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Oct 15, 2003 Sometimes you get your just desserts; your come- uppance…what goes around comes around. Chicago is the largest city in the interior of the United States. It is the City Of Broad Shoulders, home of the Democratic Machine, large enough to support two major league baseball teams; The White Sox and the Cubs. The White Sox last made it to the World Series in 1959 and have made only occasional forays into the playoffs since. The Cubs last made it to the Series in 1945 and have a history of victory turning into defeat. Most Chicagoans are either Cub fans or Sox fans and take delight in seeing the other team lose. White Sox fans are said to be lower-class south siders by the Cub fans. They don’t come out in huge numbers to support their teams and a large percentage of the fans are from the hinterlands (read: Indiana). Cub’s fans are characterized as being more interested in the ambiance of Wrigley Field and the beer than they are in the actual game. They come out and root for their “loveable losers” in droves whether the team is good or bad. Picture Wrigley Field on Tuesday, game 6 of the National League Championship series. The Marlins have one runner on and one out against Mark Prior. The Cubs are ahead 3-0 and just five outs from their first World Series since 1945. Luis Castillo hits a foul fly near the stands and Leftfielder Moises Alou draws a bead on the ball. He reaches just above the wall separating the fans from the field to make the catch. But a guy wearing headphones and a Cub hat reaches out above Alou’s glove and deflects the ball before Alou can make the catch for the second out. Baseball fans know what happens next. Castillo then walks and two batters later Alex Gonzalez makes an error on an easy groundball. The inning turns into a catastrophe with the Marlins scoring eight runs and defeating a Cub team on the verge of history. If the guy with the Cub hat doesn’t interfere with Alou, there are two outs and only one on when Prior faces Pudge Rodriguez. Maybe the shutout continues with the Cubs winning 3-0. But people who have followed the Cubs, I among them, simply had a sinking feeling when the clueless “fan” interfered with the flight of the ball. You just knew it was going to change the game…and it did. Some Cubs fans just come out to be seen or to get a tan or get a nice beer buzz. Some come to entertain clients. Some come to watch and root for their beloved team. No genuine Cub fan, baseball fan, would have prevented Moises Alou from making that catch. It required a casual fan that cared more about catching a real baseball than whether his team won or lost to send the Cubs down the road to ruin. Ironically, the very kind of fan that White Sox supporters will claim typifies Cub followers is a guy who may have guaranteed that the Cubs will have at least one more year as “loveable losers”. By the time this column is read, the Cubs will have already won or lost game seven of the NLCS. The 8th inning from hell (from a Cub perspective) will seem a little less hellish and they will move giddily forward to face the American League foe. But if the Chicago Cubs lose game seven, maybe they can and will blame their fans as represented by one fan that reached out his hands and snatched the World Series away from them. GETTING WHAT YOU DESERVE PART TWO Now the Supreme Court is going to hear Elk Grove Unified School District versus Newdow, 02- 1624. What this means is that the Supremes are going to decide whether children in California are going to be allowed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. There is also a move afoot by secularists to ban the government from recognizing the institution of marriage. They seek to end any tax benefits or other legal advantages of the nuclear family. That this institution has been the backbone to civilization since before Jesus Christ seems to make no difference to them. While the greatness of this country stems in part from the freedoms we enjoy, there are those that take advantage of those freedoms in seeking to destroy the very country that provides them. We as a nation came from men and women who were adventurous, industrious and believers in a Creator God. They formed a government in which people were free to worship God as they chose, with no national religion being imposed by the government. Now secularism is being imposed upon us as our state religion and God is being driven from the classrooms and the courtrooms. When He is successfully banned from this nation altogether, the nation will fall. Remember that you have a vote and you have a voice. If you do not like what is going on in this country, vote for people who will better represent your point of view. Write letters to the editor; put a campaign sign in your front yard. Don’t just sit back and proclaim that politicians are all alike. No they are not, get off of your tush and vote in the better ones and kick out the bad ones! LONG SNORE BEFORE 2004 General Wesley Clark’s campaign manager resigns just before it was revealed that he was apparently violating federal law during paid speaking appearances. Democrats look to Howard Dean……………….Who is in the news for hiring a graffiti artist to do a mural for a gig, an artist whose previous work included New York City subway cars. From “campaign to arraign” for the artist known as “KEO”. Bob Graham dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for President. That is a bit like having one of those renewal cards fall out of your magazine. Do you pick it up and throw it away, or just leave it on the ground? The whole “Victoria Plame is outed as a CIA operative” is pretty lame. No one has done more to spread that story than her own husband. If that is the worst the Dems can throw at President Bush, they are in trouble. I still say to the Democrats, guys, instead of trying to knock Bush down, build a better mousetrap! Have actual plans to improve the economy, to finish the job in Iraq, to promote better education and housing and so on. Yada yada yada…..the negative stuff, George is a bad man, that is not going to fly with the average American voter. Unless the economy plummets right before the election as happened to Bush the father, in which case “W” could be Lincoln and Reagan put together and still be in danger of defeat. GETTING ALL RANDOM ON YOU Judging from the content of most of the recent spam I receive, the authors must be listening to “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane continually. You know, “one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small…” The last actor to win in California wound up in the White House. Scares me! I know it would take an amendment to the Constitution, but we do come up with them from time to time. Barbra Streisand to political science is like chimpanzee to trigonometry. Concerning the NFL: Kicking to Dante Hall of the Chiefs is like pitching to Barry Bonds with men in scoring position. What, are you nuts? (But we hope you do it anyway because it makes the game that much more exciting!) How can any of us ever leave an NFL game early after what the Colts did to the Buccaneers two Monday nights ago? Hmmm. Maybe the Cubs do have a chance? ------------ About the author: Kimbal Ross Binder is a husband of one wife and parent of six child units of various sizes. He is a tennis bum, karaoke singer, punster and a reformed liberal who now admires Rush Limbaugh and hates to miss Fox News in the evening. You can pass along plaudits and invectives to: radarbinder@comcast.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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