Cubs fans: It’s been 100 years. Lift the curse!

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Why are there so many Cubs fans in show business? I mean, the list is so long that if I listed a few names--starting with Bill Murray, Vince Vaughn, John Cusack, Jim Belushi, Eddie Vedder, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt and Joe Mantegna--I’d just be scratching the surface. (And don’t even think about asking why so many Cubs fans end up being, well, comedians.) My theory is that after 100 years of futility, curses and belly-flops, when a team suddenly turns it around and starts to play like a winner, with the whiff of World Series glory in the air, if you’re in showbiz, you go: I get it. From adversity to redemption. Whadda great third act!

Last month, Jim Belushi reminisced with us about how he became a Cubs fan. But he was a Chicago boy. How do you grow up in Southern California, listening to the great Vin Scully, and still become a die-hard Cub rooter? That’s what happened to Chris Thile, the 27-year-old bluegrass mandolin player who spent years playing in Nickel Creek before striking out on his own--he’s now playing in Punch Brothers, who among other things do a pretty great rendition of ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’

Thile was born in Oceanside. When he was 4, his family moved to Idyllwild. There was no TV in the house, so he didn’t get hooked on Vin’s baseball rhapsodies. But on Saturday morning, he’d go to a friend’s house, where they’d watch Cubs games on WGN. The first team he really remembers was the 1991 squad, which featured future Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson and Greg Maddux, who’s closing out his career with the Dodgers this year. Instead of getting hooked on Scully, Thile got hooked on Harry Caray, the colorful Cubs announcer, who was known to say anything in the later innings after he’d had a little liquid refreshment.

Thile’s favorite player was Sandberg, the Cubs second baseman who was a clutch hitter with a great instinct for the game. ‘I have about 250 Sandberg baseball cards,’ Thile told me. ‘He was so smooth and professional in the way he played the game. I could hardly watch a game without seeing him do something notable. With him, Dunston and Grace turning double plays, for us kids, they were like Tinkers, Evers to Chance.’

Now that he’s a master craftsman himself, Thile has an ever greater appreciation for Sandberg’s play. ‘It really had a huge impact on me as a musician,’ he says. ‘When he made his Hall of Fame speech, he said he was never the most naturally gifted player, but he worked as hard as anyone. That applies to anyone playing music. You want to be a team player, not just in performing well under pressure, but by performing in ways that help your band mates. Whether you’re an athlete or a musician, there’s a danger that you see yourself as being so naturally gifted that you’re willing to let the talent do all the work. But the really great ones don’t take their talent for granted. They mold their talent into something extraordinary.’

Thile didn’t make it to Wrigley Field for the first time till he was 18. He’s seen plenty of Cubs highs and lows since, but one favorite Wrigley pilgrimage stands out in his mind. And guess what? It involves lust, romance and a mystery woman:

‘When you’re in a band, you travel around a lot and sometimes--lightning strikes. We’d be in Chicago and so would the Cubs,’ Thile recalls. ‘Nickel Creek was doing a radio promotional tour a few years ago, right after I’d gotten divorced. I guess I was in sort of a freewheeling state, even though I’m not very freewheeling at all. We’d finished the show, it had been raining and I asked someone what the score of the Cubs game was. And even though it was like 9:30 p.m., they said they’d had a rain delay and the game was just about to start.

‘I’d been chatting up this really nice girl and I got up the courage and asked her if she’d go to the game with me. She did and we grabbed a ride and got there in the second inning. The skies had cleared and it was a great night. In fact, I told myself that if we won, that I was going to lean over and kiss her. So of course, the game goes into extra innings and the Cubs lose. And I never kissed her. But I’ll always remember that game.’

Baseball is in Thile’s blood. His grandfather broke Ted Williams’ record for most home runs in a season at San Diego State. His great-great uncle, Big Sam Thompson, is a 19th century Hall of Famer who once hit .415, had 166 RBIs in one season and still holds the record for most RBIs in one month (61 in August 1895). So finally I had to ask him the same question all Cub fans ask each other, especially when we’re again on the verge of a depressing playoff collapse: Does he believe in the curse?

‘No,’ says Thile, bravely. ‘It’s all up to us. We’ll win or lose based on our own abilities. We’ve just had teams that ended up having a lot of flaws or some kind of Achilles heel. Even this year’s team has been pretty streaky, which may do us in. I guess you’d have to say that I believe in the romance of the curse, but not the reality. Either we play well and win or we don’t. That’s just life as a Cubs fan.’

Here’s that Punch Brothers rendition of ‘Baby’s in Black,’ done bluegrass style: