I was lucky last year.

A devoted follower of a sports team that had not been in a league championship game in 71 years, and that had not won the league championship in 108 years, I was able to shed the immense weight of being someone who embraced a sports team that was known for losing, that set a benchmark for competitive futility.

And I was late to the party.

My epoch of frustration only lasted for 18 years, when I took the team into my heart after moving to their city in 1998.

It’s a peculiar thing, fandom. And I wonder how and why we humans got caught up in it.

But for whatever reason, the bulk of us have a tendency to become fans of many things in life, and many of these things are people, or groups of people. And among these groups of people are sports teams.

We like to identify ourselves with certain teams, for a range of reasons. Certainly one reason for many people relates to locality. We like to embrace what we know, like things from the places we have lived in or loved in. We like to embrace things that we see as representing us somehow. But also, when it comes to sports, we can have a tendency to simply embrace teams that win, because somehow, by being associated with them, it’s like we win with them.

Fans like to see their teams win. At least once. Surmounting all the seasons of losing.

If we are sane, though, we have to recognize it.

For every league that our teams are in- for every league we follow- at the end of each season, only one team finishes as its champion. And the bigger the league, the harder it is for our team to win it all.

And, after a team has won it all and has basked for half a year in glory, the new season arrives, and it all starts again. No team is a loser, and no team is a winner, until the games begin once more.

And at the end of that season, your team may finally be the league winner this time- or your team’s championship season comes to an end, and some other team followed by a thousand or a hundred thousand or a million other fans carries out the trophy.

And the fans are happy or sad.

There is something in human nature though. Humans like alliances, and identifying with ideals and idols, and competition.

And winning.

With their teams.

For some reason.

Come on, Cubs- let’s make it two years in a row THIS year. Because I am fully part of your team and tribe.