Ten Favorite World Series: 2016 World Series (#1)

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As with any playoff, or top ten list, at the end there can only be one at the top. I’ve reached the top of my life of the best World Series bouts in my lifetime. Some of these were great to me because of who won (or who got beat ), and some of these were great because they were loaded with drama and great games!! Here’s the topper of favorite World Series in my lifetime. #1: 2016: Cubs/Indians You know, the law of averages says that anything will happen that can But the last time the Cubs won the National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan (From “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” by Steve Goodman) So if they don’t win for another 108 years at least I saw them win one! This was good for even the non-Cubs fans: they no longer have to hear, “The Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908” every other breath out of announcers (even if they’re carrying a Mariners/Rockies game!). Ah, those loveable Cubbies. “The doormat of the National League” is how Steve Goodman (a lifelong Cubs fan: that’s his song, “Go Cubs Go” played after every victory at Wrigley Field) described them in the above-referenced lament of life as a Cubs fan. (Ironically, the Cubs captured their first division title in ages on September 24, 1984, four days after Goodman’s death.) It was always a running joke that the Cubs fans began to say, “Wait ‘til next year” shortly after Wayne Messmer finished the National Anthem on opening day. There were teams with a long history of futility (I mentioned earlier in the countdown the Boston Red Sox, who let one get through their fingers and Bill Buckner’s legs in 1986, were a close second, with their drought going back to 1918), but none of them were picked on as much as the Cubs. In fact, after a Blackhawks Stanley Cup championship one year, a cartoon in a Chicago paper showed fans of the Bulls, Bears, White Sox, and Blackhawks gathered around a Cubs fan, singing “We Are the Champions” as if the Cubbies had never won. Oh, they won, all right, just not in anyone’s lifetime. But wait, there’s more! Futility was also running pretty high on the other side of the field, too, in the Cleveland Indians. People don’t tend to think of the Indians as suffering through a World Series drought because, unlike the Cubs, they actually made it to a number of World Series in recent years (and, of course, lost them all). The last time the title of “World Series Champion” flew over Cleveland was in 1948. So, between the two, you were looking at nearly 180 years of no titles. Something had to give. When there’s that much at stake — someone’s streak was going to end, unless they played to a tie (and Bud Selig was no longer commissioner, so that wasn’t going to happen ) — you need something other than a four-game sweep. And oh, did they provide it. It didn’t look too promising after game four. The Indians were up three games to one on the Cubs and had “home field advantage,” meaning if the Cubs managed to win game five they’d still go back to Cleveland for the final games. And, as they always like to pontificate on the broadcast (as in, after every other pitch), it’s rare for a team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit. Not to mention this was the Cubs we’re talking about, the team that could grab defeat from the jaws of victory in ways not yet thought of. But, as the t-shirt that makes light of the supposed “curse of the billy goat” says, “I ain’t afraid of no goat.” The Cubs won game five and headed back to Cleveland to face a monumental task. In game six they paraphrased the famous “let’s play two” quote of Mister Cub, Ernie Banks, by saying “let’s play seven” thanks to their 9-3 thumping of the home team. That set up game seven. Up 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and no Steve Bartman anywhere in sight, things were looking good. Then Rajai Davis smacked the cover off the baseball and tied the game. Then there was the rain delay! Watching the Earthcam feed of the crowd outside of Wrigley Field, they weren’t happy when a rain delay was called right before the extra innings began. Seventeen minutes later, they were elated. The Cubs scored two runs and went up, 8-6. But the Indians, as home team, got one last at bat, and they made the most of it. With a run across, the tying run on first, and the winning run at the plate...the ball didn’t leave the infield, sinking into Anthony Rizzo’s glove at first for the final out of the series. The Cubs were world champions. The victory parade in Chicago was estimated to have been attended by five million people. The “loveable losers” were losers no more. I can’t help but feeling there’s going to be a rematch between these two fabulous teams again in a World Series soon. Here’s hoping for more high drama like the 2016 series, regardless of who wins next time. Thanks for reading. 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs (NL) / Cleveland Indians (AL) Winner: Cubs, 4 games to 3 Best game: game seven (Cubs won, 8-7 in 10 innings) Who I was pulling for: Cubs....I would have eventually been happy for the Indians after the disappointment wore off if the Cubs had lost, though. That magical final out, ending 108 years of futility: