Tom Musick: Mother, baby bond at Wrigley Field

CHICAGO – Emily Ivy Anne Prindes waited her entire life to watch the Cubs play in the World Series.

Granted, her entire life did not start until six months ago.

“I’ve waited 26 weeks for this!!” a sign declared in front of Emily’s seat in the upper deck Friday night.

Let there be no doubt. As the Cubs try to make history, Emily is one of the team’s biggest (littlest) fans.

Consider her credentials: Including Friday’s Game 3 of the World Series, Emily has been to 40 games since she was born April 25. She visited Miller Park in Milwaukee and U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side, and she went on road trips with her mom to see the Triple-A Iowa Cubs and Single-A South Bend Cubs. She even posed for pictures with former Cubs hurler Carlos Zambrano.

Did we mention Emily attended the first World Series game at Wrigley since 1945? She also will be in attendance Saturday and Sunday in Section 530 of the upper deck, her home away from home.

“I think she thinks this is what babies do,” her mom, Lynn Prindes, said with a laugh.

Emily has blond hair, blue eyes and a smile that will make your day. She wears protection for her ears and stays warm beneath layers of Cubs clothes and blankets as the game takes place below.

Sometimes, Emily will sit up in her mom’s lap and watch her favorite team. Other times, she likes to turn around and study the people behind her. She loves it when her mom – and 40,000-plus other Cubs fans – sing her happy songs such as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Go, Cubs,Go.”

“She’s an incredibly easy baby,” said Prindes, who lives on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “I tell people I won the baby lottery.”

Emily might have felt like a lottery winner Friday when she received a fresh diaper before the start of the game. Her mom checked her stroller with an usher and fed her with a bottle as others around her dined on hot dogs and nachos.

“It’s crazy how good she is,” Prindes said.“ She falls asleep sometimes for an hour or an hour-and-a-half in the middle ofthe game. She usually wakes up for the end of the game.”

Prindes did not set out to take her daughter to so many games. She has been a full season-ticket holder since 2003, but she sold her tickets through Father’s Day because she figured Emily would be too young.

But then a funny thing happened.

The weather was so pleasant, and Emily was so easy-going, and the Cubs were bordering on magical. Prindes took her daughter to her first game May 28, and she seemed to love the fresh air and casual vibe. Before long, the single mother and her bright-eyed baby were stars in their section.

“There’s no better way to spend a summer afternoon or evening than at Wrigley,” Prindes said. “Summer in Chicago goes so fast and is so precious. My maternity leave was during May, June and July, so I had all of those summer months, and we experienced as much as we could.”

The connection goes deeper than baseball. It’s about love and family and those who are no longer here. When Prindes bonds with Emily at the ballpark, it reminds her of moments spent with her father.

“My dad and my neighbor both loved the Cubs, and they had their little AM radios plugged into their garages,” said Prindes, whose father died in 1997. “Both of them would be blaring the game, and you could hear the game between the two yards. After my dad passed away, I made sure I kept that radio.”

Maybe some day, Emily will decide baseball is not for her. Maybe she will root for some other team.

Then again, maybe she will cherish the memories that her mom worked hard to create.

“I’m hoping that I’m not going to push this on her, but just let her see that this is a fun thing we do,” Prindes said. “I’m just so happy that this is something that her and I can share right now.

“She comes free until she’s 2 years old. After she turns 2, people are like, ‘What are you going to do?’

“I’m like, ‘No,what are you going to do? Because she’ll have the other ticket.’ ”

• Tom Musick is a Shaw Media contributor.