Chicago Cubs

Chicago's first New Year's baby in 2017 was named in honor of the Cubs

Published Jan. 4, 2017 10:05 a.m. ET

Chris Bahr

Need proof that Cubs fever still hasn’t abated in the Windy City? Well, the first baby born this year in a Chicago-area hospital was given a very North Side name.

Wrigley Rose Dalbey was born at 12:12 a.m. in Chicago on Jan. 1, according to the Chicago Tribune. She weighed in at just under six pounds, though there was no mention of her defensive metrics. And this was no bandwagon birth; Wrigley was going to be Wrigley no matter how the 2016 season would have gone for the Cubs.

"We knew some people would be questioning if we only named her that because they won the World Series. We like to let people know we chose the name before the Cubs won," proud father Aaron Dalbey told the Tribune, which notes Aaron has a Cubs tattoo and posed for pictures at the hospital with a World Series champion T-shirt.

https://twitter.com/JazminBeltran/status/815729085150326784

Congrats to the Dalbeys, whose daughter never will know what it’s like to be alive in a time when the Cubs are desperately trying to end a century-plus of misery.

And Wrigley soon should have plenty of company. After all, the real windfall should come in late July/early August – roughly nine months after the Cubs’ curse-breaking Game 7 win in Cleveland.