A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request

"A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is a song written by Steve Goodman in 1981 and first performed by him on a WGN radio show that year. A mock-serious rewrite of "St. James Infirmary Blues", the song tells the story of a Chicago Cubs baseball fan looking back at many frustrating years of following the team. Goodman wrote the song in the spring of 1981, just before that year's Major League Baseball strike interrupted the season. Goodman, a native of Chicago, incorporated a number of specific references to the city, the Cubs, and their baseball stadium, Wrigley Field.

At the time of the song's release, the Cubs had not been to a World Series since 1945 and had not won one since 1908. Despite the team's history, the team was under new ownership and was trying to shed its image as a hapless team. The song's lyrics seem to make fun of the Cubs, referring to the team as "the doormat of the National League", and such references strained the relationship between Goodman and the team's executives.

Goodman later wrote "Go, Cubs, Go", which became the team's victory song, and Goodman was said to have made that song extra sentimental to subtly poke fun at the team's criticism of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". Goodman died of leukemia in 1984, and some of his ashes were surreptitiously scattered at Wrigley Field consistent with the lyrics of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request".

Background[]

Goodman in 1983

In the summer of 1980, William Wrigley III sold the Chicago Cubs baseball team to the Chicago Tribune. The Cubs had a longstanding reputation as the "Loveable Losers". They had not won a World Series since 1908 and had not played in one since 1945.^[1] In the fall of 1981, they hired Dallas Green as general manager. Green installed a number of personnel from his former organization, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the team was working to create a new image associated with success.^[2][3]

Singer-songwriter and Chicago native Steve Goodman was born in 1948 and grew up attending Cubs baseball games at Wrigley Field. His great uncle, Harry Romanoff, worked for Chicago newspapers and knew an usher at the ticket gate, so Goodman could get into the stadium for free.^[4] He was a student at Lake Forest College in the late 1960s when he began performing at Chicago music venues.^[5]

Goodman's songwriting credits included "City of New Orleans", which was recorded by Goodman, Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, and Willie Nelson.^[6] He had wanted to compose a song about baseball for many years, and he used a baseball analogy to explain his lack of progress on that front to his biographer, Clay Eals. "I get about three-quarters of the way through it, and then I walk somebody and take myself out," Goodman told Eals.^[6]

Goodman moved from Chicago to Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters about a year before writing "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request".^[7]

Composition and lyrics[]

The 1981 Major League Baseball strike interrupted that season beginning in June, and Goodman was asked whether he had written the song because of the strike. "Actually I wrote it the night of March 13th in a hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio," Goodman said. He explained that he was about to put on a concert in Chicago and he wanted concertgoers—especially his family and friends—to have a new song to enjoy. He said he began thinking about the looming start of the baseball season and the historic lack of success of his Cubs teams.^[7]

The song presents a cynical look at the team from the perspective of a long-suffering fan. The fan, a dying old man, is telling his friends of his wishes to have his coffin carried around Wrigley Field before having his ashes thrown into a bonfire on the field. The song refers to the Cubs as "the doormat of the National League".^[3] Goodman had been treated for leukemia since 1969. Despite having a serious illness when he wrote the song, Goodman said "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" was not autobiographical, according to his manager, Al Bunetta. "I always did believe it was about Steve, but he said no. He never equated it to himself. He never looked at himself as dying," Bunetta explained.^[8]

"A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" contains several references to the city of Chicago and to the Chicago Cubs. The song's opening lines (By the shores of old Lake Michigan / Where the hawk wind blows so cold) refer to a colloquial term for the wind in Chicago. The man in the song wants his ashes to blow over the Wrigley Field wall and ultimately come to rest on Waveland Avenue, the street that runs behind the ballpark's left field bleachers. He mentions bidding the bleacher bums adieu, a reference to saying goodbye to the fans at Wrigley Field.

The chorus refers to the unique ivy-covered outfield walls and to the team's long history of bringing disappointment to fans.

Two Cubs players are mentioned by name in the song: Keith Moreland (Have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly) and Ernie Banks (Hey Ernie, let's play two). Moreland was a 1980s Cubs player with good hitting ability but poor fielding.^[9] Banks, who played for the Cubs from 1953 to 1971 and was one of the most famous players in team history, would often say "Let's play two!" to indicate that he was enthusiastic enough about baseball to play two games each day.^[10] The song also mentions Jack Brickhouse, a sportscaster who covered Cubs games from the 1940s to the early 1980s.

Release and reception[]

Accompanied by Jethro Burns on banjo, Goodman performed "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" on a 1981 WGN radio show hosted by Roy Leonard. He had performed the song the night before at Park West.^[11] Goodman released the song on his own record label, known as Red Pajamas Records.^[7]

Chicago Tribune columnist Bill Jauss wrote that Goodman was not intending to criticize the Cubs with his song. "He's merely pouring out the emotions of one who has pulled for the team from the days of Chiti to 'Bull' Durham," Jauss wrote, referring to 1950s catcher Harry Chiti and 1980s outfielder Leon Durham.^[4] Cubs executives disagreed. WGN-TV program director Dan Fabian said that the song "made Green nuts. He said we didn't need that kind of negativity anymore. He hated the line about 'doormat of the National League.' He said that Steve Goodman is no fan of the Cubs." Goodman was not allowed to perform the song at Wrigley Field.^[3]

Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is a "blackly comic folk ballad [that] details fans' hopes being perpetually crushed".^[12] Columnist Bob Greene referred to the song as a "warm, funny, bittersweet song".^[13] Yardena Arar of the Associated Press said that "in the mock-serious lament of Goodman's moribund hero, many will recognize their own past."^[7] Scott Benarde of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel wrote that the song was "just plain upbeat and funny".^[14]

Dan Pashman of NPR described the song as Goodman's "musical will of sorts. It's a song that truly typifies the Cubs fan's ability to laugh through the pain."^[15] In 2018, the song was number one on an Omaha World-Herald list of the nine best baseball songs ever recorded.^[16]

Aftermath[]

Goodman wrote another song for the Cubs, called "Go, Cubs, Go". The new tune caught on as the opening song for WGN radio broadcasts of Cubs games. In 2007, it became the song played at the ballpark after a Cubs win.^[12] The song is often described as overly sentimental or saccharine, and Goodman is said to have written it that way as a subtle jab at Green's criticism of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". Rich Bird of The Times of Northwest Indiana suggested that fans would more easily identify with the cynical song: "[I]f there was ever a song that put into words and music the heartbreak, longing, and near-laughable anxiety of the long-suffering followers of the Cubs, it's Goodman's song, 'A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request'."^[8]

In 1984, Goodman died of leukemia; the Cubs had finally made the playoffs that year, and Goodman had been scheduled to sing the national anthem at a playoff game in eleven days. Consistent with the lyrics of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" ("Let my ashes blow in a beautiful snow / From the prevailing 30 mile an hour southwest wind ... / And I will come to my final resting place, out on Waveland Avenue."), Goodman's friends sneaked into Wrigley Field and deposited some of his ashes there. The rest were scattered at Doubleday Field near the Baseball Hall of Fame.^[3]

References[]