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player ready...Until this year, Chicago Cubs fans were long-suffering and perpetually hopeful, but 2016 brought an end to the wait, transforming them into a pack of gloriously happy devotees.
So when the World Series trophy came to the Winnetka Fire Department on Dec. 10, the sea of blue and red jackets, T-shirts and caps on village employees and their families was unsurprising. That the long line of fans waiting to have their picture taken with the Commissioner’s Trophy should also include the occasional puppy might have been, however, a little more unexpected.
That one of those puppies represented one young Cubs fan’s bet with her mother seemed somehow appropriate to the Cubs’ magnificently surreal baseball year.
Julia Kreis, the 17-year-old daughter of Winnetka Police Chief Patrick Kreis, cradled 4-month-old Willson – who is named for Cubs player Willson Contreras – in her arms as she explained the story.
“I made a bet with my mom when I was 5. I wanted a puppy, and she said I could have one when the Cubs won the World Series,” Julia said, holding Willson, who was decked out in a tiny Cubs neckerchief.
“I thought it was a safe bet,” mom Jacki Kreis said with a laugh. Neither she nor Julia’s father minded making good on the bet, they said; they were all dedicated Cubs fans who’d celebrated as a family the night of Game Seven.
Susan Ripka, wife of Deputy Fire Chief John Ripka, held her own young puppy, Sherlock, as she talked about growing up on the North Side of Chicago, in a neighborhood where she could watch in her front yard Cubs players heading to Wrigley Field on game days.
“My mother was a die-hard Cubs fan since 1945, and she reared us right. Mom took us to see Cubs games, back when you could wake up on Saturday, pack a thermos and say, ‘Who wants to go to the game?’ and you could be sure of getting in,” Ripka recalled.
When the Cubs clinched, “I cried like a baby. I didn’t think I’d be that way, but it was on behalf of my mom, who couldn’t be here to see it,” she said. Then, looking at her daughters, Rachel and Hannah, she said, “I’m glad to see that being a Cubs fan is going to be fun for my kids now.”
Across the room, Justin Berkowsky, Fire Chief Alan Berkowsky’s son, was wearing the Cubs jacket he first wore when he was 7 years old. It rode a little high on his 32-year-old torso, but showcased his team loyalty.
“I like to think I’m a pretty big Cubs fan,” he said.
Winnetka Village Trustee Chris Rintz was also at the fire station to see the trophy; he had been going to Cubs games for 51 years and said having to “wait until next year,” never got any easier. This year, he said, he felt different on opening day.
“It was their line-up,” he said.
Nearby, Village Manager Robert Bahan wore his father’s Cubs hat as he talked about years past, taking in afternoon games with fellow employees at a previous job, pooling money to buy tickets and sit in the bleachers. Bahan could still remember his first Cubs Game.
“I was five, and I saw them in St. Louis. They played the Cardinals,” he said.
After the heartbreak of 1984 and Leon Durham’s glove, he stopped rooting for the team, Bahan said, but he soon returned to the fold.
Saturday’s visit was arranged thanks to Crane Kenney, a Winnetka resident and the Cubs’ president of business operations, Kreis said.
“He contacted village staff and said he’d like to share his time with the trophy with the village’s first responders, which is great. And not only the first responders, but our public works staff, our village staff, everyone who works so hard to make the village the great place it is,” Kreis said. “This has just been fantastic for everyone.”
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Twitter: @pioneer_kathy