"A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is a
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
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Arts, entertainment, and media
* Fo ...
song written by
Steve Goodman
Steven Benjamin Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song " City of New Orleans", which was recorded by artists including Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, The ...
in 1981 and first performed by him on a
WGN radio show that year. The song tells the story of a
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...
fan looking back at decades of supporting the struggling
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
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
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, incorporated a number of specific references to the city, the Cubs, and their baseball stadium,
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...
.
At the time of the song's release, the Cubs had not been to a
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
since
1945
1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat.
Events
World War II will be ...
and had not won one since
1908
This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time.
Events
January
* January ...
. By 1981, 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
National League often refers to:
*National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada
*National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
", and such references strained the relationship between Goodman and the team's executives.
Goodman later composed "
Go, Cubs, Go", which became the team's victory song. That song has been described as overly sentimental, and Goodman was said to have written it that way to subtly poke fun at the team's criticism of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". Goodman died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
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

In the summer of 1980,
William Wrigley III
William A. Wrigley III (January 21, 1933 – March 8, 1999), known as William Wrigley, was president of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, founded by his grandfather William Wrigley Jr., from 1961 until his death from pneumonia in March 1999. His fat ...
sold the Chicago Cubs baseball team to the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
''. The Cubs had a longstanding reputation as the "
Lovable Losers", as they had not won a
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
since
1908
This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time.
Events
January
* January ...
and had not played in one since
1945
1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat.
Events
World War II will be ...
.
In the fall of 1981,
Dallas Green was hired as the team's
general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
, and Green installed a number of personnel from his former organization, the
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
. Shortly after he joined the team, he told the press that the Cubs needed more help than he had realized, calling the team "a disaster area". Green was particularly critical of the negative attitudes of employees across the organization.
[
Singer-songwriter and ]Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
native Steve Goodman was born in 1948 and grew up attending Cubs baseball games. His great uncle, Harry Romanoff, worked for Chicago newspapers and knew an usher at the Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...
ticket gate, so Goodman could get into the stadium for free. Goodman was a student at Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducatio ...
in the late 1960s when he began performing at Chicago music venues.
Goodman's songwriting credits included " City of New Orleans", which was recorded by Goodman, Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
, Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
, Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
, and Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...
. 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
Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an "inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults over ...
somebody and take myself out," Goodman told Eals.[
Goodman moved from Chicago to ]Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
with his wife and two daughters about a year before writing "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request".
Composition and lyrics
The 1981 Major League Baseball strike
The 1981 Major League Baseball strike was the first work stoppage in Major League Baseball since the 1972 Major League Baseball strike that resulted in regular season games being cancelled. Overall, it was the fourth work stoppage since 1972, bu ...
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
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
," 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.[
The song presents a cynical but affectionate look at the Cubs from the perspective of a fan who has been through many losing seasons with the team.][ 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".][ Goodman had been treated for ]leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
since 1969, but 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 Stevie, but he said no. He never equated it to himself. He never looked at himself as dying," Bunetta explained.[
"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
Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...
/ Where the hawk wind blows so cold'') refer to a colloquial term for the wind in Chicago. The man in the song compares his crushed hopes to popcorn being eaten by pigeons beneath the "L" tracks. He 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.[
Much of the song consists of ]spoken word
Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...
, but the chorus is sung. A reference in the chorus to "their ivy-covered burial ground" refers to Wrigley Field, which has unique outfield walls covered with ivy planted in 1937.
Some well-known Cubs personalities are mentioned by name in the song. Keith Moreland (''Have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly''[) was a 1980s Cubs player with good hitting ability but poor fielding.] Ernie Banks
Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between ...
(''Hey Ernie, let's play two''[) was twice voted the National League Most Valuable Player and was later inducted into the ]Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
. He would often say "Let's play two!" to indicate his love for baseball. The song also mentions Jack Brickhouse
John Beasley Brickhouse (January 24, 1916 – August 6, 1998) was an American sportscaster. Known primarily for his play-by-play coverage of Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball H ...
,[ a sportscaster who covered Cubs games from the 1940s to 1981.]
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
LeRoy Stewart Leonard (January 19, 1931 – September 4, 2014) was an American radio personality, best known for hosting WGN's midday radio show from Chicago for 31 years and for his appearances on WGN-TV's news and Christmas specials. He also ...
. He had performed the song the night before at the Park West theater. Goodman released the song on his own record label, known as Red Pajamas Records, as Elektra/Asylum Records had dropped him after the release of the 1980 album ''Hot Spot''.[ The song was included on Goodman's 1984 album ''Affordable Art''.]
Bonnie Stiernberg, music editor of '' Paste'' magazine, said that the song is "everything one could possibly want a song about the Cubs to be—devastating, self-deprecating, nostalgic, full of that Midwestern wryness that you need to make it through harsh winters and decades of losing seasons."[ She wrote that it was "easy to see why they don’t play it at Wrigley (referring to the Cubs as “the doormat of the National League” and asking “do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around/when the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?” doesn’t exactly get a crowd hyped)".][ Stiernberg called the song "a strong piece of evidence should one choose to argue that the depressing songs about the Cubs are the best songs about the Cubs."]
''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
Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...
Harry Chiti and 1980s outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...
Leon Durham.[ Cubs executives disagreed. ]WGN-TV
WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...
program director Dan Fabian said that the song "made eneral manager DallasGreen 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.
Mark Caro of the ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote that "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is a "blackly comic folk ballad hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
details fans' hopes being perpetually crushed". Columnist Bob Greene
Robert Bernard Greene Jr. (born March 10, 1947) is an American journalist and author. He worked for 24 years for the ''Chicago Tribune'' newspaper, where he was a columnist. Greene has written books on subjects including Michael Jordan, Alice C ...
referred to the song as a "warm, funny, bittersweet song". Yardena Arar of the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
said that "in the mock-serious lament of Goodman's moribund hero, many will recognize their own past."[ Scott Benarde of the '']Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Broward County, and ...
'' wrote that the song was "just plain upbeat and funny". In 2018, the song was number one on an ''Omaha World-Herald
The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area.
It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ...
'' list of the nine best baseball songs ever recorded.
Legacy
In 1984, the Cubs finally made the playoffs and Goodman was asked to sing the national anthem at a playoff game, but he died of leukemia days before his scheduled appearance. Consistent with the lyrics of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" ("Let my ashes blow in a beautiful snow ... / 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
Doubleday Field is a baseball stadium in Cooperstown, New York named for Abner Doubleday and located two village blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu ...
near the Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
.[
Goodman wrote another song for the Cubs, called "Go, Cubs, Go", soon after the release of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". 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.][ 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
''The Times of Northwest Indiana'' (NWI) is a daily newspaper headquartered in Munster, Indiana. It is the second-largest newspaper in Indiana, behind only ''The Indianapolis Star''.
History
The paper was founded on June 18, 1906, as ''The Lake ...
'' suggested that fans would more easily identify with the cynical song: " 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'."
Just before opening day in 2008, the season that marked a century since a Cubs World Series title, Dan Pashman discussed the song on the NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
segment called The Best Song in the World Today, and he compared it favorably to "Go, Cubs, Go". Pashman grew up as a New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
fan, but he said he was listening to "Go, Cubs, Go" after a 2003 Cubs win when he realized that he had become a Cubs fan. "But that's not the best song in the world today. Because to really call yourself a Cubs fan, you have to experience some serious pain," Pashman said, explaining how "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" captured the disappointment he felt about two weeks later, when the Cubs narrowly missed out on the 2003 World Series
The 2003 World Series (also known as the Centennial World Series) was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2003 Major League Baseball season, 2003 season. The 99th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-s ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dying Cub Fan's Last Request, A
American folk songs
1981 songs
1981 singles
Songs written by Steve Goodman
Songs about Chicago
Songs about death
Baseball songs and chants
Chicago Cubs
Songs about fandom