My Cubs: How the Legendary Losers Taught Me to Love Baseball Again.

There is no good reason I am still a Cubs fan.

I grew up a Cubs fan. However, the rest of my family didn't pay much attention to baseball and after the cork bat scandal removed Sammy Sosa from my podium of childhood adulation and placed him among the ranks of A-Rod, Tony Gwinn and Curt Schilling, I, too, gave up on the sport for many years.

I rediscovered baseball in college, thanks to the influence of three friends, of whom two were, and continue to be, passionate Cardinals fans. Additionally, my fiance's father is also a lifelong Cardinals fan and of all my friends, these three Red Bird men are the ones with whom I discuss baseball most frequently.

Add to this the Cubs' dubious record and, like I said, I'm not sure how I'm still a Cubs fan.

However, I do have a few reasons I continue to hold fast to my Cubbies.

The Terrifying World of Instant Replay

When I was about twelve years old and playing in little league, I failed to steal a base.

Now, I wasn't very fast growing up. In fact, I'm not very fast right now. But I made it to second base. The throw was high, and (although the throw beat me) I slid well beneath the tag. Anyone within a two hundred yard radius could have easily seen that I was safe.

But the umpire didn't see it that way. He didn't know any better (I guess), and thought that it was a force out at second base. So I trotted back to the dugout and sat back down to be consoled by my teammates.

See, I didn't argue or throw a hissy fit because I knew that any other player at any other level would be subject to the same rules. If the umpire says it (regardless of the overall unfairness), it goes.

Now, however, brilliant commissioner Bud Selig wants to institute a new rule allowing managers to formally challenge an umpire's decision and force him to review it via instant replay and get the call "right."

I have some problems with this, and we'll start with the most basic.