| "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Steve Goodman | |
| from the album Affordable Art | |
| Released | 1981 |
| Recorded | 1981 |
| Length | 6:02 |
| Songwriter(s) | Steve Goodman |
"A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is a folk song written by Steve Goodman in 1981 and first performed by him on a WGN radio show that year. The song tells the story of a Chicago Cubs fan looking back at decades of supporting the struggling baseball team. Goodman wrote the song in the spring of 1981, just before that year's Major League Baseball strike interrupted the season. Goodman, a native of Chicago, incorporated a number of specific references to the city, the Cubs, and their baseball stadium, Wrigley Field.
At the time of the song's release, the Cubs had not been to a World Series since 1945 and had not won one since 1908. By 1981, the team was under new ownership and was trying to shed its image as a hapless team. The song's lyrics seem to make fun of the Cubs, referring to the team as "the doormat of the National League", and such references strained the relationship between Goodman and the team's executives.
Goodman later composed "Go, Cubs, Go", which became the team's victory song. That song has been described as overly sentimental, and Goodman was said to have written it that way to subtly poke fun at the team's criticism of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". Goodman died of leukemia in 1984, and some of his ashes were surreptitiously scattered at Wrigley Field, consistent with the lyrics of "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request".