My Mom's Favorite Sport
An unforgettable and historic World Series has come to a thrilling conclusion and somewhere up there, my mom is smiling.
My mom loved baseball. It was probably her favorite sport. In fact, the main reason I enjoy baseball to this day is because it reminds me of her. Of course, she loved the Minnesota Twins and when I was a kid, the Twins play-by-play was tuned in on our kitchen radio every summer evening (this was back when we only had one t.v. channel -- yes, only one! -- and it was very rare to be able to watch a regular season Twins game).
I am so thankful she was able to see the Twins win a World Series in 1987; she was absolutely thrilled. She had her favorite Twins sweatshirt which she wore all the time. I have just one picture of her wearing that shirt, but for the life of me I can't find it.
In fact, when my mom died unexpectedly on May 2, 1990, she was wearing that shirt.
But here is a little known fact that has probably been long forgotten: my mom was also a Chicago Cubs fan.
The truth is, I probably would have forgotten this myself if it wasn't for the wonderful letters she wrote to me in the late 1980s (and yes, I kept them all). One of those letters contained a sentence which I remembered after all this time, and it was the reason I was pulling for the Cubs during this year's World Series.
I had to sort through dozens of pages to find it. It took a little while, but here it is, in my mom's handwriting:
The letter is dated October 10, 1989. She writes, "Vikes did pretty good didn't they? but my darn Cubbies got beat."
I did a quick bit of research and this refers to the Chicago Cubs losing to the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the 1989 National League Championship Series on October 9, 1989.
Sadly, Mom passed away just seven months after writing this. She never got to see the Twins repeat another World Series championship, which happened just two years later.
And 27 years after writing this letter, my mom's Cubbies finally did it.
My mom loved baseball. It was probably her favorite sport. In fact, the main reason I enjoy baseball to this day is because it reminds me of her. Of course, she loved the Minnesota Twins and when I was a kid, the Twins play-by-play was tuned in on our kitchen radio every summer evening (this was back when we only had one t.v. channel -- yes, only one! -- and it was very rare to be able to watch a regular season Twins game).
I am so thankful she was able to see the Twins win a World Series in 1987; she was absolutely thrilled. She had her favorite Twins sweatshirt which she wore all the time. I have just one picture of her wearing that shirt, but for the life of me I can't find it.
In fact, when my mom died unexpectedly on May 2, 1990, she was wearing that shirt.
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| I found this picture online. It is identical to my mom's favorite Twins shirt. |
The truth is, I probably would have forgotten this myself if it wasn't for the wonderful letters she wrote to me in the late 1980s (and yes, I kept them all). One of those letters contained a sentence which I remembered after all this time, and it was the reason I was pulling for the Cubs during this year's World Series.
I had to sort through dozens of pages to find it. It took a little while, but here it is, in my mom's handwriting:
The letter is dated October 10, 1989. She writes, "Vikes did pretty good didn't they? but my darn Cubbies got beat."
I did a quick bit of research and this refers to the Chicago Cubs losing to the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the 1989 National League Championship Series on October 9, 1989.
Sadly, Mom passed away just seven months after writing this. She never got to see the Twins repeat another World Series championship, which happened just two years later.
And 27 years after writing this letter, my mom's Cubbies finally did it.
