“Perhaps crossing the barriers of time has freed me.” – W.P. Kinsella
The passing of a baseball icon on Friday reminded me that the upcoming season represents 50 years of being a Cubs fan for me. Work stoppages and the current pandemic have shortened a few of those seasons, but a half a century of baseball equals something like 8,100 games, a large percentage of which I’ve seen in person or on television. Then you add in spring training and the playoffs.
Though I remember bits and pieces of the 1969 and 1970 seasons, it was 1971 when I sat in the Wrigley Field bleachers for the first time.