Tony DeMarco has been around a while but the 96-year-old North Bay native admits he was overtaken by emotion when his Chicago Cubs defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to claim a spot in the World Series which begins tonight in Cleveland.
“I couldn’t believe it the other night because they beat the best pitcher in baseball and I had tears rolling down my cheeks,” said DeMarco about the Cubs defeating Dodgers All-World hurler Clayton Kershaw 5-0 in game six to win the NLCS.
But winning that easy hasn’t been something very common for Cubs fans.
You see the last time the Cubs were in the World Series was way back in 1945 and Tony was there proudly cheering on the Cubbies.
At that time, DeMarco was playing on the Garland Men’s Fastball team in North Bay and he and two friends made the trip from North Bay to Detroit. DeMarco recalls he was the only member of the North Bay trio that was rooting for the Cubs.
He remembers getting a cushion from an usher who allowed him to watch a game in the aisle behind home plate sitting on a pillow.
Tony says he’s been an avid Cubs fan since about 1927 when his cousin Dom convinced him to cheer for the Cubs. That wasn’t easy with a family of baseball fans who much preferred the Giants and the Yankees.
“One of my other cousins beat me up because I refused to cheer for the Giants,” he recalled.
Tony’s daughter Lisa recalls as a child sitting with her dad at the cottage.
They would listen to the game on the radio and Tony would draw out a ball diamond with the bases to help her understand the game.
“He would get the radio set up and we would sit at the kitchen table and he would draw me a picture of the diamond and he would show me each player, where their position was, and we would follow the game on the radio on the piece of paper,” she explained.
Lisa, who is also a big Cubs fan, can’t wait for the World Series to start. She is so relieved they continued their run this year after more disappointment in the playoffs last year.
“The Cubs did really well last year as they were in the final four teams, and when they didn’t make it last year I thought, God, my Dad is 95 years old, like please, you got to do it,” chuckled Lisa about the typical Cubs misfortune.
“This year they have a t-shirt I’ve seen that says ‘please win before I die,’ how true is that.”
Lisa was hoping to take Tony to a World Series game in Chicago, but she felt the trip and the cold temperatures would make it too tough on his health.
Regardless of being at Wrigley Field or not, Tony is still thrilled to see his team back in the World Series - but he admits he never thought it would take his Cubs this long to get back.
“It’s going to be a tough series, their first pitcher is really tough, see what happens but we have very good pitching.”
Tony knows his baseball and he’s confident the Cubs can do it this year in a long series, that he thinks, will go the distance.
And if so, he believes, it will be well worth the wait for himself and all the suffering Cubs fans.
