HOLY CUBS! : Chicago Carries On, Carries Team on Its Big Shoulders After NL East Is Won

Odds are that Pablo Picasso wasn’t much of a Chicago Cubs fan, but Wednesday the huge Picasso statue that stands guard over the Loop’s Civic Center plaza was sporting a huge, blue Cub cap with a big red C in the middle.

Someone also put a Cub jersey on the statue of Nathan Hale in front of the Chicago Tribune building. And the streets were suddenly awash in Cub jerseys, buttons, banners and banter.

“WE’RE IN,” declared the banner headline in the Chicago Sun-Times, and anybody who had to ask who the We referred to surely must have been a foreigner, extra-terrestrial or worse. It was the Cubs, the break-your-heart, swoon-in-June, they’ll-find-a-way-to-blow-it-somehow Chicago Cubs.

Not this year, however. Or at least not so far this year. The Cubs, who stumbled through spring training and began the season a reasonably good bet to finish in their customary spot near the bottom of the standings, clinched the National League’s East Division title Tuesday night with a 3-2 victory over the Expos in Montreal.

Chicago went wild. Within minutes of Tuesday’s last pitch, thousands of shrieking fans poured into the streets near Wrigley Field. Police chased them off after about an hour’s worth of singing, chanting and drinking, but the party was just starting.

Although the team was still in Montreal for another game, the city held a huge noontime pep rally in the civic center plaza that featured local sports and media stars and, of course, politicians eager to bask in the glow of a winner.

More than 5,000 fans roared approval as Mayor Richard M. Daley painted a big black X next to the word division on a huge banner that also had spots reserved for future marks next to the words pennant and World championship.

“Today, we are all Cubs fans,” declared Daley, who grew up in the shadow of Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox--who figure to finish last in the American League’s Western Division and are definitely the second team in this second city.

To outsiders, such hoopla might seem a bit premature. After all, the Cubs still have to beat the Western Division champions, probably the San Francisco Giants, just to get into the World Series. But Cub fans are a special breed, steeped in pessimism and inured to adversity. No matter how well the team is doing, the average Cub follower knows that failure is just around the corner.

The team hasn’t won a World Series since 1908 and hasn’t even played in one since a few weeks after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. The Cubs did win the division title in 1984, but then blew a two-game lead and lost the playoffs to the San Diego Padres.

Chicagoans are still muttering about 1969, the infamous year the Cubs built a huge lead going into the closing weeks and still managed to drop the division title to the Amazin’ Mets.

With such a dubious record behind them, Cub fans can’t afford to pass up a reason to cheer.

“I didn’t think they would make it this far,” said Dave Livingston, 22, who turned out for Wednesday’s rally. “ . . . All the way!” he chanted.

Another fan, Rob Pierson, 27, drove more than 20 miles from his suburban home to join in the postgame revelry outside Wrigley Field Tuesday night, and he was on hand for Wednesday’s celebration as well.

“We’re it!” he screamed, in a hoarse voice.

Cub fever also triggered a run on Cub memorabilia Wednesday as customers flooded sporting goods shops and other stores to snap up T-shirts, caps and other products with the team insignia on them. Long lines formed outside the two official Cub stores in the Chicago area.

Michael Wisniewski, merchandising manager for the shops as well as for concession stands at the ballpark, said the stores sold more than 20,000 shirts, sweaters and other garments, 5,000 caps and another 5,000 pennants Wednesday.

“I ordered 20,000 garments to take us through the first two games,” he said. “It didn’t last the first day.”

Anticipating the impossible, fans placed more than 28 million calls over the weekend to a special phone line as they tried to order playoff and World Series tickets. The dialing deluge jammed circuits in northern Illinois for hours.

Chris Kadota, waiting patiently in line to buy a Cub cap, said he personally accounted for 500 of those calls--and never got through. But then Cub fans know how to live with disappointment.

Chris Blumentha knows. The die-hard Cub fan, an art student, said she is willing to pay up to $100 for a ticket to get into a playoff game. Even at that price, she said, it will be worth it.

“I might never see this again,” she said.