Posted on 05/31/2015 3:21:37 PM PDT by Impy
Lennie Merullo, the last living Cubs player from the 1945 World Series, died Saturday. He was 98.
Merullo played seven seasons at shortstop with the Cubs from 1941-47. After Andy Pafko’s death in 2013, Merullo became the only living person to have played for the Cubs in a World Series.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
Anyone know what year the last 1908 Cub died?
Ping
The grandpa of the next living Cub to play in the World Series hasn’t been born yet.
Ping
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League
Being a non-sports fan, I never understood the die-hard loyalty that the Cubs get.
If Chicago had only one baseball team, I suppose people would feel they “have to” root them as a matter of desperation since they were the only professional team around, but Chicago has two baseball teams. Neither is particularly good, but the Sox won a world series in the last decade whereas the Cubs haven’t won one in over a century, or even made to the world series in decades. In spite of this laughable record, Cubs fans outnumber Sox fans by about 3:1 in estimates I’ve read. I’m pretty sure the north side of Chicago doesn’t have three times the population of the south side (in fact, I think the southside probably has more people, mainly due the southeast suburbs and the north side equivalent region being underwater).
Indeed, going back on the Jackie Robinson West hysteria a few months back, I could even see a reason for “regional loyalty” to the Cubs if the coach and all the players were born and bred northside Chicagoans. They’re not. Half of them aren’t even from the same CONTINENT, the ONLY thing they happen to have in common with their die-hard fanbase is the stadium they play at happens to be located on Chicago’s north side. They are overpaid professional athletes who get millions to lose, and would happily leave their “fans” in a New York minute if another team in another city offered them more money to play for them.
Sports fanaticism makes zero logical sense to me. Exhibit A is the Cubs.
“They are overpaid professional athletes who get millions to lose, and would happily leave their “fans” in a New York minute if another team in another city offered them more money to play for them.”
On the other hand, the Cubs sure have a pretty ball park.
RIP.
Not sure if the RIP was meant for Merullo or the Cubs...
There are several factors that give the Cubs a cultural cache unrivaled by the White Sox
1)Marketing, the city pimps Wrigley as a tourist attraction due to it’s advanced age, it’s the 2nd oldest park and # 3 isn’t close, it’s an icon even though it’s somewhat dilapidated.
2)For many years all the Cubs games were aired nationally on WGN so the whole country could see them, I don’t think another team could claim that
3)Cubs have way more day games than any other team, there’s a whole culture of “bleacher bums” who frequent those day games, for many of them it’s more about drinking beer than watching the game.
4)Wrigley is in a much better part of town, in a much better ‘hood than US Cellular and is very accessible via public transport, lots of bars and eateries nearby. Only Sox fans bother to go down to the Cell.
5)The whole not winning since 1908 thing creates a “mystique”, it hasn’t hurt the teams image, their image is built on that. People want to see them win.
The White Sox had never won for almost as long (1917 last win, 1959 last World Series appearance) before 2005 but were almost completely overlooked thanks to the Cubs (1908 last win, 1945 last WS appearance)
As for what you say about the players, yes, all fans in all professional team sports pretty much “root for the uniform”. That’s how team sports is. Would you root for the US Army if it was entirely made up of Hessian mercenaries? ;)
Danke, gents.
Professional sports players (not just loyalty to the uniform or the stadium they play in) seem to be sacred cows in american culture, where questioning any of their perks is simply off limits.
People always call out Wall Street salaries, salaries above union folk, or any salary above minimum wage, but they praise, honor, adore, admire, respect, etc. sports players who make multi-millions up to hundreds of millions.
And who’s to blame for those salaries? It’s a free market system and we have a terrible economy. They get away with it because the Middle Class supports such gladiators.
The final straw for me was when sports fanatics swore up and down that they would “never again” pay for hundred dollar tickets to baseball games after the spoiled crybaby millionaire players went on strike in 1994, then they quickly caved on that and went back to worshiping the players during the home run streak between Sammy “corked bat” Sosa and Mark “steroid juicer” McGuire.
Let’s see, that was just after WWII, Tigers won?
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