A Daughter's Memoir

‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’

Baseball fans everywhere, but Cub fans in particular, know the song ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’ well. I even sing it as long as the windows are shut.

I recently read an article about the origins of this song. It turns out it was written by a man named Jack Norworth while he was on board a New York City subway train. Two interesting things about this, is that he wrote the song 100 years ago, in 1908, which is precisely as long as it has been since the Chicago Cubs won a World Series. Secondly, my Grandpa VanDelinder (an avid Cub fan) was a train commuter. He spent 1 ½ hours a day for 20 years, traveling from Elgin Illinois to his work in Chicago for the Chicago Sun-Times. I can’t help but marvel that it could have easily been my Grandpa, a very creative man, who penned this song on one of his long commutes.

So to begin my history of ‘Take me out to the ball game’…..

Since I was the first female born in the VanDelinder family in 70 years, I quickly grew accustomed to a lot of fuss and ‘fan fare’ (pun intended). It was also inevitable that my Dad (a.k.a. Grandpa Jim) and his Dad, my Grandpa, would introduce me to the Cubs. The two of them made up huge homemade score pads and taught me how to keep the score of Cubs games while listening to them on the radio.

Then imagine my joy to get to go to real Cubs games at Wrigley Field when we moved to the Chicago suburbs! So for real, my Dad could ‘Take me out with the crowd’ and ‘Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack’ although, to be frank (pun intended), I always favored those wonderful steamed hotdogs that the vendors carried through the crowd in those metal containers. Back then, watching the Cubs at Ivy-covered Wrigley Field, with the indescribably blue sky, along with 40,000 plus other Cub fans dressed in blue, there was no wonder to the refrain ‘I don’t care if I never get back’.

I need to mention that almost our entire family has, or has had, Cubs mania. My Dad, my Mom (who can cat-call and cheer, with the best of them!), my Aunt Leona, my late Uncle Chick, my late Cousin Betty (born in 1908!) and of course my late Grandpa. Even though I wasn’t present, my Dad even had a four generation event at Wrigley Field with my maternal grandmother Fran, my mom Jean, my sister Nancy, and her daughter, my niece, Sarah. Their presence was announced on the radio. So it’s been an obvious family thing to ‘Root, root, root for the Cubbies’.

My Mom and Dad have followed the Cubs to numerous National League ballparks. I personally have gone to “Cubs” games in Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Miami. An extra special memory took place during a Cincinnati outing, in the early 1970’s, when Dad actually arranged for us to have breakfast with Ernie Banks. It took a lot of effort on Dad’s part. He wrote Ernie Banks a letter and then, since we were staying in the same hotel as the Cubs, Dad called and asked him! My recollection was how friendly Ernie was, and how big he was. He didn’t look nearly so big when watching from the “cheap seats” or on TV. My other impression was his diamond rings!

Currently, I try to be content to see some televised Cubs games, and I go to one “Cubs” game a year when the Cubs play the Florida Marlins in Miami. And, every baseball season, I have my Cubs shrine consisting of my autographed baseballs (courtesy of my Dad), my Cubs cap, and my stuffed Cubbie Bear out on my dresser. Because…I believe…this is the year…the Cubbies will win the World Series Championship!

So in the immortal thoughts of any true Cubs fan, every team is entitled to a bad century now and then! So their century is up and ‘If they don’t win it’s a shame’ especially this year in 2008! ‘For it’s one, two, three strikes’, so come on Cubbies let’s end this 100 year drought! ‘At the old ball game’.

By Donna (VanDelinder) Magliano