I feel like this will be the subject of an annual blog… Where were you seven years ago when the Cubs won their first World Series title in 108 years??? Next year, it will be eight years ago, then nine years ago, then I’ll probably just end up doing a special feature on that entire year for the 10th anniversary; it won’t stop there either. When the Cubs captured their first World Series title in my lifetime, it was a very momentous event in my life; there are only a few, maybe a couple, things that could top it. I’m not just talking Chicago sports moments either; I’ve been lucky to have experienced many great ones. But when the Cubs won it all…
You know, you really don’t know how superstitious you are until something like this may happen. I’m telling you, looking back, I really went to the edge; I’m sure some went farther than me! After not being able to watch the first game of that magical run against the Giants in Wrigley due to being at a wedding in NYC (without a TV!!!), and then watching the next game with my wife’s family in New York in a small bedroom, I finally got back home to Chicago. I watched the next game from the couch, and the next, and the next, and…. all of them, from the same spot on my couch. Should I go down to Wrigley? Should I go to a game? I wanted to, of course, but with who? My son was 4 at the time; I’m glad he was alive for this, and I know he remembers it, but… I didn’t think he was ready for this level… maybe I wasn’t ready. It was stressful enough watching each and every one of these games from the same exact spot on my couch… imagine being there?!?! Plus, they were doing OK just where I was at… I wasn’t going to be the one who screwed this up. I wore the same Cubs hat for each and every game… man, the sweat that sucker endured; I still have this hat… don’t wear it any more, but it’s there. And how about my choice of jerseys? I think I rotated, with my W t-shirt on underneath; the jerseys were not washed (the t-shirt had to be!). Towards the end of the run, not only was I wearing a Cubs jersey, I had all my remaining jerseys draped on furniture around the house. Yes, I remember it well. There I was, sitting on the same spot on my couch, with the same hat, the same t-shirt, a Cubs jersey, surrounded by all my other Cubs jerseys; it’s like I had built a little shrine…
God knows I didn’t sit down through much of Game 7… pacing like an expecting father back and forth… on and off the phone with my brother throughout the game. If that Rajai Davis homer didn’t kill me, that Jason Kipnis swing in the bottom of the 9th almost did; thankfully, my perspective was way off on that, as the ball sailed foul, well short of home run distance. I swear, I know people say their lives flashed in front of their eyes… I saw myself on a metal table at the hospital with the doctors about to try to revive me with the shockers… Ah yes, memories…
But this Cubs story had a happy ending… a very happy ending… one which we had never seen up to that point. It was a mixture of extreme happiness, total relief, and every other human emotion you can experience in one moment when Rizzo squeezed that throw from KB. I fell to my knees as tears flowed down my cheeks. It really did happen. It was such a great time, to receive the ultimate reward for all those years of being a die-hard Cubs fan, enduring all that pain and disappointment. 2016 made it all worth it. I will remember and celebrate it each and every year until I’m gone, and maybe, if we’re lucky, have another World Series title to remember and celebrate along the way. Thanks Cubbies, for the one we do have… Happy Anniversary.
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