Holy Cow! The Cubs are World Series Champs!

World Series Cubs Indians Baseball, Cleveland, USA - 03 Nov 2016From the Chicago Tribune

 

The Impossible Dream isn’t just possible any more — it’s here. Embrace it, savor it, scream it from the rooftops. The Cubs are World Series champs!

 

Holy cow, how Chicago has waited for this. On the brink of elimination after Game 4, the Cubs stormed back and wrested victory from the Cleveland Indians in Game 7. Players dripping Champagne find themselves also awash in glory not felt in Cubs Nation since 1908. How long ago was that? Henry Ford began selling Model T’s at $850 a pop, Taft beat Bryan to become president, women couldn’t vote and men lived an average of 49 years.

 

This wondrous moment can be interpreted so many ways. Salve for a city that’s been beaten down by violent crime and public debt. The exorcism of demons conjured in the form of a black cat and a goat. Or we can simply absorb it for what it is — the culmination of a glorious season that brought us pitching masterpieces, homers in bunches … and a thrilling conclusion Wednesday night.

 

This series had familiar stars shining brightly: Bryant, Rizzo, Lester, Baez, Arrieta, Chapman, to name a few. But one player makes it particularly memorable. While his teammates were running away with their division, Kyle Schwarber doggedly rehabbed all season following a devastating knee injury, spent a week taking hundreds of pitches of batting practice in Arizona and then capped off his improbable, inspiring comeback with clutch hitting heroics.

 

There will be much said about the shelving of the phrase Wait till next year. Not so fast. Let’s hang on to it, but imbue it with different meaning: Wait till next year! And the year after that, and the year after that …

We hope this is only the Cubs’ coming-out party. Other Chicago pro sports team have had championships recent enough to linger in our collective memory. The Cubs were the outlier, the team defined by diminished expectations. Year after year, we’d head to Wrigley Field never banking on a win, instead merely content with a sun-splashed day, a couple of red-hots and a seat in the world’s best place to watch baseball. The Friendly Confines were the draw — the Cubs were scenery.

 

That era is over, eclipsed by a dynasty in the making. Championships don’t have to be an anomaly in this city; the youthful Cubs can make them habit-forming. We’ve seen before how championships can be strung together, with roster touches that refine but don’t disrupt. The Bulls did just that with a Jordan-Pippen core and the right supporting cast. The Hawks still have their Kane-Toews-Keith-Crawford nucleus.

 

For now, however, the only arrangements that need to be made have to do with tons of confetti and parade routing. Cubs Nation has 108 years of dormant jubilation to let loose!

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