Wow. Where we even begin? It felt like this World Series had
a chance to be special. But who knew it would be THIS special? Someone’s
drought was going to end. All of a sudden after an NBA championship and being
the Cubs’ opponent in the world series, nobody felt bad for Cleveland anymore. After
the first four games, it was getting pretty boring. Cleveland silenced the
crowd at Wrigley Field with a shutout in game three and seemingly slammed the
door shut in game four with a blowout victory.
But then, much like in the National League Champoinship
Series after they were shut out in back-to-back games and trailed two games to
one, the Cubs showed championship resolve. Everyone knew they had the talent,
but how would they respond when punched in the gut? The degree to which they
were punched in the gut increased in each of the three rounds of the playoffs.
The Cubs needed a four-run ninth inning in the fourth game of the National
League Division Series against the Giants to avoid having to play a decisive
fifth game back at Wrigley against Johnny Cueto. They rallied to win the last
three games of the NLCS with ease after showing no signs of life in games two
and three. But to cap it off with a comeback from 3-1 down against a Cleveland
team that was the best of their three opponents in the postseason? And to win
an epic game seven 8-7 in 10 innings after leading 5-1 and 6-3 in what looked
to be a relatively routine baseball game? Of course that’s how a 108-year
drought is going to end.
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| Chicago Tribune |
Let’s start at the top. The man who put assembled the beast
that is the Chicago Cubs. After taking the job in October 2011, President of
Baseball Operations Theo Epstein opted to gut the roster and start over. With
several small-market tactics, Epstein and the rest of the front office loaded
up their farm system and traded for players they saw as undervalued. Then, when
the time was right, the Cubs flexed their financial muscles that any Chicago
sports team has, and added free agents. The result of that? Draft picks that
resulted in Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, trades that netted Anthony Rizzo
and Jake Arietta, and free agent signings that brought Jon Lester and even the
manager Joe Maddon to the north side. All of a sudden the Cubs were loaded with
young talent and are now set to win their next championship much earlier than
another 108 years down the road. At the age of 42, Epstein has already been the
mastermind behind the Red Sox and Cubs respective curses coming to an end. Can
you say Cooperstown?
While Maddon made some very questionable moves throughout
the series, when you have as much talent as the Cubs did it’s important to have
a players’ manager. Maddon lightened the team’s pregame workload throughout the
season in an effort to keep his players fresh. What’s even scarier is how young
the bulk of the Cubs’ roster is. With several players of their core under the
age of 28, Chicago is now the heavy favorite in the National League for the
foreseeable future.
It’s easy to forget the Cleveland side of this story. The
Indians did not necessarily have the flashy names in their lineup the way the
Cubs did, but they all did their jobs which is a credit to manager Terry
Francona, who was Epstein’s manager in Boston and like Epstein will also end up
in the Hall of Fame when it’s all over. Team president Chris Antonetti was at
the top of a front office that drafted and developed tons of talent which
turned into a loaded pitching staff and a prospect core that was deep enough to
trade for the best reliever in baseball, Andrew Miller, at the deadline. Their shortstop,
Francisco Lindor, is perhaps the best shortstop in the game. This was a
likeable group that steamrolled their way through the American League losing
just one game in the ALDS and ALCS. They probably would have won the series if
starting pitchers Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco were healthy enough to make
starts in the series. Salazar was limited to a bullpen role while Carrasco did
not pitch at all. They will be back.
But when it was all said and done, Ben Zobrist was the MVP
of the series after his clutch double in the top of the 10th in game
seven broke a 6-6 tie. The emotion from
Rizzo was on display throughout the decisive game proving that these athletes
are human too. But the real MVPs were those sitting in their living rooms that
were old enough to be alive the last time the Cubs were in the World Series in
1945. Heck, one man drove from his North Carolina home to his father’s grave in
Indiana to listen to the game with his dad fulfilling a pact made between the
two. They waited a lifetime and it finally happened. It’s disappointing a team
that was so easy to cheer for like the Indians was on the wrong side of all of
it, but there’s nothing quite like what baseball fans just witnessed particularly
in that seventh game. As Brad Pitt said in Moneyball, how can you not get
romantic about baseball?
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