by Bryce Reedy
Baseball is beautiful. I don’t think that there is another sport out there that tells a more artistic and incredible story than Major League Baseball. The 2016 World Series pinned the two franchises with the longest championship droughts in the sport (the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians) against each other for a chance at history.
To have the Cubs break the multitude of curses they had going against them by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, almost blowing the comeback in game seven, having a rain delay and then finally winning the game in extra innings is too perfect. It makes me think this entire story was scripted by the baseball gods.
The goal of this article is to put what the Cubs winning means into words. And to be honest, I don’t know how I am going to do it. How do you put 108 years of suffering being lifted into words? This is especially difficult since I am not a Cubs fan in the slightest.
However, despite not being a Cubs fan at heart, I couldn’t help but root for the Cubs in the playoffs (especially when my Rangers lost in the first round). So when the Cubs got to the biggest stage, I knew that the series had to go seven games. There was no way that the sports gods were going to let the Cubs fans around the country off early. They were going to push them to the limit.
When Kris Bryant was smiling to make the final out to win game seven, I knew I had just witnessed something I will be telling my kids about one day. I will get to tell them how I witnessed the end to the biggest championship drought in sports history for one of the most loyal fan bases in sports. I witnessed history.
But, the prompt for this article was what did this mean to me. And while witnessing history was amazing, that wasn’t the most impactful thing to me about this entire series. Instead, the most impactful thing in my mind was getting to witness these longtime fans experience something they had been waiting on for their entire lives.
Being a sports fan, I have yet to witness any of my favorite teams win a world championship (I am not a Broncos fan for those of you scratching your heads). So getting to see those fans that have been around for decades to finally witness something that they have been waiting for their entire lives was more magical to me than the Cubs winning the whole thing.
It is stressful being a sports fan. Only one team wins the championship every year. So I can’t imagine (and hopefully, fingers crossed, won’t have to experience) going 108 years for my favorite team of all time to be called the world champions.
Hours after the Cubs won, I remember scrolling through twitter and there was a video of this elderly gentleman who had been a Cubs fan his entire life watching the final out. And it was one of the most memorable things of that entire night because I witnessed a man who had been through just about everything you can think of on a sports team to finally get to see them hold that trophy above their head. He broke down in tears, which nearly made me break down too.
The next day I read a story about a fan who was born in 1908; she was born following the last Cubs World Series victory. She was the literal definition of a lifelong Cubs fan. She passed away a few days ago. So once she witnessed the Cubs win I have to think that she thought to herself ‘Ok, I am ready to go now.’ And if that doesn’t bring tears to your eyes I don’t know what will.
Getting to see the life of a sports fan and how impactful and amazing it is to stick with your team through everything was incredible. We got to see the kind of impact sports can have on an individual’s life. That is what this Cubs win means to me. This one was for you, Sandstrom.
