Eighty-year-old George Bodnar pulled out a wrinkled Chicago Cubs season pass from 1959, signed by Mr. P.K. Wrigley himself.
“This award is made in cooperation with the Illinois and Indiana High School Associations, by the Chicago Cubs,” Bodnar said slowly, reading the season pass he’s owned since his senior year at Emerson High School in Gary.
The wallet-sized keepsake states: “The high school player who has been awarded this certificate will be admitted to any 1959 National League baseball game played by the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. In appreciation of his valued service as one of the up-and-coming young Americans whose active interest in baseball keeps the sport in the forefront as our country’s National Game.”
Bodnar looked up and smiled like a proud teenager.
“Every player on my high school baseball team was given one of these, but I’ll bet I’m the only one who still has theirs,” he said.
Bodnar has been a Cubs fan since the 1940s, since Harry S. Truman was president with a desk sign stating, “The Buck Stops Here!”
“This is how I feel about the Cubs this season and their decision to trade away our favorite players,” Bodnar said in disgust. “The buck stops here, and the Ricketts family needs to know there are old fans like me who are angry with their ownership.”
Bodnar was referring to the team’s controversial trades of star players earlier this month — Anthony Rizzo to the Yankees, Kris Bryant to the Giants, and Javier Báez to the Mets, among other unpopular swaps for possible future stars.
“I remember Cubs’ star players going back decades,” Bodnar said, rattling off names such as Ernie Banks, Don Elston and Moe Drabowsky from the ’59 roster. “Mr. Ricketts should be ashamed for trading away our current stars. I’m going to get me a Yankees hat, a Mets hat, and a Giants hat.”
Bodnar, who’s lived in his Portage home since Fergie Jenkins was on the mound, wanted to pitch me a high and tight fastball after reading my Aug. 3 column: “Relax Cubs fans, you didn’t lose a kidney or a parent. Just a few favorite professional athletes from your favorite baseball team. They will be just fine. And so will you,” I wrote.
“Cubs fans aren’t just fine,” Bodnar told me at his kitchen table. (Watch a video on my Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/JerDavich.)
Most Cubs fans who contacted me agreed with him. Especially lately, as the team suffered its 13th consecutive home loss Sunday — a franchise record — with a 9-1 defeat to the Kansas City Royals.
“Who are you kidding?” asked Phil K., a longtime Cubs fan. “The mounting losses since those guys left makes me sick to my stomach. It’s back to embarrassing Cub teams.”
Jerry Levy, of Deerfield, summed up the grieving process for most fans: “Denial — say it ain’t so!; anger — those mopes don’t know what they’ve doing; bargaining — OK, maybe we got a few good trades and we can rebuild into another World Series team; depression — but my guys are gone; and finally acceptance — wait ’til next year.”
Len Levy, of Glenview, agreed with me about moving on from traded players. But with a noted caveat: “I take exception to your use of the Lou Brock trade as an analogy, declaring some fans to still be ‘heartbroken and devastated.'”
“To set the record straight, this is the reality. Brock was, at best, just an average fielder, a below average hitter, and a daring but foolish base runner. The Cubs inept leadership didn’t see the potential in Brock. Had he stayed in the organization, his career would not have blossomed into Hall of Fame worthiness,” Levy wrote. “Cub fans didn’t lament the trade until AFTER Brock achieved greatness in St. Louis.”
OK, I swung and missed with that old reference in my previous column.
“You’re right, but it all still stings a little,” wrote Mark M.
“Great article that hit the nail on the head,” wrote Jerry Casper, of Montgomery, Alabama.
He recalled the first game he attended at Wrigley Field with the Cubs playing the Reds and pitcher Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell, who played from 1942 to 1955. “He had such a cool name I’ve never forgotten it,” Casper said. “It was a long trek from Aurora to Chicago’s North Side then but well worth it.”
“In over seven decades of watching the Cubs I’ve come to the conclusion that Cub fans don’t care so much about winning as about having their favorite players show up every day to play,” he said. “If they win now and then, great, but don’t try to make a better team by trading them.”
Of all the reader feedback I received, this is my favorite: “Your column was rather snarky and I didn’t appreciate the ‘you didn’t lose a kidney’ reference because I did lose one and am trying to exist with only one. So that was low and unnecessary,” wrote Neil K. “You obviously are not a Cub fan so writing a column poking fun at the people who are upset over three beloved players being traded is ridiculous. You need to stop drinking and typing.”
Fair enough. I’ll stop serving myself after the seventh inning of every upcoming column.
Bodnar was angrier with Tom Ricketts than with me.
“Mr. Ricketts should see what Mr. Wrigley gave me in 1959,” he said, holding up his season pass. “This is how an owner is supposed to reward loyal fans.”
