Well dag burn it GetX’d (this was what Hoss would say when he was really peeved) ya make me feel like a rat’s rectum, lol. You’re absolutely 100% RIGHT! All ya need do is see the fans praying, hoping, and hopping for their team will win. I say “Wish ya all the best, except when playing the Packers or Brewers”. We all get our turn in the barrel of suck-ness…I just recall how many Packer/Brewer games I watched when we got smashed. And my dear departed mother was a rabid Cubby fan as she was from Chicago though became a Packer/Brewer fan too after living in WI for her last 70 years. But a slight lean she had for Chicago. Anyway – all her years pulling for her Cubs to make the WS and go friggin figure...they made it…a few months after she passed!
The story of your mother brings up another memory for me. My younger brother always lived a troubled life but as such we were always very close being 2 years apart and close in friendship as well. He was an absolute died in the wool Twins fan. No matter how bad, drab or long the losing streak in terms of years he was always right there as their No 1 fan. He would get the hair up on the back of his neck if you every talked badly of the Twins. Well I remember in every detail their 1-0 loss to Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers in the 7th game of the 65 series handing us a bitter WS loss. The Twins, like the Vikings were great back in the 60’s but always seem to lose out on the pennant to Baltimore. In 65 we had it all and we’re favored to win - and as history reminds us we didn’t. So back to my brother and his rabid loyalty to them no matter the length of the drought. Well in 87 his troubles got much worse and he ultimately passed in July 87 at only 31 yo. In 86 the Twins were as far down as you could get - In 87 they came out of nowhere and tore up the baseball world. The Sports Illustrated title was “From worst to First”. They took the Braves down in 7 in the WS. Well as you noted about your mother - sadly my brother never lived to see that miracle happen. So that winter - as I always did I came back to MN for Christmas. Then one bitter cold windy day I went to the cemetery with a hammer, ice pic and a World Series Champions pennant in hand and pounded a hole into the ice and frozen ground next to his grave stone and drove that pennant into the ground. To me it was as if he channeled the Twins victory from above and after all these years got what he/we always wanted. A World Series Championship. They repeated again in 91 and thus became legit. Sorry he never lived to see those victories - but something tells me he may have had a hand in them.
Might be interesting if Dallas comes to GB for the playoffs with Coach McCarthy after he gained us so many great seasons and has a street in GB named after him. Thought he was always a class act and will be in Anyway, you’re spot on about America’s team(s).