The cup snakes are dead. The right field bleachers killed them. The game wasn’t going well, so what might have been a harmless or humorous delay during a blowout was instead a splinter deep within everyone’s emotional skin. They spilled the cup snake onto the warning track. We had to wait for them to pick the shattered cup snake off the warning track. The cup snake is dead.
I’ve been in favor of the cup snake, despite being selective in my support of the wave. They’re different beasts. The wave is fun during a blowout, or during a boring game when a team’s out of contention. It’s a war crime during a close game, especially when said game is meaningful. The cup snake, though? Doesn’t take everyone’s attention. Confined to one area. Easy to focus on between innings. Gets the people going.
After last night, of course, it has to go. “This is why we can’t have nice things,” and such. But what a run it had. Liberated after the tyranny of 2019, it blossomed when the bleachers filled up during that sweep of the Cardinals, becoming an icon of Chicago’s post-pandemic reawakening and a jewel in the crown of the first-place Chicago Cubs. It is, again, dead now. It’s over, at least for a good while. But as we hustle it in pieces to the nearest trash receptacle, let us remember this: Just like the poem says about Icarus…
The cup snake also flew.
