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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, July 12, 2008

Die-hard Cubs fans will have special place to rest in peace

 •  Halladay 2-hits Yanks

By Don Babwin
Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Dennis Mascari, president of Fans Forever Inc., has plans to build a final resting place for Cubs fans at a Chicago cemetery.

CHARLES REX ABROGAST | Associated Press

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CHICAGO — Finally, the perfect answer for a team that has been killing its fans for 100 years: A place to put their remains.

A Chicago man and Bohemian National Cemetery on the city's North Side are joining forces to build for Cubs fans a final resting place that looks a lot like the spot where they saw their dreams of a pennant die year after year.

Called "Beyond the Vines," the 24-foot long ivy-covered wall is designed to look like the one in dead center at Wrigley Field.

It's all on the drawing board now, but the wall is expected to be up and ready to accept fans in October — just about the time Cubs fans are starting their annual mantra of "Wait till next year."

Dennis Mascari the president of Fans Forever Inc., says it will transform the cemetery experience, if not for the dead, at least for the living.

"When you come to a cemetery to visit a loved one it's usually a pretty sad, gloomy situation," he said, standing on the lawn where the wall will be erected. "But when you come here and visit (what looks like) his home away from home ... Wrigley Field, it's going to be a great feeling for people."

Mascari, 60, is envisioning something special. There will be a stained-glass scoreboard. And at each of the 280 niches in the wall — "eternal skyboxes, that's what we call them," he says — there will be an urn emblazoned with the Cubs logo.

Near each urn will be a bronze baseball card with a photograph of the deceased fan who, Mascari said, depending on the wishes of the family can be dressed up in a Cubs hat, Cubs jersey or full Cubs uniform. It could also include the dead fan's date of birth, date of death, and maybe their favorite Cub.

There's even talk of piping in Cubs games on speakers so nobody, living or dead, will miss an inning. Not only that, but if this idea appeals to more than 280 Cubs fans, the cemetery has set aside enough land to add a right-field wall and a left-field wall.

The price tag for interment will cost as much as $5,000, the "grand slam" package that includes pick up of the body and delivery to Bohemian for cremation in its brand new $100,000 cremation oven, a service, and, of course, the baseball card plaque and urn.

But Mascari knows there are plenty of fans who have long since died and their remains are just sitting in urns somewhere. Interment of those ashes can cost as little as $1,200.

Besides, Cubs fans have for years been scattering ashes of loved ones at Wrigley Field — a tradition immortalized by the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, in whose "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" an old man asks his own family to do just that at the "ivy-covered burial ground." Those ashes include some of Goodman's, scattered there by family and friends a year after his death.

That tradition reminds Mascari that his wall can offer something to fans they can't possibly get from having their ashes scattered on the outfield grass: Peace of mind.

"Last year the turf (at Wrigley) was removed," Mascari explained. "So something like this would make sure that fans would never have to worry about any turf being removed and put somewhere else."