“I sure wish my Dad were alive,” Debbie Otto says. “He would be in Heaven!” A true Cubs fan knows that statement is not ridiculous in the least. Paul Otto himself used to be a Wrigley usher, getting a firsthand look at the start of the 1969 collapse before blessedly going back to college in the fall and not having to see the end. His nephew, Dave, pitched for the Cubs in 1994, and has been a TV and radio announcer for the team, filling in this season when ex-Cub Ron Santo takes time off.

(Speaking of Ron Santo, here is why he is the No. 1 Cubs fan. He lived through the 1969 collapse, played with diabetes, lost both legs to diabetes, has been denied the Hall of Fame for forever, and yet on the radio it's clear, through his oh-my-goshes and geezes, that the most painful thing in his life is watching the Cubs lose.)

But there is no bigger fan in the Otto family than Paul's mother, Beryl. At age 92, she is only a few years younger than Wrigley Field itself.

Even though she grew up on the South Side, she went to Cubs games regularly from the 1920s through the 1970s, striking up a friendship with fellow South Side native Lou Boudreau, a Cubs broadcaster. Her Cubs autographs range from multiple members of the 1928 team (her favorite team with her favorite player, Riggs Stephenson, whom she once visited in the hospital after he broke his leg), to 60s and 70s mainstays like Fergie Jenkins and Don Kessinger, to her grandson, whom she saw pitch at Wrigley in the early 1990s when he was with the Pirates — his last game in person. She also has a Ziggy greeting card saying “you brightened my day,” signed by Boudreau.

"You can't really believe they're going to win. I can hardly stand to watch when they lose.” — Beryl Otto Cubs fan, 92

As the sun begins to set on Sunday, the Cubs' regular season officially over, Beryl Otto is wearing her Carlos Zambrano T-shirt. Zambrano is one of her three current favorites, along with Derek Lee and Mark DeRosa. Those two she likes because they're such “gentlemen.” Zambrano she likes because he's no gentleman. “I feel sorry for him. He's excitable, like I was when I played sports.”

All the Ottos — like most fans — have noticed this year that Cubs fans are actually watching the games at Wrigley, breaking the stereotype of fratboy and sorority-girl socialites just there to be seen, an image held dear by White Sox fans.

Bob Cook / NBCSports.com contributor Beryl Otto, 92, of Orland Park, Ill., holds a framed picture of the 1928 Cubs, her favorite Cubs team. Of the possibility of the team winning it's first title in 100 years, Otto says “Ooh, it would be breathtaking. I've never really believed it."

"You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball. Southside." Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama approves this message, because those are his words to ESPN in August.

“I think there's more spirit because it's been 100 years,” Beryl Otto said. “It's such a long time. My goodness.”

She's sitting in her dining room, a straight path from the living room and hallway that takes her to the TV room and recliner where she hopes to be spending the next month. She has no superstitions, no lucky charms. She just sees something in the 2008 Cubs she's rarely witnessed in other versions: a team “that has a passion for the game, that's really intense.”

“Ooh, it would be breathtaking. I've never really believed it. You can't really believe they're going to win. I can hardly stand to watch when they lose.”

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