To Ernie Banks, who I never saw play but who I knew was Mr. Cub…

To Billy Williams and Ron Santo…

To Ferguson Jenkins, who I did see pitch, and who improbably hit a triple in a game I watched in 1983, his last season. I remember that extra base knock being cited in a WGN package as proof that anything could happen, maybe even the Cubs making the postseason…

To every last member of that 1984 team, who provided happiness and heartache like I’d never know when they did actually make the postseason…

To Ryne Sandberg, still my favorite player…

To Jack Brickhouse, who I’m happy to say called the first Cubs games I ever watched…

To Harry Caray, who called the games that I sat rapt listening to through my high school years, and to Steve Stone, whose color commentary was invaluable in my process of learning the game…

To my uncle, who took me to my first ever game at Wrigley Field, which included a free pair of Harry Caray designer socks a giveaway as we crossed into the park…

To Mike Royko, whose columns about the Cubs, especially the quiz that helped kick off every season, let me vicariously experience some of long, proud, melancholy history of the team…

To my dear friends (and partner-in-all-things) who surrounded me with shared joy at the best game I ever saw in a ballpark, in the Friendly Confines years and years ago, ahead of a raucous, celebratory night that finished with us closing Wrigleyville Tap…

To these kids…

To Andre Dawson and Mark Grace and Greg Maddux and Mark Prior and Kerry Wood and every player who clearly loved playing for the Cubs and never got to step onto the World Series field of play…

To WGN-TV, for offering themselves up to new cable systems hungry for content, and to WGN-AM, for having a strong enough signal to carry across the Illinois-Wisconsin border…

To Bill Murray, whose story about attending his first Cubs game (“Wait, Billy.”), when he was seven years old, I think of all the time, because it beautifully captures the magic that exists in this sport, in this team…

To Bill Veeck, who planted the ivy…

To everyone who still proudly displays an original “NO LIGHTS! IN WRIGLEY FIELD” sign…

To this 2016 Cubs squad, who have made the last few weeks truly thrilling…

I offer a humble, grateful, misty-eyed, happy “Thank you.”

Now let’s get some runs.