Actor Joe Mantegna doesn't need to prove his Cubs credentials to anyone. In his younger years, Joe attended so many games at Wrigley Field, it inspired him to co-write the classic play "The Bleacher Bums." (Photo: Original Bleacher Bums at the Organic Theater)
The play describes what it used to be like to watch a game from the bleachers in Wrigley Field. In the 1970s those bleacher seats were the cheap seats, and every single game was played only played during the day, so the crowd was a little different than it is today. Joe and his co-writers captured it perfectly.
VIDEO: A recent production of the play
Of course, Mantegna's gone on to stardom in Hollywood, but he has never forgotten where he came from. He not only visits Chicago often, he brought Chicago out to Los Angeles.
He opened a restaurant called "Taste Chicago." On the walls of that restaurant you'll see lots of pictures of Joe in Chicago, and even a picture of him starring in the SNL skit "Super Fans."
Anytime Hollywood revisits the Cubs story of woe, Joe participates. In 2004, he narrated the film "This Old Cub," which told the story of one of his all-time favorite Cubs players--Ron Santo.
Still don't believe that Joe is a true-blue Cubs fan?
Listen to this audio clip. Joe and his friend Jim Belushi describe a fantasy shared by every Cub fan in America.
So, next time you tune into a Cubs game, and see yet another movie star in the booth with Len & Bob, if that star is Joe Mantegna you can know one thing for certain: He's not fakin' it.
Joe Mantegna is the real deal. A die-hard Cubs fan.
