Cubs win and so did I, a lesson

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series.

Amazing

It is the first time in 108 years.

I am happy for them.

I am not a baseball writer, but the Cubs win does have a connection to my interest in coin collecting.

Back in 1969 I was a Cubs fan.

It was before the Brewers moved to Milwaukee.

The team seemed to be on its way to a World Series in that year.

Then Miracle Mets thwarted that hope.

It was frustrating.

I lost interest in the team.

I was a kid.

Kids’ interests change.

It is a part of growing up.

The year 1969 was also the year I first subscribed to Numismatic News.

It was the next step in my development as a collector.

I wanted to know what was hot each week.

I wanted to know what other collectors were thinking and doing.

At that time I was already subscribing to Coins Magazine.

A monthly alone was just not enough to feed my interest.

I was a regular buyer of the annual Red Book and Whitman albums.

Unlike my loyalty to the Cubs, my loyalty to coin collecting never left me.

That loyalty is why I ended up in the editor’s chair at Numismatic News.

My lack of loyalty to the Cubs is probably why I was not sitting in the press box in Cleveland last night to cover the seventh game of the World Series.

What would have happened to me if the Cubs had won the World Series in 1969?

I will never know.

Life is about events and about the choices we make.

When the chips were down I always stayed loyal to coins.

I can’t say that about the Cubs.

For all the fans who stayed loyal to the team, good for you.

You made a life choice.

You have character.

You have been rewarded.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."