Stacy is the author of popular blog, Layin’ Down Roots. She is a regular contributor to moreClaremore, and this story was so sweet, we had to share. Fly the W! Photos courtesy Stacy Dodson Carlin.
When I first met Scott in December 2002, he was 27 and I was 21. We fell in love fast and moved in together within 6 months of knowing each other. When we moved into our very first apartment in the summer of 2003, he hung up this bright blue Cubs jersey on his side of the closet. I remember asking him, “Do you actually wear that? I mean, you’re 27…do you really wear a jersey when you’re 27?” He replied that he’d had it for years and wore it to Wrigley when he went to watch the games. Little did he know that his trips to Wrigley would soon be few and far between after married life with kids, limited to Father’s Day presents and trips with Brian Mckean.
I remember watching the 2003 Cubs that summer with him in our new apartment as he shouted at the TV and explained the story behind the Curse to me. In fact, one of our very first fights was when he left to go up to Grand Rapids to watch the Cubs in the NLCS Championship that October (after the Bartman incident) with James Taylor instead of staying home to watch it with me. I remember him saying, “I’ve been watching the Cubs with Taylor since our days on Merson Ct….sorry Honey, I love you, but I’ve got to go.”
Fast forward a few moves and a few kids (the jersey transplanted from one closet to the next) and this year, 2016, our son started playing baseball. It was so awesome to watch Scott share his love of the game with his boy. They played catch outside for hours in the backyard and Scott explained the tortured history of the Cubs to his boy, including the goat and Bartman. When the playoffs started, they watched the games together and Cy got to know the players and learned the lingo.
Last night, Scott let Cy stay up as late as he wanted to watch the game with him. As I sat on the couch by them, I was overcome by emotion at their profiles….both intently watching the game together. I’m a casual fan at best (hockey is my first love), but there’s something about a Dad and his son watching their team that gets me a little choked up. When Cy finally passed out around 10:30, Scott stuck around a few more minutes and then said he had to go and watch the end of the game with McKean and sit in the same spot on his couch that he did when they clinched the NLCS. This time I didn’t try to convince him to stay, sounded like a reasonable superstition to me.
After the game, I went to bed and figured he’d be home soon. But, when your team wins the World Series, apparently you have a hard time going to sleep. So instead of hearing the door open, I heard my phone go off and received a text from him along with a picture of the long line at Dick’s sporting goods. My husband, who hates shopping, drove to Mishawaka to stand in line for over an hour to buy his son a world championship shirt for THEIR team. I heard the house alarm turn on around 4:00 this morning, when he finally got back home after what was probably the best sports night of his life. Instead of celebrating it in a bar like 27-year-old Scott would have, he spent the night getting gear for his kids and ended it with a single beer at home in his new Championship glass.
This morning Cy woke up and ran into our room to ask his Dad about the end of the game. Scott looked up and said, “Go check your pillow.” Cy ran back upstairs to his room and, sitting on his pillow, was a blue Cubs hat with the word “Champions” on it. He hasn’t taken it off his head since.
So, a big Congratulations to all of you Cubs fans this morning. And a special congrats to my two guys. It’s pretty damn cool that they were able to enjoy this together this year. Life is a series of moments–tragedies and triumphs, magic and memories. Someday Cy will tell his kids about how he watched the 2016 Cubs with his Dad. But the thing that I will remember is how a game and a team created a bond between my two favorite boys that will surely last a lifetime.
