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Gramma's plan: after 94 years of waiting, a Cubs fan is willing to give 'em six more.(Know It All)(author describes his grandmother's dedication as fan of the Chicago Cubs)(Column)
My dad, Ted, taught me how to play baseball. But my grandmother, Marjorie Sheldon, taught me how to love baseball.
How many other women get a satin Cubs jacket for their 80th birthday? Now she's 94 and enjoying baseball more than ever with her two favorite teams, the Cubs and the Royals, in the playoff chase.
Even a broken kneecap this summer didn't dampen Gramma's enthusiasm. The Cubs lost the day she had surgery. "Well, I guess it was a good day to have anesthesia," she said.
Born the year after the Cubs last won the World Series, Gramma began rooting for the Royals when my family moved to Kansas City in 1983. She now lives there with my parents haft the year and in Chicago with my aunt Ruth the other half.
The K.C. connection actually goes way back. Gramma went to Teachers College in Kansas City from 1929-31, when her father was transferred there from Chicago. The first thing they did upon arrival was check out the local baseball team, the Blues of the American Association.
My great-grandfather was the one who taught Gramma to love the game. He would have played professionally himself had his parents signed the permission forms, but he was underaged and went to work for the railroad instead. He later taught Gramma to score games while they listened to the Cubs on the radio. "My dad talked about Tinker to Evers to Chance constantly," she remembers.
Her most eye-opening memory, though, concerns the 1933 All-Star Game--the very first one. I first learned she attended the game when she was leafing through a book I gave her two years ago, TSN's Baseball: 100 Years of the Modern Era. She landed on Page 99 and said, "My ticket looked just like that" as she ran her fingers over the image of an All-Star Game ticket stub. She fondly recalls Babe Ruth striking out. "It was a thrill to see his home run," she says, "but I was a Cubs fan and was rooting for the National League, of course."