Since Phantom Scribbler yesterday posted a photo of one of her kids wearing a baseball cap, I figured I would do the same and make it a meme. Here is my son Shaggy Hair Boy with a baseball cap pulled on over his wet hair.
Of course, it is not just any cap. It is a Chicago Cubs' hat. That is because I made the mistake, many years ago, of marrying a Cub fan.
It is the same old story. You marry someone because you are in love with him, and that blinds you to certain facets of his personality. I knew he was a Cub fan, but I thought he would change. I thought that if I loved him enough, he would abandon his loyalty to the team that always loses. I thought that his fanaticism about the Cubs would fade with time.
It's not that I am loyal to some other team. No, it is worse than that. I hate professional sports altogether.
I should have been suspicious the first year we were married. We were making plans for a romantic weekend, and Spouse suggested that we drive to Chicago to see a baseball game. Now, most of you have grasped by now that we live nowhere near Chicago. I mean, not even close. To get to Chicago, we must pass many other cities that have baseball teams. In fact, we have a fine minor league team in Snowstorm City. If we wanted to see a baseball game (and no, that is not something I would ever want to do), we could just drive to the stadium that is ten miles away. And I am of the firm belief that baseball has no part in a romantic weekend. None whatsoever.
But Spouse is a Cub fan, and that has not waned during the 21 years we have been married. Worse, he has converted Beautiful Smart Wonderful Daughter. The boys seem immune to creeping Cubsfanism, but Spouse got to Daughter at a young age, and I have found her actually CHECKING THE SPORTS PAGE OF THE NEWSPAPER .... after taking it out of the recycling bin, where I routinely toss sections of newspaper I consider useless.
That brings me to the camping vacation we are about to take. Spouse said he would be willing to do the work of planning our August vacation this year. And so he did.
We will be driving all day tomorrow to camp in a location nowhere near here. We will be hiking in sand dunes and swimming in a great lake. We will be driving into a city to go to the museums, the aquarium, and the art institute. All things that I love to do. But we will also be going to a baseball game. Because this vacation just happens to take us to Chicago when the Cubs are in town.
Coincidence? I think not.
Of course, it is not just any cap. It is a Chicago Cubs' hat. That is because I made the mistake, many years ago, of marrying a Cub fan.
It is the same old story. You marry someone because you are in love with him, and that blinds you to certain facets of his personality. I knew he was a Cub fan, but I thought he would change. I thought that if I loved him enough, he would abandon his loyalty to the team that always loses. I thought that his fanaticism about the Cubs would fade with time.
It's not that I am loyal to some other team. No, it is worse than that. I hate professional sports altogether.
I should have been suspicious the first year we were married. We were making plans for a romantic weekend, and Spouse suggested that we drive to Chicago to see a baseball game. Now, most of you have grasped by now that we live nowhere near Chicago. I mean, not even close. To get to Chicago, we must pass many other cities that have baseball teams. In fact, we have a fine minor league team in Snowstorm City. If we wanted to see a baseball game (and no, that is not something I would ever want to do), we could just drive to the stadium that is ten miles away. And I am of the firm belief that baseball has no part in a romantic weekend. None whatsoever.
But Spouse is a Cub fan, and that has not waned during the 21 years we have been married. Worse, he has converted Beautiful Smart Wonderful Daughter. The boys seem immune to creeping Cubsfanism, but Spouse got to Daughter at a young age, and I have found her actually CHECKING THE SPORTS PAGE OF THE NEWSPAPER .... after taking it out of the recycling bin, where I routinely toss sections of newspaper I consider useless.
That brings me to the camping vacation we are about to take. Spouse said he would be willing to do the work of planning our August vacation this year. And so he did.
We will be driving all day tomorrow to camp in a location nowhere near here. We will be hiking in sand dunes and swimming in a great lake. We will be driving into a city to go to the museums, the aquarium, and the art institute. All things that I love to do. But we will also be going to a baseball game. Because this vacation just happens to take us to Chicago when the Cubs are in town.
Coincidence? I think not.
23 comments:
Oh, Jo(e), that is terrible. I empathize, really I do.
My husband claims that I misrepresented myself because I used to sit and watch sports with him and now I refuse and have revealed that I hate sports organizations also. You know how it is when you are dating someone, you just PRETEND to like what they like! Right? I didn't misrepresent, per se, I just expressed interest in his likes and now that we are married I feel no need to continue this : )
Oh, I never pretended to have any interest in sports. Even when we were dating. My husband has known all along that the only way he can get me to to a baseball game is to bribe me with a cool camping trip and visits to museums.
Hey come visit me :) But seriously, Cubs fans are underdog fans--the most rabid of the breed.
I know it's hard, but try to be understanding with your daughter. She can't help it-- it's a genetic condition, and a permanent stamp on the soul.
I am, God help me, a Cubs fan by birth. I mean literally-- I was almost born at home because my mother refused to leave the house until the game was over.
That aside, I hope you have a grand time on your vacation. And if you will be camping in or near Hooiserland, let me know!
My husband is obsessesd with the Detroit Tigers. He likes the Cubbies second. He grew up in Indiana and those were the closest two teams.
His family has a lake house 3 hours from Chicago. Every couple of years we fly out and spend 10 days there. We spend at least some of that time hanging out in Chicago, and seeing the Cubs
When I was younger, I always wanted to marry someone who liked sports. And I did. Sergei's passion for football is only surpassed by...uh...not much!
Friday Mom: A Yankee fan? (shudder) Oh, that would be way worse. Mainly because the Yankee games are on television. But where I live, the local channels never carry a Cubs game so at least I don't have to live with anyone in the household wanting to watch baseball on television. They are pretty much limited to reading the scores in the newspaper. (Baseball on television? Could anything be more boring?)
I'm good for about one basball outing per season and that's it. Fortunately Mr. RM feels the same way. We just don't have the sports gene--watching or playing.
And what with the steroids, the planet-sized egos, the tantrums, the obscene salaries, the strikes, the threats-of-strikes, the stadiums "that won't be built with public money" and yet always are... well, I don't cast aspersions on those who love the game, but I admit that the sanctimonious side of me just doesn't even want to cultivate that interest. But it does bring me up a bit short in the small-talk department.
Hey! I heard that Yankee comment.
re: husbands as a package deal. The sports I could live with, because a) it's seasonal b) you get to eat food in the stands.
My husband has an even worse side interest. He's a computer-war-game fanatic. Rome and Age of Empires are the current evils in the home. After he comes home from work, he blows an hour or two in front of the computer. Totally anti-social. OK, I'm reading the blogs and am not really talking either, but that's not the point.
He's sucked my 6 year old into this sick world as well. And they sit around talking strategies and making maps on the back of napkins in McDonalds. GEEKS!
ah, but a vacation to Chicago sounds grand! I love the art institute!
even though we no longer live in Chicago, I would be willing to meet up with you at that Cubs game...!
(we're back from Israel in August)
oops. tomorrow. nope. can't be there. maybe some other game.
You comment about your daughter being interested in sports was interesting. I'm not really a sports fan, although I like to play some of them, but I do enjoy going to basketball games. It was something I did growing up to connect with my dad, and I enjoyed being with my dad and having something to relate to him about more than the actual sport, I think.
Purple Kangaroo: I think that is a big part of why my daughter is a Cubs' fan -- it is a connection with her Dad.
I shouldn't be by now, but I am always surprised when someone I meet and relate to turns out to be into sports. I do this thing, where if someone has politics like mine, or an academic job like mine, I just infer that they dislike sports as much as I do. I don't make many other rash inferences. But I always make that one.
Perhaps it is because, in my youth, I first rejected the belligerent, anti-intelectual culture of football and basketball and such, and then embraced a pacifist intellectualism.
Or maybe its because jocks always beat me up in elementary school and jr high, and have constructed my entire personality, ethic, and worldview as a giant defense mechanism to that trauma, so that someone who has a worldview like mine but still likes sports becomes a massive category violation, like a chimera or a minotaur, and I am filled with all of the anxiety that comes from looking at monsters.
Dr K: The reason people like Cub fans is because they feel sorry for them.
Timna: Darn. I was going to let you have my ticket. (Still willing to get out of this game .... any takers out there?)
Rob: You leave such great comments! I never got beat up in school but otherwise, you hit my view exactly.
Jo(e): thanks so much. You write such great posts.
Beautiful boy...Of course my son is all about the Red Sox and has been all his life, but here in Virginia they could care less about baseball. Have a great vacation. I'll have to read vicarously...since mine is over now.
My friend's husband loves baseball. He wants my friend to go with him to the game and likes her to sit next to him and he doesn't care if she reads a book. She enjoys being with him, sitting in the sun, and reading. Maybe you could manage something like this arrangement!
I love the Art Institue in Chicago. They have the huge George Seurat painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" that I think is just fabulous.
Have a great vacation!
I feel really lucky that Keith is NOT a sports fan.
Hope you have fun in ALL your activities!
Ah yes, a baseball fan. I believe Cubs fans are like Red Sox fans (of which my husband is one). I feel your pain. ;-)
Have a great time on your trip!
Okay... when are you going to be in Chicago? Email me!
Ok, I know I'm extremely late to this party, but I really like the meme. I took a picture of my little guy wearing a sort of hat earlier today. I think I'll go post it now and continue the meme.
Neither my husband or I have the remotest interest in sports, but we both have family members who are huge college football fans. We have to go games every fall, rejoice when Michigan's in the Rose Bowl, cry when they're not, etc. etc. Personally, I hate it when we go to the Rose Bowl because it conflicts with my son's birthday, but I can never, ever, EVER tell this to my mother.
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