Chicago Cubs: Top 5 essentials for every Cubs fan

Going to a Chicago Cubs game or even watching it with family at home over MLB.tv has become quite the celebration with fans, what are the essentials for every fan?

The last game I attended at Wrigley Field reminded me of going to a Jimmy Buffett concert as I watched fans walk by in the craziest fashions. These days, fans are becoming ever more comfortable expressing themselves, relaxing and having fun on a visit to the Friendly Confines. This takes the shape of face painting, exotic Cubs hats, Cubs Aloha shirts, beach balls, dancing, stripping, and getting wasted with sometimes loud and obnoxious results.

Alternatively, through northern Indiana and Ohio, up toward Iowa and as far as Hawaii, everywhere across the good ‘ole USA where there is no Wrigley Field. Cubs fans get together to watch important matchups with division rivals like the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals as if it were a Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers game.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would always ‘rather be at Wrigley,’ but if I couldn’t be there, than I would instead be watching the matchups over MLB.tv on a 4K television with some ethnic food that could make my mouth drool a whole other lake for Chicago.  Whether we are watching the game at Wrigley Field or chilling in the homestead with the family, these are the top 5 everyday essentials every Cubs fan needs.

Chicago Cubs: Seeing it with my own eyes

4. Good Seats or an Excellent 1080p/4K Television

Location, location, location! While I don’t think there is a bad seat in all of Wrigley Field, it’s like St. Peter’s Basilica to me, you’ve got to have good seats where you can enjoy the game. For some, that may be the bleachers, but for others it’s about the shade or rain.

Fans don’t want to get baked in their seat by the sun or washed out during rain storms. I’ve always found that the stands that are off Left Field are best, almost directly between the dirt of the infield and the ivy. Then sit just under the overhang of the stands above, and you can go to a game anytime, and the sun won’t be an issue.

If you’re hosting a Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers party-game in your home, then you have to step up from that 720p television. These days, it’s got to be no less than a 1080p television experience.

A 4K television would be the preferred screen for viewing, but 1080p is even achievable on projectors, which could also open up the possibility of a theater-type experience for your game as you watch Baez swim-slide into second base. We’ve even watched the games in 3D using a setting on the Smart TV, which makes everything 3D! Then just put on your glasses and there you are – right in Wrigley Field!

3. The Right Food is Essential for the Right Ambiance During the Game

Have you ever gone to a game and get to your seats and someone announces that they are going to go and get food, and then you never see them again. By the third inning, you’re trying to flag down a cop and file a missing person’s report. What the heck? You come to the game so you can sit in line and feed your face?

Yes, especially if it’s bratwurst or deep dish pizza.

Food is just as popular as the game in Chicago. There are all the usual goodies around the park during the game and excellent choices of burgers, pizzas, or ethnics food around Wrigleyville after the game.

If you’re outside Chicago, some folks like to do ballpark hot dogs, bratwurst, and local deep dish pizza to bring that Chicago flavor to their games. Even White Castle hamburgers and cheeseburgers found in the frozen section of your local retail store bring that Chicagoland Midwest touch to Cubs game gatherings across the country.

Chicago Cubs: So you think you know everything?

2. Digital Guide or Google Assistant 

Whenever you go to a Cubs game, get a program – you cheap sucker. There are always some good Chicago Cubs pics in there, and the blurbs tell you who is playing that day. If you’re still not convinced, think of it as a keepsake from ‘your game’ at Wrigley.

I also like to flip on my At-Bat app and watch the box scores and how the plays are being graded. These days, apps are almost like digital guides when you go to the game. Just don’t keep your nose in it too long, ok? You’re at Wrigley Field for chrissakes! Look around!

At home, these days, it’s the Google Assistant or Alexa. Chicago Cubs announcer’s Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies too slow on details? Just ask your digital assistant (whatever kind you own). As you’re watching the Cubbies in 4K, you can shout out at any time to your digital assistant during the game:

“What’s the score of the Cardinals game?”

And your digital assistant will keep you up to date with an up to the minute score, situation and even condition if the game is in delay. I’ve told my digital assistant to give me an update every five minutes until the game starts during a rain delay last season. But by far, my favorite use of the digital assistant is in settling drunken bets like, “Who’s the most famous Cubs pitcher?”

“Fergie Jenkins!”

“Are you kidding? It’s Mordecai Brown. Trust me…”

“Hey, Google, who’s the most famous Cubs pitcher?”

“On the website thisgreatgame.com, it says the Cubs best pitcher was Charlie Root. Root is the winningest pitcher in Cubs history, racking up 201 victories over 16-year tenure in Chicago,” said the Digital Assistant.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh,” everyone said at the same time.

I’ve found that using the Digital Assistant during the game is invaluable, and I may even be using it to cast the game to the television as well. If you haven’t integrated your digital assistant in your home to baseball, you’re missing out.

Chicago Cubs: Most Cubs fans have this essential already

1. Patience is a Cubs Fan Virtue and Essential 

I’m going to step out of the box (which I’m told is a good thing to do every so often) and not look at anything material at all for the last and final Cubs fan essential. You see, the Cubs grew a lot of fans in 2016. Some had wandered off over the years just checking the standings every so often and waiting to re-engage with the Cubs once they saw the team had started moving toward a division race or even Wild Card.

I’ll be honest and candid without flinching and say we lost a lot of fans in 2005 when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series. Cubs fans had been waiting about 97 years in 2005 for the Cubs to make a move. Instead, the Cubs finished fourth in the National League Central Division with a 79-83 record that year. Fans were spooked that they might die without ever getting to celebrate a title in Chicago.

Add on to the fact that the following year the Cubs came in 6th in the NL Central finishing (66-96) and overnight many loyal northside Cubs fans and fans throughout northern Indiana turned in their blue caps for black. I’d like to think they just ‘added’ the black cap just in case the Cubs finally won it all. But that scenario looked less and less likely as it would be 11 years before the Cubs would eventually win the World Series.

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I do not doubt that after 2016, if a fan had even thought about the Cubs in their life, then they became Cubs fans (again). Everyone wanted to be part of the 108-year hiatus, broken curse, or whatever you were calling it; Cubs fans were crawling out of the woodwork.

Many have stayed and remained loyal and patient fans waiting for that next shot at destiny, while others have reverted to rechecking the standings, especially with an uneventful offseason. While still others have heard that ‘other’ Chicago team is supposed to be smoking hot this year and have dusted off their black hats that have been in the back of the closet since 2016.

Oh sure, it happens because some folks just want to enjoy baseball in Chicago and will go wherever the ‘W’ lands. Other fans will wait patiently for a Cubs resurgence, and it’s these fans that are enjoying that last essential, which is patience.

Cubs fans who have lived through the ’60s to the present have seen so many good Cubs baseball but without that championship. When it finally does arrive, it means so much to those who have waited for it patiently. It’s not easy, and no one ever said being a Cubs fan is easy.

I remember meeting my first roommate in the Army, Mike, from upstate New York in the early ’90s. Mike was, of course, a New York Yankees fan and across the hall were two guys from Boston who were die-hard Boston Red Sox fans. I was literally surrounded. The first time Mike saw me put on my Cubs baseball hat after work, he said, “Oh Cubs fan, huh? Guess you don’t like to win much,” he laughed.

That’s what it was like everywhere Cubs fans dared to wear the classic C cap. Others would say something like, “Oh, I used to be a Cubs fan too watching all the games on WGN with my family, but they never won anything, and then I moved to (pick) and became a (who cares) fan,” they would explain.

It takes a lot of patience to follow this franchise and stay loyal, but patience feels so good when years like 2016 come around, and they will again Cubs fans.

Be patient.