WORLD ####### CHAMPIONS

For my grandfather, born 1917, died 1983. He taught me to love baseball and the Cubs. To my Dad, whom we bonded in the summer 0f 1989 when I was home for college and we would watch on VHS tape the Cubs game we recorded that afternoon. To my son Ryne who was often asked on the usual spelling of his name (and who in 1997, I fought to name Sammy). This game is for you guys. I love you all.

For Ronnie. And Ernie.

What a crazy ride, coming back from down 3-1 after game 4. Honestly that was much more epic than when the Red Sox won in 2004 since the World Series was never in doubt and an easy ride after the insane ALCS. To end a 108 year drought in a game that was filled with drama and went to extra innings is just an unbelievable story.

Congrats to all long suffering Cubs fans, including those no longer with us.

C&P from the other thread:

It took the max number of games. It took more than nine innings. And it came down to a one-run lead. Of course it did. Could a series pitting these two teams have played out any other way? And to have this series capped off with what we saw tonight? It was like something out of a movie.

The best game I've ever watched in my life.

What was looking like a potential laugher midway through became some of the tensest baseball I've ever sat through thanks to Maddon's over-managing. Alas, flags fly forever, and now we Cub fans can finally know what that really feels like.

I watched the game at three separate venues. Had Chapman locked things down, I would've watched the conclusion with some good friends. As it turned out, I got to see the end with the person who's probably one of my closest friends: My mom. I live nearby her, so instead of heading home after that Top of the 9th, I stopped by her place. In a way, it felt only right to watch the Cubs win their first World Series in more than a century with someone who has been forced to sit by and endure my various emotional peaks and valleys while watching this franchise for more than 20 years.

I got a little choked up a few minutes after the last out. But since then, I've had an ear-to-ear grin that almost hurts.

Thank you to all of my fellow Cub primates, even the ones I drove up the wall with my glass half-empty outlook. It was a blast.

The unthinkable has happened in front of our eyes. The impossible has come to pass. The Cubs are World Series champions! Hey hey!

For Grandpa Jon, who I barely remember but who my Yankees fan dad always tells me intended to make sure I rooted for the light side of the Force

This team has been the most fun to watch that I can ever remember

I don't think I've ever been close to buying any sort of commemorative merchandise for a playoff/championship cause. That's going to change soon.

Hopefully I can grab a copy of the paper tomorrow before they're all scooped up and put on eBay.

Super perfundo, Vincennes, among the many others who didn't get to see this. Y'all are missed. Congrats to all Cubs fans. Well deserved.

Magic.

For Steve Goodman.

All hail our cub overlords!

As someone with multiple primer accounts, I could be useful recruiting other primates to work in your italian beef mines

Dont go to sleep on my guys, i have 2 more hours to kill while riding in the car.

This team has been a thing of beauty.

How in the #### did it get to be after 3 AM?

I am drunk and listening to Steve Goodman songs.

It feels right.

I have to be up in a couple hours, but I can't get even close to tired. Physically, I feel shot. These games have drained me. But every time I lay my head on the pillow, it's just a matter of minutes before I'm back on my phone watching highlights from the game.

I paid extra to get my gear asap i hope they manage it to get it to me by tomorrow morning.

I was born in the Chicago suburbs in May 1978, and my mom tells me that she had the Cubs games on almost every day during that summer.

We moved out of Chicago to Wisconsin and eventually to Jacksonville, FL when I was four. I don't really remember how I got into baseball, because despite that first summer, neither of my parents were big baseball fans in general. But eventually I did, and being "from Chicago" I decided to be a Cubs fan. How lucky for me that they were on WGN every day back then, and my daily routine during the summer revolved around the Cubs games. At first, all the home games were day games, and even after the lights were installed, most were still during the day then.

Having all my relatives up in Wisconsin, we made a family trip every year up north, and since I loved the Cubs so much, when we came through Chicago my dad would take me and my brothers to a game at Wrigley (or sometimes to Cubs road games) when it worked out. Going to those games were pretty much the highlights of my summers. I'm pretty lucky to have a dad like that.

I loved going to see my relatives in Wisconsin, but I always fretted that it was hard to watch the games, because not everyone had cable back then. But my (maternal) grandparents did, and my grandmother especially was a big Cubs fan. Don't ask me why - her family was from northern Wisconsin going a couple generations back and somewhere in Germany before that. But she was, and I remember spending some afternoons watching Cubs games with her before she passed away when I was still young. I had an uncle who was a big Cubs fan too, despite being as Wisconsin as Bucky Badger, and I fondly remember watching games with him too. He passed away several years ago now, also. I'm grateful to them both.

When I was in eighth grade, my school got a new PE coach, who had previously been a minor league pitcher. He seemed to like me because I was something of a baseball nerd; I didn't play, but I followed MLB very closely, and he was impressed because I knew who almost all of the players were. He took the school baseball team (including me, I was the team scorekeeper!) on a trip down to Lakeland to see a Tigers spring training game; he had pitched in the Detroit system and knew a bunch of the guys still. Anyway, he was also buddies with Doug Strange, who at the time was with the Cubs, and he had Strange pass a ball around the clubhouse for the whole team to autograph for me. It's still a prized possession of mine to this day - Sandberg, Maddux, Sosa, Grace, Dawson, and of course, all-around good guy Doug Strange ... all on the same ball. Amazing that the 1992 Cubs were so bad.

So, that's some of the people who I'm thinking about tonight. On the one hand, sports is just sports, a way to pass the time. But on the other, it's silly to pretend that tonight doesn't mean more than that. Sometimes sports moments are transcendent, and this one tonight has an untold number of people thinking back to old memories and people that aren't here anymore. It's wonderful and thrilling but just also a little bittersweet at the same time. So here's to the people in our lives that made our Cubs fandom more meaningful, and who we're thinking about tonight, whether they're still with us or passed away or simply no longer in touch.

So, first some thoughts I had last night, but wanted to wait until the Series was over to post, whatever the outcome.

Normalcy. That's what I am so grateful to this team for giving me. When I became a fan around the age of 6, 34 years ago, I didn't know about droughts, or curses, or black cats, or billy goats. 1984 hadn't even happened. I was just a little kid from Wheaton, naturally rooting for the hometown team. I didn't know it would involve all this. I didn't know that the Cubs wouldn't have natural waves of contention and non-contention like other teams, but rather would haphazardly get hot in certain years, after which they would suck again. I didn't know that my fandom would be questioned by proxy by the idea that Cubs fans liked Wrigley Field more than winning. I didn't know that the Cubs would be the butt of jokes about losing and curses. I didn't know that the Cubs pennant drought (31 years when I was born) and championship drought (68 years when I was born) would stretch to 71 and 108 years before finally being snapped. The Twins won it all twice in five years. Surely the Cubs could do it someday as well. And then 1989, 2003, 2007, 2008...

All I wanted to do was root for my hometown team, and for them to have the same kind of success as most other teams. I wanted (and want) them to win, but I also just wanted them to be able to lose without it being this big...thing. And while there may have been people this season always ready to make it seem like the Cubs losing had something to do with curses, or fate, or some indefinable "Cubness", this postseason felt different from others. They might lose, but they'd lose like other teams -- not chocking, not inexplicably turning inept, but for regular reasons. The other pitcher was hot. The bats came up just short. Things like that.

For me, the turning point was Game 4 of the NLCS. In my lifetime, the Cubs have never "hung in there" during the postseason. They've never bounced back. Once the losing began, it never stopped. It wasn't curses, but I do think it was the weight of history and expectations. After the Cubs won Game 4, even if they lost the series I wouldn't have minded so much. Because they would have lost like other teams that lose postseason series. Same with Game 5 of the World Series. Once they won that, everything just "tasted" different.

Of course, that was just how I personally felt. But the Cubbies did me one better, because they won the whole damn thing, and in so doing wiped out all that extra crap narrative. As someone said in the chatter, now every team in the Major Leagues has a longer drought than the Cubs. Cubs fans can finally, at long last, just lay back and enjoy the damn baseball.

I was not born in Chicago, never even lived there, but my whole family is from the area, and after my mom died in 1988 I moved in with my dad and we bonded over Cubs games -- that was the 1989 season, I had no interest in sports before that, but that great season turned me into a Cub fan even if I was disappointed in the outcome. My father passed in 1994, but we had many good times in the interim, despite all of the mediocre Cubs players -- Frank Castillo, Gary Gaetti, Doug Strange, Les Lancaster, Mike Harkey, Jose Vizcaino. For a very long time, my definition of a successful Cubs season was one ending with a record above .500. There have been 11 of those in the last 27 years. Now the bar has been raised. Go Cubs!

Hopefully I can grab a copy of the paper tomorrow before they're all scooped up and put on eBay.

They will print a zillion extra copies, I promise.

I have told the story of my wonderful Aunt Marie, born circa 1909, lifelong Phillies fan who in 1980 told me that their WS win was bittersweet because until then they were special as the only original team that had not won the World Series and now they were "just another baseball team."

God bless her - but don't be her!

And don't underappreciate the moment, either. young talent blah blah. see 1986 Mets and many others who never won again. but who cares - CUBS WIN!

For my mother, and her mother, both of whom lived and died by the Cubs. Mom died in 2004, and for a long time I was bitter toward the Cubs that they had blown it in 2003, that they had not given her this thing that she wanted so much. Eventually that feeling passed, and this team...

Rest easy Mom. They did it.

The Heyward meeting

Seeing a few downcast faces, Heyward gathered them, players only, and began talking.

"You guys should all look in the mirror and understand we can get it done," he told them with a dash of anger, a pinch of passion and much love. "I don't care who it is. There are a lot of [things that happen] over the season. You're not going to be happy about some things, and some are easier to swallow. Just be happy in this moment, in this situation, because you can come through."

He mentioned Baez's muffed safety squeeze attempt.

"That's a tough thing," Heyward said. "We've all got to be ready to do what our manager asks us to do, and it's not easy. It's not easy for him to make the calls and pull the strings, but it's not an easy thing for us to do, either. And [Bryan Shaw] is a tough pitcher to bunt off of, too.

"I understood Javy was frustrated, but I also understood that we, as a group, live and die with each other's at-bats, and I wanted to remind him that, hey, you guys will be fine. We've overcame it before, we can do it again. Just, everybody be ready. Yeah, I know what the situation is now. Yeah, I know it's game tied, it's Game 7, whatever. But just know you can get it done, and I wanted everybody here to feel like they accomplished something to get us to this point because it's true."

Talk about using your time wisely.

"I walk off and I see them all gathering in that little room down below there, and they had a meeting," manager Joe Maddon said. "And I'm upstairs just checking out the weather map.

"Like I told you, I hate meetings. I'm not a meetings guy. I love when players have meetings. I hate when I do. So they had their meeting and the big part of it was, we don't quit."

(Cross-posting from the other game thread.)

Just dropped this in the mail:

November 3, 2016

Mr. Theo Epstein
President, Baseball Operations
Chicago Cubs
Wrigley Field
1060 West Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613-4397

Dear Theo,

You won’t remember me, but as a freshman at Yale I worked for you during your tenure as Sports Editor at the Daily News. (You assigned me the prestigious field hockey beat, among others.) I myself don’t recollect much from those first few months of college, but one thing I do recall quite clearly is that when we first met, I was wearing a Cubs hat . . . and you gave me a hard time about it.

The hat eventually wore out, but the loyalty to the Cubs never did, and so this brief note is just to thank you for bringing to pass something I wasn’t sure I would ever see.

Thank you for having a plan, and for sticking to it. Thank you for hiring crazy Joe Maddon. Thank you for drafting Kris and Schwarbs, trading for Jake and the Professor, and signing Jon and his Grandpa Rossy. Thank you for Ben Zobrist.

But most of all, thank you for giving me the chance to watch World Series games at Wrigley Field. I was there for Games 4 and 5, when it looked like all was lost and then when a glimmer of hope appeared. Those games may have reduced my life expectancy by a few years, but I’ll happily trade a shorter career, as it were, for a World Series championship.

There’s no need to respond, but if you ever find yourself in New York in need of a free drink, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

[Me]
New York, New York

p.s. Pitchers and catchers in 102 days (give or take). Can’t wait. Let’s go Cubs!

So now what do we do?

So now what do we do?

Maybe Theo can fix the Bears.

Maybe Theo can fix the Bears.

Lets not get crazy here.

So now what do we do?

Fulfill your destiny as the National League's perfect analog to the Red Sox. The "Curse" stuff is done, so now the Cubs are a well-run, big-market team with a loud, demonstrative nationwide fanbase, and some visible celeb fans, operating under the direction of Theo Epstein. And, like the Red Sox were able to do, the Cubs may well win multiple titles over the next few years.

So now what do we do?

Let's not have an offseason. Let's just start the 2017 season now.

I haven't chimed in yet because I don't even know what to say. The Cubs just won the World Series. Like, it might be enough to make me want to have kids, so that I can have grandkids, so that I can tell them that I was at Game 5 in 2016.

One thing that hasn't gotten as much attention as it should is how everyone on the team contributed to the win yesterday. Not just Bryant, Rizzo and Zobrist, but Ross, Montero, Baez, Schwarber, Almora ... even Heyward with the team meeting. Everyone pulled through at one point or another. This was as much of a team effort as any game this season or postseason.

So now what do we do?

I'm gonna do the same thing I did when the Blackhawks won - celebrate until it's fully soaked in, then await the coming of the new season and the promise of more great years to come.

Also, make fun of the Cardinals for what is obviously shaping up to be their own 100-year drought.

Here is Ryne Sandberg at the game watching the final out.

The secret to Matt Szczur's bat.

I've always been an American League fan and I was rooting for the Indians, but I have such great memories of Wrigley Field and the surrounding neighborhood (from the late 60's through the early 90's, anyway) that it's hard to imagine any NL team other than the Nats I'd rather see take it all. It's the first time I really got to see the Cubs for more than a game or three here and there, and I've gotta say it's a pretty impressive team.

And in tribute....

Let's not have an offseason. Let's just start the 2017 season now.

Me, I'm exhausted and happy, and am grateful for a break from the baseball-watching, particularly given that I can finally spend it basking in the glow of a Cubs championship. That was a fantastic ride, but man--I'm just spent. Three rounds of postseason baseball is frigging stressful. A few months before ST is a-OK with me.

Also, make fun of the Cardinals for what is obviously shaping up to be their own 100-year drought.

I look forward to the new and clever ways for Cardinal fans (not you, cfb, Sleepy, etc.--I'm talking random ballpark/interweb riffraff) to denigrate the Cubs and their fans in coming years, now that "1908lulz" has been relegated to the dustbin of history.

I figure, let the Cubs win another title or two while the Cards miss the postseason, and they can accuse Cub Nation of being a bunch of frontrunners. That'll be sensational.

I, too, can definitely use an offseason.

Exhausted ain't the half of it. One more item to check off the list - get up early enough tomorrow to find a good parade spot.

Here is Ryne Sandberg at the game watching the final out.

Not pictured: Cindy Sandberg. :)

Seriously, that's awesome. And I'm stunned by the number of Cub fans there - you'd think they were at Wrigley by the number of people celebrating the final out.

For my maternal grandparents, who were both huge Cub fans. And for my paternal grandfather, who used to tell me stories of going to see games at the West Side Park with his dad.

And now...now I can get back to fixing my media server, as I've been ignoring it since mid-September.

Me, I'm exhausted and happy, and am grateful for a break from the baseball-watching, particularly given that I can finally spend it basking in the glow of a Cubs championship. That was a fantastic ride, but man--I'm just spent. Three rounds of postseason baseball is frigging stressful. A few months before ST is a-OK with me.

I'm with you. This season has been the most intensive baseball watching/paying-attention season in my life since I was a kid with nothing better to do. I've sacrificed sleep and productivity at work all year, and in October I've been a worthless mess all the way around. I feel like I need a vacation from my hobby.

But this is going to be the best offseason ever. Most of the lineup and rotation are set for next year, and I'm pretty happy with everyone who's coming back. I'll be interested to see what they do with Fowler and Chapman, but beyond that, I'm just going to enjoy it and wait for spring training.

Maybe in 2017 I'll make my long-awaited Arizona spring training vacation to take in some games.

It feels strange sitting here after a just completed season and having zero desire to think about next year... There's an AFL season to talk about, the FA period has started, the Cubs have sign/resign decisions, and there are even a few roster decisions internally (Rob Z, Szczur/Almora, etc).

Ordinarily, we're weeks into this discussions in "wait till next year" mode... Now, I feel almost... annoyed isn't the right word, but somewhat annoyed that baseball moves on without a pause.

I feel like I've got another week of glow, followed by another week of sleep, followed by a week of catching up on work and family... and MAYBE by the rule 5 draft, I'll be ready to spare the neurons to think about it.

I feel like I've got another week of glow, followed by another week of sleep, followed by a week of catching up on work and family... and MAYBE by the rule 5 draft, I'll be ready to spare the neurons to think about it.

I'll keep an eye out for the parade and celebration, and then to see who wins various awards this month. But beyond that, I suspect I'm checked out now until January.

So the ticket i have is a paper print out. Anyone know a way to get an offical ticket for it to frame?

I'd call the stadium in Cleveland and ask them - they might be able to create a replica ticket.

No idea if anyone does that kind of a thing, but it's worth a shot.

I looked on the team website and didnt see anything but worth a shot. I will still frame the paper ticket.

Keeping promise, man listens to Cubs win at dad's grave site

GREENWOOD, Ind. -- Wayne Williams kept a pledge he and his father made to each other and shared a moment they'd both been waiting for all their lives.

The North Carolina man drove to his father's gravesite in Indiana to listen to the Chicago Cubs win Game 7 of the World Series. Wearing a Joe Maddon replica jersey and a Cubs cap he'd recently purchased, Williams listened to the Cubs' 10-inning, 8-7 victory over the Cleveland Indians on his smartphone Wednesday night at his father's grave in the military section of Greenwood Forest Lawn Cemetery in suburban Indianapolis.

Williams told WTHR-TV he and his father had a pact: When the Cubs got into the World Series again, they would listen to the games together............

His father, also named Wayne Williams, was a Navy veteran. He died of cancer in 1980 at age 53. Williams said he knew on Sunday night what he would have to do if the Cubs kept their title hopes alive.

"If they win tomorrow, I have to be heading out the next morning," he said, noting that his wife "supported it fully."

The 68-year-old retired customer trainer said unlit roads made the trip a little difficult. He also said trying to get to his father's gravesite required as few stops as possible if he was to make it by the first pitch.

Cemetery workers kept the gates open for Williams..."

So the ticket i have is a paper print out. Anyone know a way to get an offical ticket for it to frame?

Call the ticket office. For $5 per ticket they will mail you a "real" ticket. It will be a regular ticket not a full WS graphic ticket, but better than a piece of paper.

We went to the game last night. I bought the tickets during game 1 of the NLCS. Fortune favors the bold, I guess.

This was (unsurprisingly) the most intense sporting event I've ever attended. The rollercoaster of emotions was insane. The crowd response after Davis' homerun was awesome (in the literal sense of the word) and what makes live sporting events amazing. I spent the last 3 innings furious at Joe Maddon and at the end I only felt relief. But as the day has gone on and I've reflected on all that we got to witness it continues to bring a smile to my face. I'm sitting here watching the edited replay on MLBN right now and I found myself still cheering when Montero hit his single up the middle. This game, and this post-season, was so amazing because of how many contributed, including those we wouldn't expect.

Thank you to this team for relieving us of our curse. I don't mean a literal curse, but I mean the curse of having to expect the worse to steel oneself against what seemed like inevitable disaster. I've been saying that this team is the anti-Cubs. Every trap that Cubdom laid in front of them, they sidestepped. Thank you to Tom Ricketts, Theo, and Jed for rebuilding this organization into something we've never seen before in Chicago, a true baseball juggernaut. Thanks to Joe Maddon, who brought this team to the promised land. Thanks to Jason Heyward who had such a challenging year at the plate but who showed up ready to play everyday and gave it his all and it appears helped to push this team over the line when it needed it most.

Finally, my condolences to Indians fans. We all know the taste of that kind of disappointment. I said before the series that I was glad we were playing them because at least one long-suffering fan base would be relieved, but now my heart aches for the pain I know last night brought them.

Whew, go Cubs and bring on 2017!

WPA for the Cubs in the World Series (put in bunches of fives):

.482 - Anthony Rizzo
.380 - Jake Arrieta
.212 - Ben Zobrist
.212 - Kyle Hendricks
.207 - Aroldis Chapman

.174 - Mike Montgomery
.172 - Justin Grimm
.132 - Kyle Schwarber
.086 - David Ross
.052 - Pedro Strop

.026 - Jason Heyward
.016 - Jon Lester
.009 - Kris Bryant
.000 - Miguel Montero
-.002 - Albert Almora Jr.

-.012 - Jorge Soler
-.026 - Hector Rondon
-.029 - Travis Wood
-.036 - Addison Russell
-.088 - Chris Coughlan

-.136 - Carl Edwards Jr.
-.138 - John Lackey
-.259 - Dexter Fowler
-.284 - Willson Contreras
-.654 - Javier Baez

Zobrist's double was the 16th greatest play ever as measured by championship probability added. The Rajai Davis home run ranks fourth all time.

That list is tremendous. And underscores how crushing Game 7 would have been had the Cubs lost it.

I look forward to the new and clever ways for Cardinal fans (not you, cfb, Sleepy, etc.--I'm talking random ballpark/interweb riffraff) to denigrate the Cubs and their fans in coming years, now that "1908lulz" has been relegated to the dustbin of history.

Until 1994, the Devils' sellout attendance (which mostly only happened when they played a certain archtival) was listed as 19,040. That's "nineteen forty" - which for 54 years was the last time the Rangers had won the Stanley Cup.

-.654 - Javier Baez

In fairness, Javy didn't call for the safety squeeze attempt. :-)

Yeah, Baez struck out in the 9th of Game 7 when it was tied with a runner on 3rd, and also to end Game 3 (or Game 4, don't remember which now) with 2 runners on. Both of those had to take a pretty big toll on his WPA.

It's funny - the bottom 3 on that list all drove in runs during Game 7.