Losing Means Nothing to Cub Fans

In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. Except for the Chicago Cubs.

These lovable losers are incapable of striking out with the fans, as hard as they try.

Only seven games into the new season and the bottom feeders are working hard at setting a new mark for futility. Their seven consecutive losses tie the record for the club’s worst start in history, set in 1962.

Yet, with temperatures in the 20s and little hope of the warming glow of a victory, 35,393 fans showed up for Tuesday’s loss to the Florida Marlins.

“We froze our tails off, but we stayed for the whole game,” said lawyer Ronald Hayden, who admits to holding season tickets and witnessing 50 to 60 games a year.

“I want them to win,” he said Wednesday. “But that’s not why I go.”

Good thing.

Year after year, attendance is around 2 million. Last year, 2,219,110 fans paid to see the Cubs finish with a 76-86 record, 12 games out of first place in the National League’s Central Division.

“Winning is a bonus,” said Jim Martino, who for 12 years has sold tickets to fans who come to Wrigley Field for the sunshine, the fresh air, the companionship, the nice ballpark--just about anything but to see a winning team.

“These people are Cubs fans,” he said. “And this is an old-time park where you’re right on top of the play.”

Ron Coia, a 50-year-old salesman, bought four box seat tickets for games later in the season and got a faraway look when asked why he wants to watch a loser.

“Oh, I’ve been a Cubs fan my whole life. I’ve seen them when they were a lot worse than they are now,” he said.

He sighed deeply as he thought about how the team will probably end the season. “In fourth or fifth place. They’re not a contender, obviously,” he said.

Lenny Lanzito, another fan, thinks the Cubs will have a winning season only “if the Lord comes down and blesses them.”