About gocubbiesjess

My obsession with the Cubs didn’t start when
I was 3 or something like that like everyone else says. I
grew up in Denver and Madison, WI . When I went to college I
got a job at Cubby Bear, which at that time was a really
sought after job. If you’ve ever been to a Cubs game you know
this bar. It’s kitty corner to the main entrance of the park
and it’s been around for YEARS. Cubby Bear even brought over
girls from Sweden (no joke) for the baseball season. You had
to know someone to get a job there for sure. I had literally
the best time that season. It was 1998 and my boyfriend had
cheated on me, so to get him back I decided I’d go work at
Cubbybear and in turn be able to catch some games. Let me
just fill you in on a day in the life of a Cubby Bear
employee. Now back then I was 21 and in my last years of
college so there was a lot of partying. I would come to work
on a day game, get to the bar at 9am, we’d all fill up on
Starbuck’s and McDonald’s from down the street. The great
part about it was, the energy that was in the air before a
game. Watching all the stores open up, the bars get ready,
the band out front of the main entrance to the park. And the
even greater part was, everyone knew each other. The band
would come in to say hi before we opened, the police would
come in to get some breakfast from us; and the other bar
managers would stop in to say hi, comment on the team we were
playing, etc. We always knew how much we were going to make
based on who we played. Let’s put it this way: Atlanta , NY ,
LA – huge tippers. Milwaukee , St. Louis …not good tippers.
We’d open at 10am, and the families would come pouring in.
Then an hour later, the “drinkers,” and we’d do shots with
them, have drinks and get them on their way to the game.
After that around the 3rd inning when we’d cleaned up from
“pre-game” we would get tickets to the game and go until the
8th inning. It was brilliant. We’d have drinks, we would go
on the rooftops (because you get in for free if you worked at
the bars during the season), then we’d come back and get on
beer tubs and just sit there and hand out $5 Miller Lites and
get tips. There was one amazing series where I got tipped
$200 simply because the guy couldn’t deal with his money clip
– he was too drunk and literally forced me to take it. I
tried to give it back trust me. I would probably pull in
anywhere from $400 – $1000 on a game day, especially on a
weekend. And the best part is the bars in Wrigleyville are
required to shut down and close up for an hour after the game
before they opened again for the night crowd. So around 7pm
after a day game I got to go home or go out and spend my
money and have fun. I probably brought in $60,000 that one
summer. And, that very summer was the year that Sammy did hit
his 62nd home run. I remember the one game I was still
working in the 4th inning at Cubby Bear and we saw Sammy
knock one out of the park. I kid you not – everyone, and I
mean EVERYONE ran out of the bar. Cubby Bear has 3 floors,
capacity probably 700 people, and everyone got up, left all
of their belongings there and ran out. I’ve never seen
anything like it. No one cared if they’d left their purse or
wallet or camera or anything. Turns out he didn’t knock one
out of the park (typical wind blowing in that day from Lake
Michigan ). But I’ll never forget it. I was sitting behind
home plate when Maddux struck out his 3,000, and I also have
a signed picture of Sammy and Mac. At any rate I met the Cubs
organization when I worked on the NFL/MLB account for
Motorola in 2000. I’d take clients to the games and met the
entire crew, which by the way (as you probably know) is still
in that Cubs office. They quickly learned that I was a true
fan. I ended up going to about 25 home games every season, it
got to a point where the Cubs office would call me on a Tues.
night and ask me if I wanted tickets. I loved it. I’d take
the red line over to the park after work and, oh the summer
night games…amazing. Some of the greatest times I’ve ever
had. I worked at Playboy in Chicago for awhile and hooked up
a lot of the Cubs players with some…memorabilia. I even
went to Mesa for spring training nearly every year. When I
moved here to LA in Oct of ’07 from Chicago, they gave me a
signed jersey by the team. It actually took an entire season
to get it, so by the time they gave it to me it was signed by
the ’08 roster. They also gave a shout out to me on WGN a few
times and I nearly fell off my chair while watching the game
in here in LA. I get really irritated when people tell me
that they think baseball is boring. It’s America ‘s true
sport, I know the NFL is a huge thing, but there’s something
about baseball, maybe because it has a deeper rooted history.
It really gets to you. Some of my favorite movies are about
baseball. What’s that quote from “Field of Dreams?” The actor
who plays the writer in the movie says “Baseball is what gets
inside you.” He is right. There’s something about baseball,
and it’s not just going to a game, it’s a summer day when the
breeze is coming in and you are sitting in front of your TV
or listening to the radio and you feel it. I feel sorry for
people who just don’t get it. I can’t wait to go back for
home opener, because I just don’t know if I’ll be able to go
to Dodger stadium (ok I will but it will be tough). One thing
I miss about Wrigleyfield, which I’m sure you can find at
Busch stadium or the Green Monster, is the 90 year old fans,
the ones who keep track of their scorecards, and remember
with fondness when a bleachers ticket was $1 and beer was
$.10. Oooh they should do that for just one game this year!
Ok maybe just lower the beer prices. I always think to those
people that it will be me someday, telling my story. Let’s
just hope I’m not telling some young fan how tickets used to
be $75 face value and a beer was $7 and it goes up to $300 a
ticket or something and beer is $25 when I’m 90. The year I
left Chicago, in ’07, the very last home game of the season I
walked out after we’d won the game, and I hugged the vendors,
and like the loyalty of the Cubs corporate office, the same
vendors have been around for years, so I know most of them by
name. I generally sit in the same level 100 seats, so get the
same vendors. They even let me sneak in my flask so I can mix
my Captain Morgan with Diet Coke. Shhh let’s not tell anyone
that. It’s that family ambience I love about baseball. I just
don’t feel like you get that with any other sport. I’ve
watched “Fever Pitch” at least two dozen times, and the HBO
special on the Cubs probably even more, thinking that 2008
was THEIR year, because there is a God up there who cares
that it had been a century. Now that I’m over the dibacle of
the ’08 season, I’ve turned back into the “We believe” and
“It’s Gonna Happen” fan I always am. Some day my team will
win. Never say never. Favorite quote: “Baseball, is what gets
inside you.” GO CUBS!

Interests

Anything baseball. Specifically the Chicago
Cubs.