Terry Flanagan: Hey, 'Bleacher Bums!' Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack

I never saw the original Bleacher Bums. Being a fan of the other team, I just never had any burning desire to see a play about Cub fans, even though White Sox and Cub fans have a lot in common. Both are more likely to see Halley’s Comet more often than World Series championships in Chicago.

The original play was written by members of the Chicago Organic Theater and debuted in 1977. It’s based on an idea by Chicago-born actor and Cub fan, Joe Mantegna, who starred with Dennis Franz in the PBS adaptation in 1979. The play was rewritten in 1998. Unfortunately the Cubs were not. They made the wild card berth in a one-game playoff that year against the Giants but were swept in the first round by the Braves. That’s been pretty much the story for their rare post-season appearances.

The 1998 version of Bleacher Bums is currently playing at the Geneva Underground Playhouse on weekends through the end of September, which is when baseball traditionally ends in Chicago. While fans in other cities are buying playoff tickets, Chicago fans shrug off disappointing season after season with the mantra “wait ‘til next year."

It’s this sort of patience and the quiet resolve of the long-suffering Cub fan that is one of the play’s underlying themes. The true believers can accept losing, but they never give up hope of winning it all. In the final scene, the blind Cub fan, Greg, sums up the ultimate fantasy of every Cub fan. It is part dream, part prayer, and the eternal hope that rises above the curse, the losing tradition, and the ridicule of those who have lost the faith.

Director Steve Lord, a long-time Cub fan himself, calls the play a “labor of love." Steve not only saw the original play, but recalls sitting in the bleachers and seeing the same sorts of characters that are central to the play. These were average guys who spent many afternoons in the cheap seats at a time when only day baseball was played in Wrigley. They weren’t really friends, but they had a common bond. They loved the Cubbies and they loved to bet on everything that could possibly happen in the game. But they wouldn’t or couldn’t bet against the Cubs.

The excellent cast includes Tom Lord as Greg, the blind fan who listens to the game on the radio and mimics the announcers, Keith Laug as Zig, the compulsive gambler, Donna Latham as Rose, Zig’s wife, who wants him to stop gambling, Jim Leo as Richie, the geeky baseball nut who’s memorized every player’s stats, Scott Surowiecki as Marvin, the serious and bitter gambler, Dan Perry as Decker, a professional gambler with a heart, Malina Phetchanp Heng as Melody, the sexy young girl who works on her tan while fawning over Cub first baseman Mark Grace, and Ryan BaraBasz, as the comical, lunatic fan who tries to get the crowd into the game while he masterfully heckles the opposing team’s outfield.

Bleacher Bums has been called a nine-inning comedy, but it has a serious side, too. It will make you laugh, and it will make you think. You don’t have to be a Cub fan or even a baseball fan to enjoy this trip to the ballpark.