Fair-weather Cubs Fans

Where did all of you Cub fans come from? Two weeks ago when the Cubs were still fighting for a playoff spot, you people were nowhere to be found. Now everywhere I look I see Cub fans. How come, at the very moment when the Cubs started winning, did half the University of Wisconsin campus become Cubs fans? The Cub bandwagon is almost bigger than Mark Prior’s calves.

I’ve asked this question of a number of “fans” around campus. The common response is that I am wrong and they have been Cub fans all their life and have been cheering all along. Ninety percent of these fans have brand new, unfaded, twice worn, designer caps that could have only been made recently.

All of a sudden, Mark Prior has become Fabio and the Cubs are en vogue. Where did all of those hippies with Hootie and the Blowfish T-shirts go? They are still here, but the weather is poor.

In order to be a true fan, you have to live through the tough times, celebrate the Sixto Lezchanos, look the other way when Glenn Braggs comes to the plate, or find solace in Bob Uecker. In other words, be a Brewer fan.

Being a fair-weather fan means coming out of the shadows when your team gets the limelight and showing your support as long as your team is doing well. Most of the Cub “fans” in Madison would fall under this category.

I don’t hate the Cubs, but I don’t really like them. I don’t like their administration that did little in recent memory to put a winning team on the field. I don’t like the fact that they rip off the fans with their exorbitant ticket prices. I thought it was amusing when Sosa was caught with a corked bat. And above all, I hate fair-weather Cub fans.

Where were these fans when the Cubs lost 95 games last year? They were nowhere to be found. Now that the Cubs have won their divisional series against Atlanta, more Cub fans are likely to appear.

I’m hoping that the Yankees and the Cubs meet in the World Series. I’ve got money on the Yankees, which brings me to another point. I have this theory going about the so-called “Yankee Bandwagon.”

In order to have a bandwagon, you need a lot of people pulling for a particular team. When the team becomes successful, the bandwagon fills up. This is the exact situation that is happening with the Cubs and this campus now. The bandwagon is nearing capacity.

From conversations I have picked up and from past columns in this paper, it can be said the general sentiment toward the Yankees on this campus is pure hatred and despise. So, for all of you who hate the Yankees out there, you are no better than a Cub fan. The few of us who do root for the Yankees constitute the minority and thus are not part of a bandwagon.

A part of me wants the Cubs to do well, maybe because I enjoy watching Mark Prior pitch. Another part wants to see a repeat of the 1998 Brant Brown incident.

After the Cubs lose to the Yankees, the hats will disappear, the talk will die down, and the “fans” will return to their caves, because true allegiance is born out of tough times and hard roads. And it is traveling down that road that makes the successful times that much sweeter.

Sticking with your team through the tough times makes it that much sweeter when they do win.

Derek Montgomery ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and journalism.