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1 hour 15 minutes exactly.
It's Game 6 and by the time you read this, the series may be over for this year's Chicago Cubs or perhaps they will live to see another day. But for Cubbie fans around the globe, tonight and this whole season truly has been a fantasy no one could have ever predicted. Deemed the lovable losers for good reason, Chicago has not won the pennant in 108 years. Ya thats right. Nor reaching a world series game since 1945. Statistics are all well and good, but what is most fascinating is the loyalty of the Chicago fanbase. "The Lovable Losers" (nickname for the Cubs pre-2012) was as synonymous with the Cubs as peanut butter is to jelly. Over time fans started to embrace the commercialization that came with being the worst team in baseball, until Theo Epstein stepped in. Once Epstein was hired in 2011 a complete shift in front office operations transformed the team from "crap" to "oh snap" This odd feeling of winning, and the pressures that come with was exciting and new for fans in 2012. Like a first kiss or trying ice cream for the first time it was odd. Conspiracy theorists have tried to explain why the Cubs have had such bad luck over the past century. Many acclaim it to the curse of the Billygoat. A man who brought his goat to the 1945 World Series and was consequently kicked out, upon the sight of his billygoat. Some say that Steve Bartman cursed the team, after robbing an outfielder of the last out that would have sent the Cubs to the World Series of 2003. Though Cubs fans have suffered time and time again, it only makes one appreciate the history that this year holds. One does not have to like sports to understand what it is like to wait for something so long and for it to finnally happen, like magic. This was seen so clearly on October 22 where one could feel the tears of joy streaming through the streeets of Chicago. It was a mixture of shock, of beauty, of proving the big guy wrong, of parents, children who never got the chance to see an event of such magnitude unfold. The city of Chicago and Cubs fans around the world rejoice and cry tears of joy no matter the outcome. Simply to witness their team have the potential of glory. The opportunity to shake history to it's core. By Maggie Hall Over the summer of 2016, I saw Raleigh Little Theater's production of "Bat Boy" and the following talk back, and so many thoughts were going through my head I felt the need to share them.
"Bat Boy" opens with a song that has a chorus of, "Oh, hold me, Bat Boy! Touch me, Bat Boy! Help me through the night. Love me, Bat Boy! Save me, Bat Boy! Make it all turn out all right!" I'm not going to lie. I found it a little creepy. But as I watched the show, filled with fear and revenge and heartbreak and hate, I had forgotten about these lyrics until we reached the finale, which begged the audience to, "Hold your Bat Boy! Touch your Bat Boy! No more need to hide. Know your Bat Boy! Save your Bat Boy! Don't deny your beast inside." That hit me. Who the show intends "your Bat Boy" to be is not in any way concealed: it is oppressed minorities. Be that racial injustice, the LGBTQ community, or anything else, it is people who are hurt by society because of who they were when they were born. It really struck a chord in me as I realized that every awful, animalistic thing Edgar (the "bat boy") did, he did because he thought he was not loved, or not worthy of being loved. Any time he felt cared for and loved, he was a wonderful, eloquent, vibrant person. But because society insisted on hating him so much, he became convinced he deserved it. In fact, the words he says in his last breath are, "I am not a boy. I am an animal." I'll leave you with this: love your bat boys. Hold them, and save them, and love them, because they need to know that they are just as beautiful and amazing and incredible as any one else on this earth. They need you to tell them this because, chances are, someone else has told them they're not. |
The Eagle's EyeBest of the Nest since 1981 Archives
January 2018
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