they were my team but real fans never give up on their team. Go Cubs!