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This Sauganash Cubs Fan Has Waited 98 Years For A Championship

By Alex Nitkin | October 25, 2016 6:09am
 Don Savage, 98, attended World Series games at Wrigley Field in 1929 and 1945.
Don Savage, 98, attended World Series games at Wrigley Field in 1929 and 1945. "Right now, I think this is the greatest team we've ever had," hesaid of the 2016 Cubs.
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DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin

SAUGANASH — Most Chicagoans have lived their whole lives without seeing the Chicago Cubs compete in a World Series, but not Don Savage.

As an 11-year-old boy, Savage delivered enough newspapers to afford a bleacher ticket to the 1929 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Cubs lost the title in a heartbreaking Game 5, when Mule Haas led a ninth-inning rally to deliver the A's a 3-2 win.

But it didn't matter to Savage. He'd be back.

Savage was there when Chicago hosted World Series games in 1932 and 1935, and in 1938, when the Cubs were swept in four games by Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio's Yankees.

Savage was sitting in grandstand seats along Wrigley's left field line during Game 6 of the 1945 World Series, when the Cubs blew a 7-3 lead in the 8th inning and dragged the afternoon into extras against the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs would win that game, but Detroit went on to win the series.

On the streetcar ride back home to Humboldt Park after each game, Savage said, he'd argue with his brothers over how it all could have gone differently.

"All the way home everybody would replay the game for each other — everybody had their ideas of how it should have gone or could have gone, if only [the team] had done something different," Savage said. "But I didn't like to second-guess them. I knew they'd always be back next year, anyway."

Savage didn't know it would take 71 years for the Cubs to make it back to a World Series. But now, barely a month shy of his 99th birthday, his abiding patience has paid off. 

This week the Cubs are headed to Cleveland, where Jon Lester will face Indians ace Corey Kluber in Game 1 Tuesday evening. Savage will invite his whole block to watch the game in the living room of his Sauganash home, the way he's done nearly every year since he moved to the neighborhood in 1953.

"It's gotten to the point where no one calls anymore — they just show up with a case of beer," said Ginny Warner, Savage's daughter. "Everyone wants to be there with him, everyone wants to hear what he has to say."

Savage's self-described "obsession" with baseball has loaded him with a century's worth of knowledge, and he dispenses it with a measured coolness between pitches, Warner said.

His razor-sharp mastery of random facts and historical footnotes is impressive by any standard, let alone for a man in his late 90s. Just as quickly as Savage can rattle off the starting lineup of the 1927 Cubs, he's ready with a quick read on the 2016 Indians.

Cleveland "has a some really outstanding pitchers — you've got Kluber and [reliever Andrew] Miller — but overall the Cubs' pitching staff is much better," he said. During the decisive Game 6 of the NLCS, "All I heard was about how the Dodgers blew it, but no one was talking about Kyle Hendricks, who pitched a great game."

Savage hasn't just cultivated a love of baseball by watching the game. He spent decades playing softball in multiple citywide leagues, winning a small collection of championship trophies and earning his way into the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame.

"It was always so natural, I always thought everybody had a father who was obsessed with baseball," Warner laughed. During car trips while she and her sisters were growing up, he would pull over at the first sight of a pickup baseball game and urge them all to watch "just two or three innings."

Nowadays, Savage still does his best to spread his passion around. He lines up at the Wrigley Field press office every February to pick up 20-or-so tickets for senior games, when older fans get discounted seats. He gathers dozens of neighbors and church friends, serves drinks in his backyard then buses them to the ballpark.

"He's just a people-oriented person," said Jack Kracker, a parishioner at Savage's church, Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6280 N Sauganash Ave. "He has this deep-seated love for sports and the Cubs, but he also loves to share the things he loves with the people he loves."

But to Warner, what rubs off most on those around him is his unrelenting optimism. 

"He's always got this glass-half-full kind of attitude for everything, especially when it comes to the Cubs," she said. "When everyone else is screaming and reacting watching the game, he's just sitting back calmly."

Savage attributes the attitude to his age, which has "mellowed" him out, keeping him hopeful through decades of disappointment and heartbreak.

"You learn patience, and it helps you deal with it," Savage said. "Losing was never the worst thing to happen, because everyone around you has that 'get 'em next year' spirit. We knew it was just a matter of time."

As for this year, Savage expects his Cubs to become world champions in six games, he said.

"Right now, I think this is the greatest team we've ever had," Savage said. "And the best thing about it is that the team is so young, we've got at least another five years of this. So even if we don't win this time, we'll have more chances."

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