CHICAGO -- If the producers of the movie Fever Pitch ever considered a sequel, there are several thousand people in Chicago who could provide plenty of new material.It wouldnt necessarily follow up on the love story between the characters played by Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, a rabid Boston Red Sox fan so devoted to the team that he nearly had to choose between his cherished season tickets and his girl.No, the stars of the movie in the view of Cubs fans hoping for their teams first World Series championship in 108 years, was the colorful group of season-ticket holders who were more than Fallons seatmates, more than the people who traded wisecracks and baseball chatter, listened to his problems and tried to talk him out of selling his seats to stay with the girl.For Jerry and Judy Shapiro, a suburban Chicago couple whose courtship actually did resemble the main characters -- You can make that analogy, Judy agreed -- the plot picks up 35 years, three kids and a grandson in a little Cubs hat later. It resumes 32 years after they bought season tickets at Wrigley Field and became just two of thousands of regulars who populate the place in little groups and subsets and full-blown communities of former strangers who say the team that drew them there, have turned them into family.Shapiros group calls itself 228 for Sect. 228, which sits between home and first, even with the mound and just above the big aisle. Just high enough that people walking in the aisle dont bother them and just under the overhang so they stay dry when it rains.In other words, perfect.I just love being at the park and experiencing the joys of Wrigley Field with these people that I have become so close with and really care about, Jerry Shapiro said.It is, mostly, luck of the draw. But Melanie Wyatt believes Good people find good people. And so it was 13 years ago that she met fellow season-ticket holder Tom Peak, who shared her section in the grandstand, and then decided together eight years ago that the bleachers would be more fun.We sit there every game with people we would not otherwise know from any other walk of life, said Wyatt, who has two tickets but usually goes alone. We just found each other. And now were family.Doctors, business owners, brokers from their mid-30s to mid-50s, they dubbed themselves Cubbie Family, a group that occupies the top section of the bleachers in right-center field and can swell to as large as 45 or shrink as small as 10 diehards who bristle at the suggestion that somehow theyre the poor stepchildren of the season-ticket holder population.Once the domain of the shirtless Bleacher Bums, a group that inspired a long-running Chicago play starring Joe Mantegna and Dennis Franz in the original cast, the Cubs started offering the bleacher seats to season-ticket holders about 15 years ago.Retaining the spirit if not the image of the Bums, even the season-ticket holders have to line up (albeit in their own line) two-and-a-half hours before first pitch in order to secure the seats they want, which they reserve with long rows of Cubs beach towels secured by bungee cords.For us, its just a better time out there, but the days of no shirts is kind of lost, Peak said, though the men in the group did vow to go shirtless if Miggy jacked one with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series last week.Sure enough, Miguel Montero hit a pinch-hit grand slam and the guys followed through.We had to promise no pictures, Wyatt laughed.Wyatt, 47, and Peak, 52, are the unofficial administrators (they have a Facebook group of about 150) and cruise directors, often recognized on the street as Arent you that dude [or woman] we always see on TV holding up the big W flag?Its Peaks and its about 9 feet by 5 feet, filled with signatures of players past and present, and has been a television staple at the end of Cubs games.We know people all over the park, Peak explained, and that includes the cameramen.No one presides over 228, but if there were patriarchs of the family, it would be Jerry and Karen Johnson -- Jerry, 75, once the VP of regulatory affairs for a pharmaceutical company who now teaches jazz singing to kids in an after-school program, and Karen, 74, a retired project researcher for Sears, Roebuck and Co. who counsels newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.Were the grandparents, Karen said.Jerry Johnson is a third-generation Cubs fan. His father Dale, who died in 1988, was born three months after the Cubs won their last World Series in 1908 and was turned onto the team by Jerrys grandfather.Among the very beginnings of the Cubs is in my blood, Jerry said.Growing up in Galesburg, Illinois, Jerry remembers keeping score of Cubs games by the overhead lights in his fathers pink 54 Buick because it was the only radio that could get Chicagos WIND, the only station that carried their night games.But I only did it a few times because I ran down his battery and the car wouldnt start the next morning, he recalled.Occasionally, when he was lucky, the family would get up at 5 in the morning and make the 200-mile trip to Wrigley Field, hopefully see a doubleheader, and then drive five hours back and hopefully get home by midnight, Jerry recalled.Jerry Johnson still keeps score -- on cards he makes himself -- with different colored pens and his own detailed system that includes a backward K, meaning the batter swung and missed, and a regular K, a called third strike. It draws fans from far beyond 228 to ask him for balls and strikes on previous batters. They also ask him how he scored close plays.He still keeps the pitch count, Shapiro said of the groups teasing, and were like, Jerry, they keep that on the scoreboard now. Look, we can see it.Jerry Johnson laughs along, and he and Karen, who stand arm in arm to sing during every seventh-inning stretch, are adored by the group. When they had their crazy medical things, as Karen refers to them -- serious accidents that once left Jerry with the loss of an eye and another time with a punctured lung, and serious illnesses like Karens breast cancer -- the group checked up on them constantly and researched their choice of doctors.We consider our seatmates family, Karen said. We would do anything for them and they would do anything for us, and we all know that and its so cool. We were just so, so lucky to find each other.The couple considers Ryland Denson, the youngest of the 228s at age 11, their sixth grandchild and the Shapiros three kids -- Scott, 30, Allie, 33, and Jami, 20 -- like their own as well. When the Shapiro girls were younger and their father brought them to the game, it was Karen Johnson who took them to the bathroom. Now they bring their boyfriends and girlfriends to meet the Johnsons.Were so worried when one of the younger people are going with someone, Karen said. We ask, Are they a Cubs fan? They have to run it by us.The 228s have a few rituals. Mike Denson found out one of them two games into his familys first season in Section 228, when he was told, You have to point to Tom.We were like, Whos Tom? And why are we pointing to him? he said.Before they could answer, the whole group was on their feet, pointing to the field and to a guy standing on the pitchers mound with the ball and resin bag, who pointed back. And so they learned of Tom Farinella, one of the original members of 228 who was lured down 10 years ago to replace a friend as umpires room attendant.I try to get up there before games to say a quick hello, said Farinella, 64, the former Des Plaines fire chief, and then Ill go back to the umpires room and think about how much I miss sitting up there with my friends. I look forward to the day Im not working anymore and can sit back in the stands with them.Toms sons, Joe, 38, and Lou, 36, took over their dads seats. Denson was introduced to the boys after the first point. Ten minutes later, we were introduced, This is Tom, these are his kids, and we had an instant connection.Denson was also immediately included in 228s post-mortem dinner, an October tradition that this year will have to wait. And then theres the other 228 ritual heightened to an art form by Shapiro and Denson that drives their wives and other family members a little crazy.We text during every road game, three hours back and forth, two grown men like were sitting at the ballpark next to each other, Shapiro said. My kids think we have a bromance and mock the crap out of it. But were so in sync in our texting, saying the same stupid thing at the same time, we marvel at how stupid we are.It got real bad three years ago, Denson said of the culmination of two seasons in which the Cubs would lose a combined 197 games. It was, Oh my God, why are we watching this? Why are they doing this? Now lets try not to be crazy negative. I wish we had saved all the texts where we told each other, Its OK to be optimistic.Ryland Denson so badly wanted to join in on the texting madness that after recently getting a new iPod for his birthday, he went up to his room leaving his dad watching a road game in the basement and telling him, Well text.Mike, a high school dean, grimaced.Theyre not always age-appropriate, he said. It would limit me.After the Densons first season in 228 about four years ago, the Cubs offered a lottery for season-ticket holders in which they could have moved down to what were considered better seats. Mike and Kim considered it. Shapiro wouldnt allow it.I said, You cant do that, he recalled. Dont you know how much we love coming here and being with your family, hanging out with your son? You cant do it.And so they didnt, texting Shapiro: How can we move? Were here. We love hanging out with you guys too. Thats half the fun.It takes the Densons an hour and a half or more to drive from Minooka, a suburb southwest of Joliet. They estimated they attend 50 to 60 Cubs games, spring training and at least two road trips a year.When theyre not there, Ryland said, I definitely miss it. Its a great place. Sometimes I come straight from my [baseball] games and I dont even have time to change, so Ill be wearing my uniform and we barely have time to get there.The Densons have tickets to the first World Series game at Wrigley but Ryland wont be there.I gave it to my grandpa, he said.In addition to the rituals, they also have a few rules. For the Cubbie Family, its pretty simple:1. No ties 2. You throw back home run balls from the visiting team 3. No WaveEver, Wyatt emphasized. And we take that to heart. It is not an option. I had a neighborhood bar owner once come up to me and say, I saw you stop the Wave four times. Heres a free drink coupon.Someone once asked me, Whats the deal with stopping the Wave? I said, The Wave is for someone who doesnt understand whats going on, on the field. Youre at a baseball game. Its your team. People do it when our team is up. How rude. Oh, and Santo hated it.The unofficial fourth rule is more a superstition.Dont touch the W flag until after the last out, Wyatt said.For 228, its more a belief system.They dont like crazy seventh-inning stretch or just plain bad anthem singers. (228 fun fact: Their own Jerry Johnson sang the anthem about 20 years ago and it was good.) They dont much care for faux Cubs fan celebrities. Oh yeah, and like the Cubbie Family: No. Wave. Ever. They all believe that once the game starts, you focus on the game.Its all baseball, Shapiro said. We dont talk politics, dont talk about work, were not some guys on the golf course talking about business deals. Its the lineup, whos hurt, whats [Joe Maddon] doing, the strategy, everything connected to the game itself.The worst is when they cant help but hear people around them, the tourists or worse, the blowhards at their first game of the season talking loudly about their stock options or, worse, spouting their baseball knowledge.Theyre not watching the game at all. And theyre usually wrong about every single thing, Denson said. We sort of have fun listening to that. And we talk about it amongst ourselves.Same thing in the bleachers.Every once in a while you have yahoos sitting around you using profanity, not very bleacher friendly, and we remind them, Hey man, there are kids around, said Peak, who takes great pleasure in handing out the BP homers he catches to the kids in the bleachers.The look on their face is just epic, he said. Right at the end of this season, a guy came up to me and said, Two years ago, you gave a ball to my little girl and every time she sees you on TV she says, Theres that nice man who gave me the ball. Those are moments you cant buy. This past January, on the occasion of Jerry Shapiros 60th birthday, his wife Judy wanted to do something special.But he hates surprise birthdays, he was depressed he was turning 60, he was basically miserable, she said.Glumly wearing the Cubs jersey his family made him put on that snowy morning, he was standing in their kitchen when Ryland Denson appeared, his family having made the hour-and-a-half drive from Minooka to Northbrook. And one after another, the gang from 228 followed.It was like This Is Your Life, Judy said. Ive never seen Jerry so happy. It was like bringing it all home. This goes way beyond Wrigley Field.Four years ago, Melanie Wyatt had a frightening episode with multiple pulmonary emboli that she considers herself lucky to have survived.My mom showed up to the hospital from Arkansas, walked in the room and said, Who are all these people? Wyatt said of her Cubbie Family. They all came to see me. Dozens of them. Pretty much the lady at the door of the hospital just asked everyone who walked in, You going to Room 114?Naturally one of the first questions Wyatt asked her doctor was, When can I go back to Wrigley?He said, If you can promise me you wont be hit by a baseball, you can go, she recalled.Wyatt didnt have a doubt.I told him, Theyll protect me. Theyre my family. Draymond Green Jersey . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. 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If the reports currently circulating are true, Chris Sale might have issued the most emphatically negative review of a uniform that any athlete has ever issued.But its certainly not the first negative review.First, some quick background: The Chicago White Sox were slated to wear a throwback version of their infamous 1976 leisure suit uniform on Saturday night, complete with the untucked jerseys and the disco collars.But when the Sox took the field tonight against the Detroit Tigers, they werent wearing the 1970s throwbacks. Instead, they wore their 1980s beach blanket throwbacks, which they normally wear on Sundays. And instead of Sale, who had been scheduled to be on the mound, the starting pitcher was Matt Albers -- a relief pitcher.The Sox soon issued a statement indicating that Sale had been scratched due to a clubhouse incident.That prompted a flurry of reports from multiple sources indicating that Sale had been so upset about the prospect of wearing the throwback uniform that he cut his jersey to shreds, along with those of some of his teammates.The White Sox have declined to confirm or deny these reports, at least for now.It wouldnt be the first thumbs-down assessment this uniform has received. The leisure suit design, which was conceived of by White Sox then-owner Bill Veeck, was the object of constant ridicule when it was originally worn from 1976 through 1981. Forty years after its introduction, it remains the only uniform in MLB history to include a jersey that was designed to be worn untucked.But the Sox nonetheless stuck with the design for six seasons. And they revived it as a throwback last year, for an Aug. 27 game against the Seattle Mariners, without any player having a tantrum like the one Sale reportedly threw Saturday night.There is nothing in the historical record to compare with an athlete disliking a uniform so much that he went all Edward Scissorhands on it. But there is at least one other instance of a player essentially vetoing his teams scheduled uniform for a given game.That was in 1995, when Sam Wyche was set to coach his final game for the NFLs Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs were still wearing their original orange-based uniform set at the time, and the plan was for the team to wear solid-orange -- orange jerseys paired with orange pants, something that had never been worn before -- for Wyches finale.Longtime Bucs equipment manager Frank Pupello explained how that played out in an exclusive 2010 Uni Watch interview:The fans had voted on it. The team had a food drive -- you were supposed to bring in a canned food item, and they had two barrels set up to receive the food.dddddddddddd One barrel had a picture of a uniform with an orange jersey and orange pants, and one had and orange jersey with white pants. So the fans voted by where they deposited the food. And the orange-on-orange won in a landslide. ... I had the orange pants all laid out in the lockers and everything. And some of the players were all excited about it. But [linebacker] Hardy Nickerson said, I aint gonna play this game if I gotta wear orange pants with my orange jersey. I dont like it. And Coach gave in. So one guy vetoed the whole thing.Nickerson disputes several of the details in Pupellos account, including the claim that the uniform choice was tied to a fan food drive.We were battling to try to go .500 that year, Nickerson told ESPN Bucs reporter Jenna Laine on Sunday. To have something like that going on in the locker room before [a game] ... somebody had to say, Lets go win this football game.?If I was upset, it was because we were in the locker room worried about uniforms and not trying to go .500 that year.Of course, there are lots of additional examples of players saying they dont care for a particular uniform (when the Red Sox introduced their bright-red alternate jerseys in 2003, one unnamed player reportedly quipped, Well be visible from space!), but they usually wear whatevers put in their lockers, whether they like it or not. In recent years, however, players have had more and more say regarding their uniforms. MLB starting pitchers often get to decide what the team will wear each day, NFL players routinely lobby for certain uniform combinations, and LeBron James personally decided that the Cleveland Cavaliers would wear their sleeved alternate jerseys in Games 5 and 7 of last months NBA Finals.If Sale really did take scissors to his teams uniforms on Saturday night, he may have set a new standard for uniform pushback, but hes just the latest in a long line of players to have strong feelings about what they wear.Paul Lukas writes about uniforms for ESPN.com. If you liked this column, youll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '