Ahhh...opening day. A day when hope springs eternal. A day when everyone's record is the same. A day when even the teams with the smallest payrolls and lowest expectations have a chance. As a Cubs fan it's even more special. The thought that maybe, just maybe, this will be the first day of the year we finally do it. The first step toward putting over a century of misery behind us.

Generations have come and gone and not seen a Cubs World Series win. If you were old enough to remember when it last happened you'd be roughly 110 years old now. In other words, your great-great-grandchildren are Cubs fans now and will probably be taking your infant great-great-great-grandchildren to their first game this season.

My Cubs lineage doesn't go back that far. Only a a little over a quarter of a century for me. When my parents divorced and me and my Mom moved to Waverly we got WGN, a station we didn't have in Memphis. My Mom had been a fan for years, but this sudden and constant access to games all the time took her fandom to a different level. From that point on summers were filled with afternoon Cubs games. Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston. In only my 2nd year as a fan the Cubs won the National League East pennant. There was no internet then, so I thought I'd been rooting for a winning organization. I had no idea that this was only their 3rd pennant in 44 years. Since then, they've only won 2 more over the next 24. I was setting myself up for a lifetime of heartache.

My Mom, the only person I've ever known who was a bigger Cubs fan than me, passed away without seeing the Cubs win it all. Just like so many before her.

When the Cubs finally do it, and I've got 100% faith that Theo Epstein is heading us in the right direction, it'll be a moment of both incredible joy and undeniable sadness. Which is just about the perfect description of being a Cubs fan to begin with.