Say it with me: The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series. A perfect way to end a magical season that still seems unreal to us lifelong diehard crazy Cubs fans who have endured heartache after heartache.
I thought this would be easy to write, but it’s not. It’s so hard to put into words how I feel or what went through me as it happened. After years of heartache and close calls, to see a team that used to be easy to pick on lift that trophy…..no words.
I penned an article about the importance of the pennant since that in chased away the curses and jinxes.
But the World Series win does mean just as much. The constant “Well, anyone can have a bad century” joke gets old after the first 200,000 times. Then the Lovable Losers tag followed us through the 90s. It was SO EASY to pick on us Cubs fans.
Goats. Black cats. BARTMAN. Ugh. All the time.
But no matter what we remained faithful and true.
The win is also bittersweet because we have lost people who wanted to see the Cubs win the World Series. Unfortunately, the number of those alive since their last appearance is dwindling, making the team’s past almost folklore or something in a baseball fairy tale.
Wayne Williams drove from North Carolina to Indiana to listen to the game with his father, who passed away in 1980:
“I talked it out with my boys forever. I let them know that I told my dad—we had a pact,” he said, per WTHR’s David MacAnally. “When the Cubs—not if, when—the Cubs got into the World Series, we would make sure we listen to the games together.”
Nothing is better than seeing the older Cubs fans celebrate victory.
Tom Johnson put a beer in his fridge 32 years ago and vowed to only drink it when the Cubs won a World Series.
Here are a few more:
The best part? The new and upcoming generation of Cubs fans won’t have to deal with the pain and suffering we have endured. Their friends won’t tease them about having a favorite team that can’t do anything right.
The next generation starts with a clean slate because, as I mentioned before, this was not a fluke. Baseball genius Theo Epstein has built a team that can start a dynasty. This team will not go away. For once it’s not absurd to consider the Cubs a World Series favorite for the next couple of seasons.
Fly the W, Cubs fans. Don’t take it down until Opening Day 2017.
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