Why do you Cubs fans continue to torture yourselves?
The depths of loyalty for a franchise that has not won a World Series in 100 years boggle the mind. Especially your minds. Is it the allure of rooting for the perennial underdog? Is it the pursuit of a delayed gratification that the law of averages dictates will come to pass one day?
These are questions that need to be asked and answered for the future sanity of Cubs Nation. And now even neuroscientists are weighing in on this sports and society phenomenon that some view as sadistic.
A new book titled “Your Brain On Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans” will be released March 14 and explores the intersection of neuroscience and baseball. The book is edited by Dan Gordon, who enlists leading neuroscientists and distinguished science writers to take an in-depth look at the Cubs and their history. Gordon is managing editor of Dana Press ( www.dana.org) in Washington, D.C., and a native of Normal, Ill. He has been a Cubs fan since he was 6.
Dr. Steven Small of the University of Chicago Medical Center technically discusses the neuroscience of hitting in chapter three. Dr. Jordan Grafman of the National Institutes of Health analyzes the brain of a Cubs fan in the opening chapter.
“A fan’s dedication to a chronically losing baseball team involves a number of social-cognitive processes that allow him to accept his fate, along with other aesthetic appreciations related to the field of play,” Grafman writes. “In the case of a losing team, a fan has to be prepared to delay gratification for years, decades, and occasionally a century.”
The book includes detailed charts of the brain that depict areas concerned with emotion, reward, social knowledge and other mental activity that typically affect a Cubs fan.
Overheard
Deanna Favre, wife of recently retired Packers quarterback Brett Favre, talked to me in the fall about his difficult decision, and how he wanted to involve his entire family in the determination of when to call it quits.
“Brett always says: ‘I would retire for you guys in a heartbeat.’ But I don’t want to be the reason,” she said. “I tell him, ‘That needs to be your gut decision. It’s your dream.'”…In a recent informal radio poll conducted by the Mike North Morning Show on WSCR-AM 670, the question was posed to listeners: “If you had to choose one, who would go to the Hall of Fame?” The options were Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Pete Rose. The results from 400 respondents: Clemens (4 percent), Bonds (8 percent) and Rose 88 percent).
Word on the street
Former Cubs pitcher Jamie Moyer, currently with the Phillies, is expanding a series of bereavement camps to help children who have lost a family member or friend. Moyer and his wife, Karen, are expanding to 10 new cities this year with a five-year goal of having a Camp Erin available in every major-league city.
Camp Erin is named for Erin Metcalf, a close friend of the Moyer family who died of cancer at 17. The camp expansion is made possible through The Moyer Foundation’s $10 million Campaign for Kids that was launched in March 2007. Camp Erin is supported by 40 advocates, including the White Sox’s Toby Hall and wife Karra; Darin Erstad and wife Jessica and the Cubs’ Kerry Wood and wife Sarah. …
Wrigley Field Ticket 2008 is on sale this week in Chicago at bookstores, newsstands and also via www.maplestreetpress.com. The book includes tales from Wrigley Field ballhawk Ken Vangeloff, a story by Steve Leventhal about how WGN-TV facilitated the rise of Cubs Nation and several other tidbits and stories. …
Steve Lesnik, co-founder and chief executive officer of Northbrook-based KemperSports, has announced he is turning over the title of CEO to president and COO Steve Skinner. KemperSports currently operates in 24 states and Latin America. The sports marketing and public relations firms have been in operation since 1979.
———-
fmitchell@tribune.com
