Andrew Braithwaite

He's classic Chicago baseball: Jerry Pritikin attended his first Cubs game in 1945. When the team clinched the pennant, 8-year-old Jerry asked his father to take him to the World Series, but was told he was too young. Instead, father promised to take his son the next time the Cubs reached the Fall Classic.

"The irony is, with the Cubs' popularity right now, I don't think I'd be able to get Series tickets even if this was finally `The Year,'" says Pritikin, who earned tickets by cleaning the stadium until he was 14. He moved to San Francisco in 1964, but was disappointed to discover that the bleachers at the Giants' Candlestick Park were "horrible stands where the winos hung out."

Jerry returned home as often as possible to root for his beloved Cubbies. He became a super-fan well-known for his creative signs, chants, and attire. (A favorite jab at visiting outfielders when Sammy Sosa comes to the plate: "This one's going over your head, just like Sesame Street.") Sporting the nickname "The Bleacher Preacher" after discovering that his original nickname, "Bleacher Creature," was being used by an entire section of fans at Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Jerry made $1,000 at the first night game at Wrigley Field in 1988, working as a human billboard for a local Mazda dealership.

In 1980, Pritikin caught a showing of the play "Bleacher Bums" on PBS in San Francisco. The play, developed by local boy Joe Mantegna, was about a group of diehard Cubs fans spending an afternoon at Wrigley. When the production came to San Fran, he talked the producers into hiring him as the "flax man" for the show.

Pritikin, who now lives in Chicago, says he can't decide whether the play's characters reflect his experiences, or whether he reflects the characters. "Is it art imitating life, or life imitating art? In a way, my life and my celebrity evolved as I took on the persona of the `Bums' in the play." He's a little apprehensive about the twenty-fifth anniversary production of "Bleacher Bums" opening at the Royal George Theatre. "They update every new production, so you never know how it's going to have changed."

Jerry shows some photos he's displayed in the theater's lobby, being particularly fond of a shot of Cubs broadcasting legend Jack Brickhouse sporting Jerry's trademark beanie and holding one of his signs. He's also been given a pass for the entire run of the show and received a coveted Opening Day ticket from the producers. Still, like any long-suffering Cubs diehard, The Bleacher Preacher knows not to read too much into the World Series predictions and the team's hot start. He demonstrates his optimism-sapping knowledge of Cub history with a quick response as the lights suddenly come on in the theatre's lobby. "Hmph, just like '88."

(2004-04-27)

Also by Andrew Braithwaite

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It's only been a couple of weeks now since Smithwick's, first brewed in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1710, has been available in the Land of the Free
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