CHICAGO – The Cubs fans flocked outside Wrigley Field on Tuesday night to experience a night they hope they’ll never forget.

Game 6 of the National League Championship Series started out with thousands of fans hoping the Cubs would win the game and make it to the World Series. Some of these fans were not your regular Cubs fans. They were dressed in all different kinds of gear, trying to gain attention from everyone around them.

Israel Cabellos, of Chicago’s Lakeview, dressed in purple velvet and leopard print – he called his outfit “the pimp.”

“A true fan will do what it takes to be at Wrigley,” he said.

But Cabellos said he’s not the biggest Cubs fan he knows – that would be his brother, Juan.

Juan Cabellos was outside the Friendly Confines dressed as Santa Claus. He hails from Joliet, but said his heart is in Chicago.

He said he dressed as Santa for three reasons: No. 1 is for Ron Santo, because even if he can’t be there, Santa can. No. 2 is because if you believe in a jolly, old fat guy, you should believe in the Cubs. And No. 3 is because it’s never too early, but it’s always too late, and true Cubs fans know that.

He also carries around a bag, just like Santa. In that bag, he says, are five more wins – including a world championship.

“If they win, it’s going to be like Mardi Gras, Christmas and New Year’s combined – imagine what that would be like,” Juan said.

He’s a lifelong Cubs fan.

“Twenty-nine years of suffering are going to end tonight,” Juan said.

For the postseason home games, Juan and his brother have stationed themselves on Waveland Avenue, behind the left-field bleachers, with a small television set. The TV drew many people around them, hoping for a look at the game.

His brother Israel said he’s just as true a fan as Juan, but just last week, when he was offered a free ticket from a stranger, he gave the opportunity to Juan.

Another dedicated fan outside Wrigley on Tuesday was Toby Markham from Chicago. He was dressed as a storm-trooper, or what he dubbed the “Cub-trooper.”

He’s dressed like this at other Cubs games, and will certainly dress that way if the Cubs make it to the World Series, which he said he’s sure will happen.

“Cubs are going all the way,” he said. “Obviously if the World Series comes, we’re going to party hardy.”

As the game began, many fans congregated on Waveland waving ThunderStix around, chanting “Let’s go Cubbies.”

Carla Curtis, a vendor from St. Louis, made the trek to Wrigley Field to sell red, blue and white beads to Cubs fans.

Curtis said she sold beads at five different games this year at Wrigley. She said when the Cubs visit St. Louis, she sells Cubs-colored beads. Curtis said she thinks the beads are lucky. She also was selling feather boas, which sold out in less than an hour.

Michael Ulbricht, a 33-year old South-side Cubs fan brought his “Uncle Lou,” a scarecrow-like dummy who’s supposed to represent a fictitious uncle who died in the last game of the World Series.

As Ulbricht tells it, Uncle Lou went crowd-surfing in during the game, fell, and broke his neck. Now he has come back to help the Cubs win their first World Series since.

The “Bleacher Preacher” was out on Waveland supporting the team he’s been watching since 1908.

Jerry Pritikin said the “Bleacher Preacher” evolved throughout the years, starting with his dad teaching him about the Cubs in 1908. When he asked his dad to take him to the World Series, he was told he was too young.

He has been waiting for another one ever since.

Pritikin used to sit in the left-field bleachers for many years with well-known bleacher bum and girlfriend Carmella Hartigan, but can no longer afford to go to the games.

He said he has attended two games this year, one of which was to commemorate Hartigan, who died last year.

The “Bleacher Preacher” now hangs out on Waveland Avenue.