Beyond the Vines: Cubs-themed mausoleum tries to make grieving less gloomy

CHICAGO - Want Cubs season tickets... for eternity? Chicagoan Denny Mascari might be able to sell you a spot near cherished Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

There's just one catch: you have to be dead.

Super-fan Mascari is creating a Cubs-themed mausoleum, complete with bleacher seats and official Cubs urns.

A home-run gift for a diehard Cubs fan, or tacky swing-and-miss?

"I haven't had any negative feedback," Mascari said, adding that if his late great-grandmother - herself a diehard Cubs fan - "would have begged" for a berth in the mausoleum.

The idea seems fitting, given the Cubs have always had an odd relationship with death. They're nicknamed the Cardiac Cubs for their regular propensity to choke, or blow easy wins. It's rumored that fans have had their ashes spread over the diamond at Wrigley.

And then there's "Go Cubs Go," a venerated Cubs anthem written by Steve Goodman... as he was dying from leukemia.

A salesman from Rosehill Cemetery on North Ravenswood Ave., Mascari is making the idea, called "Beyond the Vines" his full-time job.

The mausoleum will feature a double-sided brick edifice that resembles Wrigley's scoreboard and will be built at Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's North End. It will have room for 280 urns and feature a stained glass window.

Mascari hopes to have it open by the start of the World Series in October, though it remains to be seen whether the Cubs will play.

Besides provide an eternal resting place for Chicago baseball fans, Mascari said his motivation is to provide a "therapeutic" cemetery experience for Cubbies.

"The families are going to feel that their husband or wife.. [is] in a place that's their home away from home," he said. "People will look forward to visiting their loved ones, knowing that they're there."

Price gouging and hidden charges are common in the funeral industry, and Mascari plans to have a competitive and transparent rate structure.

If a fan handles funeral arrangements and supplies an urn, internment will cost $1,200. The deluxe package - with the funeral arrangements made by Mascari and the official Cubs urn from Eternal Images - runs at $5,000.

That's a bargain, Mascari said, because cremation alone can run about $3,600 at an average internment center.

"Beyond the Vines" would be the first sports-themed mausoleum in the country, Mascari said.

For more information, visit http://www.beyondthevines.net.