Bottom of the 10th. Everybody’s nerves are strained. The pitcher knows that his is the most important job right now; if anything, he really hopes that he can fare better than his predecessors. The first 2 outs come and go in a haze of stress and tension. The last out is always the hardest one, and, though nobody wants to even think about it, everybody’s ready for the worst: an unexpected hit, an untimely home run that dooms the desperate hope of the team. Amidst the preoccupation and pitches, suddenly, the batter makes contact. An eternity passes long before the third baseman grabs the ball and throws it to first base, achieving the triumphant last out. Then, the emotions are too strong to fully realize what has just transpired—at last, the curse that lasted for over a century has been broken.
And so the Chicago Cubs snatched the seventh and crucial game in the 2016 World Series in what had certainly been an intense ride. First, the Cleveland Indians had put them in the tough spot of 1 victory to 3 losses—if they lost one more game, it was game over—, with two of these setbacks occurring at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Then, when they managed to stay afloat in their last home game, the Cubs had to face playing the rest of the series in foreign territory, Cleveland’s own Progressive Field. To everyone’s surprise, the dogged Cubs mounted a strong challenge to their hosts in the sixth game, tying the finals up and keeping the prospect of victory alive. To top it all, the final game was a whirlwind of unexpected events and nerve-wracking thrills—no security could be found, as the score proved to be as capricious as the whims of a young child.
The Cubs came very close to losing the title: they blew a comfortable lead, as the Indians evened out the score at the top of the 8th with a 3-run offensive (including a 2-run HR). They had to win the championship in the extra innings, which, funny enough, were delayed for a tortuous 17 minutes due to rain. The thought of William Sianis, the Billy Goat Tavern owner expelled from Wrigley Field in 1945 for bringing his goat along, impinged upon Cubs fans’ emotional integrity; the legend goes that the angry Goat owner, after being kicked out of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, placed a curse on his home team, saying, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” For a long time, the spell persisted, the Cubs losing that 1945 Series and then not being able to even classify to a World Series—that is, until now.
After the Cubs’ outstanding victory, all eyes turned toward Theo Epstein, the team’s president of operations. Playing a huge role in leading the Cubs out of their bad streak, Epstein is not new to the business of breaking curses: he was the general manager of the Boston Red Sox when they won their first World Series in 86 years at the 2004 finals. Hired in 2011 by the Chicago team, he has been instrumental in getting it out of its despondent position. This year, the Cubs also had the distinction of being the team with most wins during the regular season, with a crushing total of a 103 victories.
