Say goodbye to Someday: The Cubs are World Series champions

Harry Caray said “As sure as God made green apples, someday the Chicago Cubs are going to be in the World Series” and someday finally arrived. The Cubs went to the World Series and they won the whole damn thing. It’s kind of impossible to imagine, from the outside, the weight of 108 years. It briefly looked like they may not be able to break that curse, down three games to one to Cleveland. It looked like it may not happen when Aroldis Chapman gave up a game-tying home run to Rajai Davis. Baseball magic prevailed in the best way.

The weight of a city seems to have collectively lifted. So many people who thought they may never see their team make it to the promised land finally got there. Seeing that kind of joy, it’s impossible to not think about the ones who weren’t here to share it. As I’ve written before, my grandfather was a big Cubs fan. He loved them more than he loved any other team he rooted for. He’d always ask me about baseball, and he always wanted to talk about what was going on on the North Side of Chicago.

My grandfather passed away in August after being quite sick the last few years. When I spoke at his funeral I said that I’d secretly be hoping for a Cubs World Series win this season, just because I know it would have meant the world to him. He lived a long, full life, but he never got to see his Cubs win it all. I hope that wherever he is, he got to celebrate last night. I know many people have similar stories of loved ones who would have given anything to witness what we all saw last night. My heart aches a little bit for that.

The romanticism of baseball has caught up with me more in the last couple seasons. It was definitely evident last night. If you know a Cubs fan, you know how palpable their happiness is right now. We all want that for our team, of course, but I can’t help but feel like they, perhaps more than anyone else, deserved this one.

There are baseball moments I am really grateful to have been around to see, and last night was one of them. Games like last night are the ones you talk about for years to come, even if you’re not a fan of the teams that played. It was everything you could have wanted out of a Game 7 and maybe a little more.

I guess the point I’m getting at is that baseball is really amazing. The fact that a sport can make you feel things like that is kind of incredible. Baseball goes away now for the winter, which always feels a little sad. If you’re like me, you devote so much of your time for most of the year to daily baseball and feel a little lost without it. Basketball, hockey, and football are all nice distractions, but they don’t have a spot in the routine every single day.

Someday, the Yankees will be going back to the World Series. They’ll find a way to win four games and hoist the trophy again. I know that the last few years have been hard for some Yankees fans to accept, but it’s really nothing compared to what other fanbases have had to endure. Imagine 108 years! Imagine even 50 or even 20. We are so spoiled.

That means there will likely never be a night like last night for the Yankees. A drought like that is just not in the Yankees’ DNA. When they do get back there, though, I know it’ll still be worth the wait. We have to wait at least another 11 months to find out, but who knows. Maybe it’ll be our year.

Thanks to all of you who read our site every day. There would be no reason for us to do this without you. We all hope you’ll stick around for our offseason content as we count down the days until spring training. Thank you for reading, commenting, FanPosting, tweeting, and all that you do to keep Pinstripe Alley chugging along. Here’s to #28!