Batter up!

I was a Cub game not too long before Steve Goodman died (might have been '84). The closest I ever came to a foul ball at Wrigley was when a ball went over my head and as I turned to see who got it, I saw Steve Goodman. Biggest grin you ever saw.

Here's his "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request." Check out the web page on him sometime Click here.

Enjoy!

A DYING CUB FAN'S LAST REQUEST

[Talking blues:]
By the shores of old Lake Michigan, where the hawk wind blows so cold,
An old Cub fan lay dying in his midnight hour that tolled.
'Round his bed, his friends had all gathered. They knew his time was short,
And on his head, they put this bright blue cap from his all-time favorite sport.
He told them, "It's late and it's getting dark in here, and I know its time to go.
But before I leave the lineup, there's just one thing I'd like to know:

[Chorus, sung:]
"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."

[Talking blues:]
Told his friends, "You know the law of averages says, anything will happen that can.
(That's what it says.)
But the year the Cubs last won a National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.
The Cubs made me a criminal, sent me down a wayward path. They stole my youth from me.
(That's the truth.)
I'd forsake my teachers to go sit in the bleachers in flagrant truancy.

"And then one thing led to another. Soon I'd discovered alcohol, gambling, dope,
Football, hockey, lacrosse, tennis. But what do you expect when you raise up a young boy's hope
And then just crush 'em like so many paper beer cups Year after year, after year, after year,
After year, after year, after year, after year,
'Til those hopes are just so much popcorn for pigeons beneath the El track to eat?"
He said, "You know I'll never see Wrigley Field any more before my eternal rest.
So if you have your pencils and your scorecards ready, I'll read you my last request:
Give me a double-header funeral in Wrigley Field on some sunny weekend day.
(No lights).
Have the organ play the National Anthem and then a little "Na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye."
Make six bullpen pitchers carry my coffin and six groundskeepers clear my path.
Have the umpires bark me out at every base in all their holy wrath.
It's a beautiful day for a funeral. Hey, Ernie, let's play two!
Somebody go get Jack Brickhouse to come back and conduct just one more interview.
Have the Cubbies run right out into the middle of the field. Have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly.
Give everybody two bags of peanuts and a frosty malt, and I'll be ready to die.

"Build a big fire on home plate out of your Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and toss my coffin in.
Let my ashes blow in the beautiful snow from the prevailing 30-mile-an-hour southwest wind.
When my last remains go flying over the left field wall, I'll bid the bleacher bums adieu.
I will come to my final resting-place, out on Waveland Avenue."

The dying man's friends told him to cut it out. They said, "Stop it! That's an awful shame."
He whispered, "Don't cry. We'll meet by and by near the heavenly Hall of Fame."
He said, "I've got season's tickets to watch the Angels now, so it's just what I'm going to do."
He said, "But you, the living, you're stuck here with the Cubs, so it's me that feels sorry for you!"

And he said, "Ahhh, play, play that lonesome losers' tune, the one I like the best."
And he closed his eyes, and slipped away. What we got is the Dying Cub fan's last request.

[Chorus, big finish, sung:]
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.

Lineation changed a bit to emphasize the rhyme. --JoeClone, 21-May-03.