CHICAGO -- Kaitlin Reap didn't listen when her dad tried to warn her about the lifetime of misery waiting for her if she cheered for the Chicago Cubs. She rejected his invitation to share with him the joys of being a St. Louis Cardinals fan. And all his talk about curses simply guaranteed him a daughter who wants nothing to do with goats.
"I want to be a Cubs fan," said Kaitlin, a 9-year-old third grader at Saint Andrew School, less than a mile from Wrigley Field. "I think they're going to win."
Cubs fans everywhere are hoping for the team's first trip to the World Series since 1945, and then the possibility of a World Series championship for the first time since 1908.
They have a team that piled up the most victories (103) in the majors this season. But there is also fear -- the kind of fear that is handed down from generation to generation in Chicago, the kind that comes from heartbreak after heartbreak, the kind that is fed by billy goat curses (1945), black cats (1969) and infamous plays (looking at you, Steve Bartman).
Cubs fans know this feeling as well as they know their way to the friendly confines. They've grown up with it.
Except, that is, for the fans who haven't finished growing up.
There is optimism among Kaitlin and her schoolmates that the Cubs will win it all this year and, if not, they will certainly end the long championship drought by the time they leave Saint Andrew.
At nearby Hawthorne Scholastic Academy, the only fear is that the principal won't let them out of class to watch the parade they know is coming.
The way the youngsters see it, all those older fans are being a little silly.
"People are a little paranoid [because] it hasn't happened, but it might be a coincidence that they haven't won in a while," said Max Oldham, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Saint Andrew.
Referring to 108 years as "a while," might have something to do with parents who have protected their children from what they know and what they have witnessed for themselves.
"We have not told him about Bartman," said Cy Oldham, who saw what unfolded from the left-field bleachers after she and her husband decided to postpone their honeymoon so they could attend the playoffs. "We try not to dwell on that time [and] it is not something we want to sit down and say, 'Let me tell you how bad things used to be.' "
The parents of 11-year-old Addison Casavechia named her Addison because they liked the way it sounded and because Wrigley Field is on Addison Street.
Casavechia, a sixth-grader, is one of the more realistic young fans.
"I have my bets for next year because we'll have Kyle Schwarber back," she said of the power-hitting outfielder who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third game of the season.
Sarah Casavechia, assistant principal at Saint Andrew, said she doesn't want to see her daughter suffer. But she said she sees rooting for the Cubs as part of growing up in Chicago.
"I think being a Cubs fan is like taking a leap of faith every year, it's like falling in love," she said. "You know there's a chance you're going to get your heart broken, but you do it anyway."
Kaitlin said she doesn't believe her team is cursed.
Still, she had something to say after her dad told her about Billy Sianis, who put a curse on the Cubs after the team wouldn't let his goat attend the 1945 World Series.
"I am a little mad at that goat," she said.
At a glance
NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Best-of-7 x-if necessary
All times Central
NOTE Games 1-5 will be shown on Fox Sports 1. If necessary, Games 6 and 7 could move from FS1 to Fox.
SATURDAY’S GAME Los Angeles at Chicago (Lester 19-5), 7:08 p.m.
SUNDAY’S GAME Los Angeles at Chicago, 7:08 p.m.
TUESDAY’S GAME Chicago at Los Angeles, 7:08 p.m.
WEDNESDAY’S GAME Chicago at Los Angeles, 7:08 p.m.
THURSDAY, OCT. 20 x-Chicago at Los Angeles, 7:08 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT. 22 x-Los Angeles at Chicago, TBA
SUNDAY, OCT. 23 x-Los Angeles at Chicago, TBA
Sports on 10/14/2016