The Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series. Who would have thought?
To many people, the events that transpired the night of October 22nd, 2016 still feel like a myth. A fantasy. Even as I was watching the final double play turned by Russell to Baez to Rizzo for the last two outs of the NLCS, I still had to text my friends from home to make sure what I was watching was real. It still doesn’t feel real. Not yet.
The Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series. I’ve said it again because as a city, we finally can. A few years ago, after watching the team lose 100 games in a season, if felt that being able to say that sentence was impossible. When cheering for a team that has been branded as the “Lovable Losers,” a team that is synonymous with a seemingly institutionalized inevitability of disappointment, having the opportunity to play for the title seems like too much to ask.
Despite having the best record in baseball and winning 103 games in the regular season, there was always doubt. Doubt over the starting pitching, the batting, and the bullpen, the rigor of the playoffs. We’re a cursed team, a team that deceptively has fate always fighting against them. And it didn’t look good as the Cubs went down 2-1 to the Dodgers after consecutive shutouts losses.
We couldn’t hit the curveball. We couldn’t hit anything to be completely honest, and a city was preparing itself for more heartbreak. Even as a life-long fan, it felt inevitable that we would falter and lose before getting to the World Series, just like last year. Just like in 2003 despite only being five outs away and 3-1 up in the series.
This year, though, this team managed to change all of that. A team of young players still on their rookie contracts, players who honestly might not know any better, looked the curse of the Chicago Cubs right in the eye and said “Forget you. We’re going to the World Series this year.” And to the disbelief of city that has unwittingly supported and loved this franchise, they did it. They turned their offensive struggles around and ran rampant against the best pitching talent in baseball, by name of Clayton Kershaw, in a now historic Game 6 at Wrigley Field.
Upon completion of the game, the stadium was electric as fans cheered like they’d never done so before. Some took to the streets to celebrate with friends and family, while others, like myself, were refined to somber celebration without words, but rather, an overwhelming sense of wonder, relief, and joy. Nothing said could describe that singular moment.
Anxious thoughts turned into answered prayers. Prayers answered by a left-handed pitcher who refuses to throw to first base, a plucky second-baseman who’s too confident to know fear, and a manager so quirky and pragmatic that it seemed only he could orchestrate such an accomplishment.
The 71-year drought has ended and I haven’t been able to stop watching replays of the final outs since. It’s as if I need to keep reminding myself that it’s real, that I won’t wake up one morning to find it’s all been fictionalized. But it is real. The Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series and for the first time in 71 years, are one series away from ending an even more daunting 108-year championship drought.
No person alive today has ever seen the Chicago Cubs win a World Series, and every time I think of the coming games, the aforementioned feeling of doubt returns. Surely winning the title can’t be possible for the Lovable Losers. That’s simply not how the game of baseball works.
But this playoff series feels different. For the first time, amidst all that doubt and anxiety, there’s the slightest glimmer of hope that maybe the fantasy will continue. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a possibility. The city is still mentally preparing itself for disappointment as it always has, but this time, there’s a little more optimism for a fan base that’s never truly had any. Anything can happen in baseball.
Who’s to tell this team that they can’t be the ones to end the drought? I can guarantee you it won’t be.
