Chicago Cubs World Series: The day we waited for is here!
The Chicago Cubs face the Cleveland Indians in a do-or-die Game 7 of the World Series. This is what Cubs fans have waited 108 year to see.
Well Chicago Cubs fans, the day is here. This is the day you waited 108 years to experience. After 162 regular season games, 16 postseason games and 39,466 days, the Cubs are on the brink of winning it all.
Generations of Cubs fans gather to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The relationship between professional sports teams is a family affair, but it is more so with the Chicago Cubs. Grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters all share the misery of having the longest title drought.
All that could change Wednesday night.
Thinking about it, the feeling for fans is different going to Game 7. The Chicago Cubs came close to play for a title, but each time they still had quite a way to go before actually winning the title (except for 1945, of course, when they also had a Game 7).
In 1984, if the Cubs won the NLCS, they still needed FOUR wins to win the World Series. The same in 2003. Last year, they fell eight wins short.
This year, the Cubs are NINE INNINGS away from finally winning it all!
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Some say there is pressure on the Cubs, but they are too young to understand how big this is. They don’t understand anything about goats, black cats or Bartman. Just go out and play hard and win is their motto. They felt pressure in Game 4 of the NLDS, Game 4 of the NLCS and Games 5 and 6 in the World Series, and they came through.
They just need to do it one more time.
When I think of what this Chicago Cubs team may do tonight, I think of all the previous players who tried but failed to carry out the same — Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, Rick Sutcliffe, Kerry Wood and Sammy Sosa. Some of the biggest Cubs icons, dead or alive, are now watching these young Cubs try to bring that trophy home to Chicago.
A win Wednesday night results in a loss as well. The Cubs have the “Lovable losers” tag, and if they win the World Series, all that changes. What also changes is the image of the Cubs fan.
Josh Peter of USA Today Sports wrote about what a win does to the Cubs narrative:
"Regardless of the outcome at Game 7 of the World Series Wednesday night, the Chicago Cubs are going to lose — either the world championship or their mystique.They will suffer a painful defeat against the Cleveland Indians, or surrender the Lovable Loser label that has defined and united their fan base.Victory is sweet. But even sweeter is longing for that elusive crowning victory. For it is only through collective suffering and agony that a fan base is truly united.Think about it. Can you imagine if Charlie Brown finally outwitted Lucy and started drilling field goals like the George Blanda of comic strips? Lovable Loser no more."
If the Cubs do win it tonight, how appropriate would it be for THEM to make an incredible comeback? The last team to come back from a 3-1 World Series deficit was the Kansas City Royals in 1985. The last time a team did it on the road was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.
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The day is here, folks. Hopefully these youngsters can erase a century of misery and change the image of this franchise forever. Cubs fans are praying they do.