Come To Think Of It...Cubs Fans Say "Oof Wah!"

Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock lo these past hundred years or so know that the Chicago Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908.

And until recently the familiar refrain from Cubs fans as April warmed into September has always been "Wait Till Next Year."

Well, not so fast die-hard Cub fans, not so fast. "Oof wah" is back. That's right, oof wah.

You see, that's the chant uttered by West Side Rooters Social Club during the team's last World Series championship in 1908.

To show how times have changed, apparently it was uncool to root out loud for your team at a baseball game back then. So the Cubs President, Charles Murphy, forced the group to disband, fearing a lack of civility.

And it's a good thing they did, too. For if it was allowed to continue unabated, imagine the debauchery that would have resulted. Blacks playing major league baseball? Women voting? The Cubs winning another title? Oh, the horrors.

But now, an association led by the president of Harry Caray's Restaurant Group, Grant DePorter, is reviving the West Side Rooters in the hope that it will bring the championship magic back to the team.

Hey, it's worth a try. Nothing else has worked thus far...

Remember in 1984 when then Cubs President Dallas Green brought the goat back into Wrigley Field? That didn't work quite so well, but damn it, we'll keep trying until we find the cure to the curse.

God forbid we try competent management and great ballplayers.

They are looking for a secretary for the new Rooters. Interested fans should e-mail rooters@harry carays.com.  Apparently, they are serious.

No one is quite sure what "oof wah" means. Come to think of it, no one is quite sure what a Cubs championship feels like. But we'd sure love to find out.

Oof wah, everybody!