by John Walters
One Hundred and Eight Is Enough
Cubs win.
Cubs win.
One long national nightmare is over…while another may soon begin.
Kris Bryant, when asked by Tom Verducci what this feels like: “This Trumps everything.”
2. Blame It On Theo
Bill Murray (left) and Theo after
2004: Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918 (86 years).
2007: Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 2004 (3 years)
2016: Chicago Cubs win their first World Series since 1908 (108 years)
In all three cases, Theo Epstein, age 42, was the general manager. He should be enshrined in Cooperstown tomorrow. Curse of the Goat? Theo’s the GOAT.
Note: Epstein’s grandfather and great uncle (as opposed to “Epstein’s mother”) won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay for Casablanca. The kid at least matched that career achievement.
Also note: The manager for those two Red Sox teams was Terry Francona.
3. A Fall Classic
Two teams who had not won a championship in a combined 176 years (MLB was established 140 years ago).
A wild pitch that allows two runs, the first time that had happened in a World Series game since 1911.
A journeyman catcher hitting a dead-center home run in his penultimate Major League at-bat in Game 7 (David Ross).
A team overcoming a four-run deficit to tie Game 7.
The Aroldis Chapman meltdown/Rajai Davis’s two-out, game-tying home run in the eighth (and the look on Cusack’s face after).
The rain delay. And whatever Jason Heyward told his teammates.
Albert Almora’s tag-up from first on the deep fly to center (the key play of the game, IMO).
Ben Zobrist coming through for a second consecutive World Series.
The Tribe, with two outs and no one one, still scoring a run in the bottom of the 10th (Rajai Davis again) and putting the winning run at the plate (as they had all of the ninth inning).
The final matchup of Mike Montgomery versus Michael Martinez, the former who had not one save during the season and the latter who had not one hit during the postseason.
The final score, 8-7, which if you play with the numbers, “108”, or one from eight, gives you seven (yes, that’s a stretch).
Anthony Rizzo back-pocketing the ball after the final out. Where will that go? And what is it worth?
Nobody choked. A seventh game went extras. A true classic. No goats (cursed or not), just GOAT.
4. Harry Caray Is Not Suicide
Props to Budweiser for having this ad in the on-deck circle to run immediately after the Cubs won. Wonderful.
5. Cleveland, You’re On The Clock
George Plimpton is probably the second-best known Lion (after Barry Sanders) since their last championship
The longest remaining droughts, by sport, in professional sports (I’m only counting franchises that have remained in the same city; sorry, Arizona Cardinals fans, you are not long-suffering even if the Cardinals are).
MLB: Cleveland Indians, 1948
Football: Detroit Lions, 1957
NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, 1967
NBA: Atlanta Hawks, 1968
2004 Red Sox: Down 3-1 to New York Yankees in the ALCS, win series in seven.
2007 Red Sox: Down 3-1 to Cleveland Indians in the ALCS, win series in seven.
2016 Cubs: Down 3-1 to Cleveland Indians in the World Series, win series in seven.
Before this year, 81 teams had fallen behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven playoff series. 12 teams came back to win the series. Including this year’s Cubs, those numbers are 82 and 13, respectively. Theo Epstein was the mind behind (and Francona) three of those, nearly a quarter of them.
So the ‘rumors’ that the Warriors were/are trying to hire non-basketball guy Epstein make total sense now! 😉
“Epstein’s mother” – LOL! My assistant (a millennial) has never seen or even heard of ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’! I was flummoxed & kept saying – “Horshak! You don’t know who Horshak is? That Travolta was dim Vinnie Barbarino? Sweathogs, surely you’ve heard of the Sweathogs?! How is this possible!” It’s then that I realized I had worked at my company longer than she’d been alive. Argh.
I watched the CMAs, clicked over during commercials, had pretty much accepted that the Cubs would win as they had been ahead all night when LO & BEHOLD, the CMAs ended & the Indians tied it up in the 8th! Sweet Pea & the other Cavs were present to whoop it up & I thought – WELL, maybe the Cubs are cursed even more than Cleveland HAD been! Then the rain delay. What?! Well, that didn’t last long. 10th inning! Alas.
I must confess that I’m happy for the Cubs & their loooooooong suffering fans. I feel a bit disloyal to the folks of Cleveland, but hey they were in the World Series (!) & they’d apparently beaten 2 teams that had been favored to get there & ALMOST beat another team highly favored over them to win it all. They should be PROUD. Plus, the city is still celebrating the NBA championship. Too greedy to moan about one that got away…in the 10TH inning (this is like Overtime, right?).
Question – yes, it’s been awhile since I paid much attention to baseball until this WS, but I thought lyin, cheatin, PED-infused A-Rod was baseball’s Devil, hated by fans, media & the MLB itself? So, why was he sitting at the dais, being one of the WORLD SERIES TV talking heads? Wait, what?!
Meanwhile, a PATHETIC & RIDICULOUS lawsuit against Lance Armstrong grinds on, where he may possibly then have to declare bankruptcy to avoid a blood-sucking miscarriage of justice “payment”. And if Floyd ‘Piece of Shit’ Landis gets even one nickel of that money, I hope the scumbag chokes on his Colorado POT.
Susie, I feel you don’t bring enough emotion when it comes to Floyd Landis and cycling in general.
That’s what happens when the P.O.S. STEALS YOUR (& thousands of other people’s) MONEY. And ask me, just ask me – has he paid a dollar, a quarter, a nickel, even one bloomin’ one cent back? Despite stating he would? That would be NO.
And that some asinine folks in the media try to portray Landis as “heroic” when the guy tried to EXTORT his way onto LA’s 2009 team, makes me even more apocalyptic.
The only person I detest more than Landis is Trump.
I saw A-Rod on TV last night & then read this morning that Lance is in Washington for that stupid court case. Kinda pushed me over the edge.