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| Third base bag from last regular season game at the Metrodome. |
It's over.
What a game it has been. It had everything including a rain delay.
Either team could have won tonight. Joe Maddon would have been second-guessed for years had they lost.
The long wait of 108 years is now history.
I assume that if you are reading this, Jesus hasn't come back, the world is still here, although I have a hunch that Cubs fans have been raptured.
Steve Goodman's Dying Cub Fan's Last Request will now be simply an interesting artifact of our American love of baseball.
What else is there to say tonight?
Next year, the Twins? After this year, anything is possible.
Tonight.
Game 7.
Can the Cubs really do it?
Will the Indians bring it all together?
Or will what I posted on September 18 come true?
Long time friends of these wanderings will recognize ... my scenario for the hapless, World Series Championship-less Chicago Cubs.You heard it here.
- It's the bottom of the ninth in game 7 of the World Series.
- The Cubs are leading and on the verge of their first championship in over a century.
- It's two outs, no one on base for the American League opponent.
- Then, as the Cubs pitcher winds up for the final strike-
- Jesus returns.
It's a travel day in the World Series. It's still a long road, the Cubs can't lose a game. But it could be an interesting two games?
I wondered what the experts had thought way back when the season began. In April ESPN asked 31 experts for their end of the baseball season predictions. (Link)
It ain't over till it's over.
That's a long time ago! Wikipedia has a list of 41 people who are 110 years old or older. The oldest was just shy of 6 years old when the Cubs last won a Series. (My dad was just short of age 3.)
The World Series continues with game 3 tonight with the Series tied at 1 win apiece. It will be the first
game in Chicago in 71 years. That means that after tonight we can stop
all this craziness of first times until one of them wins. Which will
happen.
The 1908 Cubs had four future Hall of Famers:
These are the saddest of possible words:The trio played together at Chicago from 1902, including four National League pennants from 1906 to 1910. Some credit the poem for their election to the Hall of Fame.
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
1908 was the year of the infamous "Merkle's Boner" play that allowed the Chicago Cubs to reach the World Series after beating the New York Giants... in a one-game "playoff", actually the makeup game for the tie that the Merkle play had caused. -Wikipedia
Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs in 1908. Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a game-winning hit led instead to a forceout at second and a tied game. The Cubs later won the makeup game, which proved decisive as they beat the Giants by one game to win the National League pennant in 1908. It has been described as "the most controversial game in baseball history." -WikipediaSome credit that for the curse that would keep the Cubs winless in the World Series for at least the next 107 years. After all, the Cubs would appear in seven more World Series- 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945, but, as we know, lost them all.
Two games have been played in Cleveland and the Series is tied 1-1.
According to MLB, the last 1 home teams who won game 1, went on to win
the Series. But this is its own Series- historic and anything could happen. I wouldn't count either team out until one of them wins the 4th game.
Earlier this week I looked at the last World Series that each of this year's teams played in- and lost- 1997 for the Indians; 1945 for the Cubs. Today I thought I would look at the last time the Indians won. As I said when in an earlier post, I was two months old the last time the Indians won the World Series win 1948. In other words you have to be an early Baby Boomer or older to have been alive. So who were the 1948 Indians?
They had six future Hall of Famers on the team.
The Braves had won the National League pennant for the first time since the "Miracle Braves" team of 1914, while the Indians had spoiled a chance for the only all-Boston World Series by winning a one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox for the American League flag. Though superstar pitcher Bob Feller failed to win either of his two starts, the Indians ... capture[d] their second championship and their first since 1920 (as well as their last to the present date).
It was the first World Series to be televised on a nationwide network and was announced by famed sportcasters Red Barber, Tom Hussey (in Boston) and Van Patrick (in Cleveland).
This was the second appearance in the Fall Classic for both teams, with the Indians' lone previous appearance coming in a 1920 win against the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Braves' lone precious appearance coming in a 1914 win against the Philadelphia Athletics.
This was the only World Series from 1947 to 1958 not to feature a New York team, and also the last World Series until 1957 not won by a New York team.
I am pumped by this year's World Series! As a life-long baseball fan to have a "historic" Series like this does not happen often. My personal greatest was the 1980 World Series where my Phillies won their first ever Series after two earlier widely separated tries. I was there for the first game at Veterans' Stadium- which was the first post season game they had ever won.
Anyway, that is why this year could be quite a time. If both teams live up to their season-long exhibition of skill, it may rank as one of the greats. Only time will tell if either- or both- fizzle and turn it into "ho-hum" baseball in spite of the hype.
I went back and did a little research into the "last time" these teams were in the World Series. For the Cubs it was 1945, as we have heard so often. Seventy-one years.
1945 CubsAccording to the Wikipedia article on the Series:
- Charlie Grimm was their manager
- There were no future Hall of Fame players on the team. That should be no surprise since it was the end of World War II and many of the top players had been drafted or enlisted.
- They lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games.
Warren Brown, author of a history of the Cubs in 1946, commented on this [lack of stars due to WW II] by titling one chapter "World's Worst Series". He also cited a famous quote of his, referencing himself anonymously and in the third person. When asked who he liked in the Series, he answered, "I don't think either one of them can win it."More recently, merely 19 years ago, we have:
In a similar vein, Frank Graham jokingly called this Series "the fat men versus the tall men at the office picnic."
One player decidedly not fitting that description was the Tigers' slugger Hank Greenberg, who had been discharged from military service early. He hit the only two Tigers homers in the Series, and scored seven runs overall and also drove in seven.
1997 IndiansWikipedia reports:
- Mike Hargrove was the manager
- No one from that team has yet been elected to the Hall of Fame, but a number of them are clear contenders including former Twins favorite, Jim Thome.
- Lost to Florida Marlins in seven games. The Marlins were only in their fifth season as a MLB franchise- a record.
The Marlins, who were underdogs, capped a stunning season. They [won] their first World Series championship, making them the first wild card team to ever win the World Series.So it begins tonight. More sports, more baseball, more of the Fall Classic- # 112. I hope it lives up to- and even exceeds- the hype.
This was also the third (and most recent) time where Game 7 of the World Series went into extra innings, after 1924 and 1991 both of whom involved the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise.
Chicago has already made history. It is the first time since the troops returned home from World War II that they have been in the World Series. In fact my dad was on a troop ship in the Atlantic heading home when they were in that Series. | If Cleveland wins it will be the first time since 1948. (To show you how old I am- I was 2 months old!) |
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Let me tell you the top news from the last time the Cubs WON the World Series:
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The World Series begins tomorrow. Two teams that have been also-rans for a number of hours will be vying for the championship this year. The National League Mets haven't won the World Series since 1986; the American League Royals haven't been the champs since 1985. The Mets were last in the Series 15 years ago while the Royals were there last year.
But the missing team, as has been the case since 1945(!!!) at the end of World War II, is the luckless Chicago Cubs. (They last won the Series in 1907!)
Many were hoping that the Back to the Future II movie would prove to be prophetic. No such luck. The curse, or whatever it is, continues.
Actually, I continue to contend that maybe we should all be glad. I have a hunch that the true sign of the end of the world will be when the Cubs take the championship trophy. All will then have been accomplished. (As an old fan of the Brewers, I have to point out that they (and five other teams) have never won. And Mariners and Nationals fans would note that their teams have never made it to the Series at all.)
But the ultimate in lucklessness continues to be the Cubs. They still play the blues in Chicago, not just for baseball season, but at World Series time as well.
Maybe next year.
So, in loving honor of the "doormat of the National League" here is Steve Goodman's immortal love song to them, A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request.
The post-season has been remarkable this year. Extra-innings, power playing, excitement.
Now here we have a team that has not been in the post-season since Ronald Reagan was president (1985) coming to the World Series with a remarkable string of post-season wins.
And they face those Giants from San Francisco who looked like they were trying to replay history with an impressive walk-off home run to get into the Series.
THIS is baseball.
Tonight the end begins.
