Between the seams

As I sit at my desk at the Post, my heart is torn. It's been torn before. I sit, eating leftover calzone from Old Chicago watching the Cubs/Rockies pregame, torn with my loyalties.

I chose my favorite player, Eric Young, on the sole foundation that he hit the very first Colorado Rockies homerun as the lead-off hitter in the first inning of the inaugural game. "Eric Young began the day as an unknown in Denver and Colorado. But by 3:30 on the afternoon of April 9, 1993, the Rockies second baseman became everybody's hero," Irv Moss wrote in the Denver Post. I was six.

After moving to Chicago and choosing the White Sox for 30 seconds, one of my poorer decisions based only on the fact that my brother picked the Cubbies first. I quickly came to my senses and began to bleed Cubbie blue. I was seven.

A lot happened in my baseball life in just one year. And now, a number of years later, I'm in a dilemma.

From then until moving back West, the Cubs were my one and only. Once or so a year, I went down to Wrigley Field. Once nearly sacrificing my own short-lived ball career. After a white lie to my coach about having to miss a game for a family event, my family traveled to the centerfield bleachers of the Friendly Confines for an afternoon game. All would have been fine except I started getting messages that friends had seen us on WGN. "Coach just saw you on tv," a teammate wrote. "Hope it was worth it." It was. Sure I had a few extra sprints on Monday, but who misses a chance to sit among the vines.

The Cubs are always there, but year in and year out they do their best to wear you down. I sat in the basement with my brother who the man that must not be mentioned (cough BARTMAN cough) took away the last seemingly close chance the Cubs had to the pennant. Not to say the Cubs didn't have their chances to redeem themselves, but that's an entirely different post.

After moving back to Colorado, I caught back up with the Rockies. At first it was relatively cheap, fun entertainment. Then I took a internship/bartender/marketing/grounds keeper position with the Rockies Triple-A affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. I interviewed some players and enjoyed watching their move, at times struggle, toward the Big Leagues. Today those players, all grown up, are starting for the Rockies. Ubaldo Jimenez, Seth Smith, Ryan Spilborghs, and Chris Iannetta.

When I sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Coors Field, I still sing "Root, Root, Root, for the Cubbies" to my husband's embarrassment and to the memory of Harry Carey. When the season gets started, I still sport my "I Believe" bracelet in Cubbie blue. There is a tradition about being a Cubs fan, part of a group of people who enjoy suffering. The Rockies are a young, homegrown group who have a youthful hope about them. 

I find myself in quite the predicament. I choose both, and I don't feel bad about it. Don't try to make me.