The only other thing that Bruce ever wanted to be other than a musician was a baseball player. He tells a great story about playing in the Babe Ruth Little League in Freehold, New Jersey, and one sick day he faked to get out of a game because he was too tired. The entire team came to his house, begging his mom to get him out of bed or else they would have to forfeit the game. His teammate from that league inspired this classic hit about not letting youthful dreams and time pass us by, using baseball as the metaphor. The “Glory Days” video from the “Glory Days” of @MTV was filmed at a bar in Hoboken, NJ, and is actually one of the few, if the only, live glimpse of him with his first wife Julianne Phillips at the end of the video. His marriage to the only lady in the @EStreetBand, his redheaded woman @PattiScialfa has withstood the test of time, perhaps a symbol that all of us make mistakes, and to echo Bono and Mick: eventually find what we are all looking for and perhaps also, do get what we want after all.

I often see pro baseball players (friends and fans of the Boss) in the pit with me at shows. Bruce is also a big fan of hats, particularly baseball caps, most often wearing his team’s (and mine), a New York Yankees hat. One of the only, if not the only, commercial “endorsement” he has ever agreed to and done was for Major League Baseball’s post-season promotion in 2012, with his more recent hit anthem (and one of my very faves), Land of Hope and Dreams as the soundtrack. http://m.brucespringsteen.net/…/land-of-hope-dreams-feature….  Baseball is one land where hopes and dreams come alive, and there is no other time that showcases it at its best than during the World Series.

As a kid – and to this day – I have always been a diehard Yankee fan and American League devotee. My dad took my brother and I to games regularly in the late 70’s (and beyond), and to multiple World Series games when the New York Yankees vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers was such a recurring theme, that my childish self expected them to always be the World Series teams! We either got great seats or at one game in particular, I remember being in the tippy top of the upper decks and my dad got so excited that he fell down into the crowd beneath us, who thankfully caught him intact. I can still cite the full team, with the first baseman always being my favorite player: catcher Thurman Munson, first baseman Chris Chambliss, second baseman Willy Randolph, shortstop Bucky Dent, 3rd baseman Graig Nettles, right fielder Reggie Jackson, center fielder Mickey Rivers, left fielder Lou Pineilla (whose fan cries of “Lou” mirror the Boss fan cries of “Bruuuuuuuce”), and if we were lucky: Ron Guidry as pitcher. Collecting and trading baseball cards and getting our hands on the Reggie candy bar were part of my lifestyle at the time. When I worked at Cartier right out of college, my boss was a great pal of Reggie’s. In fact, Reggie actually slept on a couch in his office the day after his 3 run homer game after partying all night with him to celebrate. He is actually even featured in the movie “The Bronx is Burning”! Reggie was always a big presence in the office and was very kind to me, though he took a particular liking to my office mate! I was always in awe of him, despite his braggadocio and bravado (just like someone else of note who shall remain nameless here!). We ended up doing a big event honoring him and the MLB at the Cartier mansion on Fifth Ave (just recently reopened and refurbished in all its spectacular glory), which was most definitely the best event for me during my years of working there.

One of my very favorite books (and the person who wrote it) is “Wait ’till Next Year” by Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book recounts her lifelong love of baseball, through the narrative of her childhood in Rockville Centre on Long Island and the bond with her father and the neighborhood through baseball’s heyday with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. The detail in the memories shared there is astounding, as well as the emotion it evokes through metaphor and her ability to transport the reader back in time to an America of another era when small towns and neighborhood kids played stick ball, everyone listened to games and everything else on transistor radios, and when being an immigrant was celebrated by everyone as being part of the same, very exclusive yet embracing, “club” of America.

In college @GeorgetownUniversity, my friends were from all over the country and the world. But a group of my closest friends and housemates were all from @Chicago, four girls who all went to grade school together and two of whom are first cousins. As the lone New Yorker though, I never felt out of place but instead was buoyed by the things that made me always feel right at home:  their close-knit ties to each other and with their tight-knit, large families; their long heritage in their hometown of Chicago and their Midwestern values that mirrored my own:  devotion to family, friends, and faith; a commitment to hard-work, education, and achievement; the pursuit of enriching experiences, and intellectual, artistic and socially-conscious endeavors; and a vow to each other to be life-long friends, which we are to this day.  I had never been to Chicago before then, but once I did, I felt right at home – as I do in Cleveland with other close college friends, and other parts of the country and the world that don’t necessarily resemble NYC at all, but remind me that while there is no place like NYC, that this country of ours is great.  Seeing these two great American cities reflected in this World Series through the players and the fans only reminded me of all of them, as well as all the great American and humane values we all hold dear as Americans, and as people – through the lens of America’s heartland.

Also when I was in college, I switched allegiance to the National League during the 1986 Series, in honor of my close friend whose family name lit up their landmark stadium, and in honor of my hometown New York. Since then, I always root for the Mets – except of course during the Subway Series and ONLY if the Yankees are out of contention. This year however, has been another exception. Seeing a team who has always been the underdog, with such devoted fans even when they are losing badly, from the great city of Chicago, take their talent, skill, hard work, teamwork, faith, and spirit all the way through the wee hours of Game 7 has been sheer joy and a blissful escape for all of us, especially my father. Seeing him watch these games rooting for the Cubbies (though he is also a diehard Yankee fan, but as a kid the NY Giants were his team!) has been something to treasure forever, just like all these baseball memories and anecdotes mentioned here will always be for me. Seeing devoted fans like Eddie Vedder, Vince Vaughn, Bill Murray, and yes, Charlie Sheen, in the stands immersed among the rest of us rooting for their team brings what’s most important here, home. Baseball – like Budweiser, Coca Cola, apple pie, hot dogs, and Bruce Springsteen – is a grand American tradition that unites us through rituals, silly statistics, caps on our heads symbolizing team loyalties as a proud persona, pinstripes and uniforms on grown men, diamonds on a green, chants and anthems that are unique to America, celebrating our American ideals, the proud showcase of sportsmanship, and the group rally behind the simple call to “take me out to the ballgame”. The Cubs deserve this win for them, the city of Chicago, and the game of baseball, but also for America, especially right now, because America needs a reminder that it is already great, and that our glory days are not behind us, but very much still here with many more ahead.

And guess what book Dad is reading, even during the commercial breaks of the Series?! “Born to Run”. And guess what America? Springsteen is right: we are indeed the land of hope and dreams, as is this great world we live in and the world upstairs waiting for all of us, one for all and all for one.  Thanks to the Cubs – and to Cleveland – for taking us all out to the ballgame with you and for these glory days, uniting us through time seemingly standing still for a minute, and uniting us as Americans.  Through the celebration of the great game of baseball, camaraderie, the American success story, and most importantly, family, America is grateful.

To these glory days of baseball, take us with you far above and beyond November 8.  After 240 years, it’s time we all remember that while time does pass us by, we can still stand still for a minute and just play ball together.  Let’s play ball together, regardless of who becomes President.  Why? Because not only do good things come to those who wait, but also because time does not ever stand still (even though it may have seemed that way to Chicago for 108 years), time can pass us by, but our glory days are here with many more to come, so as the Boss says at the end of “Glory Days”: let’s rock it now!

Trish Muccia Scott Shea Drew Shea Bruce Springsteen Chicago CubsNew-York-Yankees @MajorLeagueBaseball Doris Kearns Goodwin @ClevelandIndians @CocaCola @Budweiser  New-York-Mets #baseball #USA @SiriusXM @EStreetRadio @GeorgetownUniversity @Cartier