Footprints

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on April 2, 2008

This Is Next Year

“Would the mother of Moses Winkler please pick up your son at the concession stand behind home plate?”

So the guy sitting behind us says, “Moses is 50 and his mother is 90.”

This is the quick wit of one spectator, among the blue and no hair crowd, who came to watch the Chicago Cubs play in their final week of spring training at HoHoKam Park in Mesa, Arizona. Also among the many retiree faithful were several who had lost the reflexes to get out of the way of the comet-like foul balls headed in the direction of their bald domes. By only the grace of God, there were few of these occurrences that Allan Rachles and I witnessed in the first five Cub games we have attended this spring. Allan and I are in the process of fulfilling an age old dream of ours of attending eight Cub spring training games in eight days and hopefully helping our lovable losers over the hump of their mini-slump of 99 years without a World Series championship. Any team can have a bad century.

Pitchers and catchers are the first to report to spring training. Other players follow shortly after. The games that are played in early March involve a lot of prospects. None of the players play very many innings. As the games progress, the regulars get more playing time along with the very bright prospects. Players who are marginal are cut from the team and are either sent to the minor leagues for more seasoning, or are released from the team. By the time Allan and I arrived in Arizona, many of the Cub positions were set with just a few questions remaining as to who might start and who might make the team.

Having my first glimpse at spring training games, I was immediately taken by the differences between these games and the regular season. For one, nobody seems to get too worked up about winning the games. In the five games we have witnessed so far, we have yet to see a manager argue a call. In a close game, managers will keep a marginal player in a crucial situation just to see how he performs in a spring training game. That player would be substituted for in a regular game. Minor leaguers tend to hustle more than the regulars who know they have a lock on a position. Pitchers tend to try out new pitches. The atmosphere is more festive and less intense. While all the games we have attended so far have been sold out, the roughly 12,000 fans attending is significantly less than the 40,000 who will view games in the regular season. The parks are so much smaller that there are no bad seats. We have viewed the players up close, including one game from the front row behind the plate. This intimate setting provides for a lot more interaction between the players and the fans.

During our stay, Allan and I have been the guests of my sister, Betsy, who has been the most gracious host to us. We, along with my daughter Elle and my father, have had the good fortune of spending this time in the Phoenix area with her. We have been the recipients of great seats by my nephew Aaron, a sports and food maven who has lived in the Phoenix area for several years and also attended several of the games. We have been very impressed with the local eateries and multitude of Cub fans who seem to infest everywhere we go in the area.

In the five games we have seen, the Cubs have yet to be beaten. They have scored seven or more runs in each of the games. Three times the Cubs have come back from four run deficits. This is significantly different from all other Cub teams we have followed. We are used to the Cubs taking an early lead, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by bringing in a relief pitcher who would have trouble getting Moses Winkler or his mother out.

With our intention of giving the Cubs the support they have needed to finally win a world championship, it appears that our attendance at these games may have been the missing element. Allan and I are very excited about what we have seen. Wait until next year is a thing of the past. Cub fans, remember that you heard this here first. This is next year.

Budd Glassberg is a 23 year resident of Zionsville who works and volunteers in the community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.