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Fulfilling Promise, Cubs Fan Drives 600 Miles to Listen to Game 7 at Father’s Grave
Parents and children bonding over baseball is nearly as old as the game itself. Team allegiances are passed down from generation to generation, along with stories of players seen and games attended.
With the Chicago Cubs remarkable Game 7 comeback sealing their first World Series championship in 108 years, tears were shed by many in Cubs’ fandom whose parents are no longer living. One such Chicago fan decided to drive 600 miles to share the game with his late father.
Wayne Williams made the drive from his home in North Carolina to Indianapolis to keep a promise he made over 35 years ago. Before Williams’ father, Wayne Sr., passed away in 1980, his son swore that they would share the experience of listening to a Cubs World Series game together.
“I talked it out with my boys forever. I let them know that I told my dad – we had a pact. When the Cubs – not if, when – the Cubs got into the World Series, we would make sure we listen to the games together,” Williams explained to WTHR.
Williams said how his World War II veteran father became a Cubs fan during his boot camp training. “I think it was because when he was at boot camp at Great Lakes. He probably went to some games, because Wrigley’s brought the guys out there for these things and it was the closest thing to big-time baseball he’d ever seen.
He went on to speak about how his father had his heart broken by the Cubs while he was still alive. “(19)69 (the year the Cubs blew a large Division lead to the New York Mets) broke his heart. If he hadn’t been dead in (1984, when the team blew a 2-0 NLCS lead to the San Diego Padres), that would’ve done it for him.”
There would be no such heartbreak this year as Williams, wearing Cubs gear and wrapped in the team’s trademark “W” flag, listened to the Cubs win Game 7 while sitting at his father’s grave.
When asked if he thought his father would be watching wherever he is, Williams responded, “Knowing him, no. He was a hell raiser, baby. He was a hell raiser.”
