Jonathon Alter was a Cubs fan long before he became well known as a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek Magazine. He grew up in Chicago, only six blocks away from the ballpark, and he rooted for the Cubs with all his heart.
In 2008, when the Huffington Post added a Chicago page to their highly successful website, Alter helped christen it with memories of his Chicago years. He wrote:
"I learned half of what I know about life from the Bleacher Bums, the motley collection of night-shift workers, drunks, layabouts, geezers and lesbians who frequented Wrigley in those years. In 1969, when the Cubs blew the pennant to the Mets, I would amble home from the ballpark in a state of depression."
He was 11 years old at the time--old enough to remember every detail vividly and young enough to really believe that they would get 'em next year.
1969 was a year that an entire generation of baby boomer Cub fans came of age. Included in this group was Scott Simon, an NPR contributor who wrote a book about his hometown sports teams called "Home and Away" in 2000. Jonathon Alter reviewed it for Washington Monthly that year. He gave the book an excellent review, but he couldn't quite let a few of the details go unchallenged. He wrote:
"Over the years," Scott Simon writes, "I have heard about as many people claim to have sat in those six rows of bleacher seats right along Waveland Avenue as claimed to have voted for John F. Kennedy."
I was there, Scott, I swear, and you actually get some of the details wrong. There were more than six rows of "bleacher bums" (later the title of a play by Joe Mantagna) and admission was $1, not $1.75. You're thinking of the cost of grandstand seats (See, I'm an expert on this). That extra 75 cents I saved sitting in the bleachers was enough for a cracker jack and a "frosty malt" ice cream. The bleachers also offered a better view of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins and my other gods on earth.
Alter has gone on to become a very distinguished journalist. He is often seen on NBC and MSNBC offering commentary on politics (including a recent appearance on Keith Olbermann's show taking a few shots at fellow baby boomer Cubs fan Rod Blagojevic), but beneath the rumpled suit of this veteran journalist beats the heart of a lifelong Cubs fan.
Just like you.
(For more on Alter's love of the Cubs, read his entire Huffington Post column here, and his entire review of Scott Simon's book in Washington Monthly here.
Alter has also written a wonderful book about FDR called "The Defining Moment: Franklin Roosevelt and the First Hundred Days." Watch him talk to Charlie Rose about that book here)
(Photo: Post Writers Group)
