In the early 1980's, we lived in a slightly mountainous area of North Carolina. And our community had an early version of cable. The cable box on our TV has 13 push buttons, each representing a different channel.

Among those 13 channels were WOR (New York), TBS (Atlanta) and WGN (Chicago). In the early 80's, all three channels had contracts to carry baseball games. WOR had the Mets, TBS showed the Braves and WGN aired the Cubs games. This is pre-ESPN, so your other option was to catch a random Game of the Week broadcast on one of the networks.

I loved baseball. I'd come home from school and turn on the TV and try to find a baseball game. And more often than not, there would be a Cubs game on. Why? Because Wrigley Field didn't get lights until 1988. All home games were day games. The Braves and Mets played a bunch of night games so even though I saw some of their games, I didn't develop the same connection that I did with the Cubs.

(Geographically, it would have made sense for me to be a Braves fan. We weren't too far from Atlanta. But at the time, they were in the NL West division and played a bunch of night games on the West coast. So those games started after my bed time.)

I fell in love with Wrigley Field, Harry Carey, Ryne Sandberg and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. And then we moved to Chicago and my die-hard-Cubs-fan status was cemented.

Wrigley Field turns 100 this week. And even though Harry Carey is no longer with us, Ryne Sandberg is the manager of the Phillies and Wrigley has lights, I still love my Cubbies.