Chicago Cubs Wins their 3rd World Series; Their 1st in 108 Years

[simmytbone]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/believe...044802379.html

Hey guys,

FINALLY, after 108 years since the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Days, the Chicago Cubs are FINALLY the Champions

They've won the World Series

Here's the story:


Believe it: Cubs win first World Series since 1908 in epic Game 7
By Jeff Passan
MLB columnist
Yahoo Sports Nov 2, 2016, 11:48 PM

CLEVELAND – The Chicago Cubs won the World Series on Wednesday night. They won it in epic, incredible, unbelievable fashion. They won it with an extra-innings rally that followed an improbable home run that chased a grinding comeback that all melded together in a delicious soup of baseball madness that broke the heart of the Cleveland Indians. Game 7 – and the 112th World Series – will go down among the best ever.

One hundred eight years of misery – of billy goats and black cats and Bartman, of bleacher bums and broken dreams, of a curse that wasn’t ever real but always felt like it – was vanquished Wednesday. The Cubs beat the Indians, 8-7, in the 10th inning of a gave-you-everything Game 7. The City of Chicago celebrated like it hasn’t before. The City of Cleveland mourned perhaps its most heartbreaking loss yet, a dagger every bit as sharp as The Shot, The Drive and The Fumble.

This was billed as the biggest baseball game in as long as anyone could remember, a matchup packing more gravitas than Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, the first game back after 9/11, Game 7 of the 1986 World Series – one ripe with historical implications not just because of the Cubs’ century without a championship but the Indians’ streak of ignominy, 68 years now going on 69.

It exceeded any and all expectations, and not just because it was the first extra-innings Game 7 since Cleveland lost to Miami in 1997. The Cubs went ahead when pinch runner Albert Almora scored on a Ben Zobrist double. A Miguel Montero single drove in Anthony Rizzo for another run. The deluge came after a 17-minute rain delay, which followed one of the biggest home runs in World Series history. Cleveland tied the game 6-6 in the eighth inning when Rajai Davis, the center fielder with 55 career home runs in more than 1,200 games, took a fastball from Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman 369 feet over the 19-foot-high wall in left field, a two-run homer that sent the crowd of 38,104 into utter hysterics.

It almost happened again in the bottom of the 10th. The Indians scored a run off rookie Carl Edwards Jr. when Davis drove in Brandon Guyer. Mike Montgomery, the other left-hander acquired midseason by the Cubs, induced Michael Martinez into hitting a groundball to Kris Bryant. He threw it to Anthony Rizzo, the final out was recorded and history was made.

It set off madness in Chicago and started the Cubs’ swan dive into an offseason – and a lifetime – of feting from the adoring national fan base that stuck with them throughout all the years of losing, most of them not exactly lovable, and the years in which they won but couldn’t win it all. The 2016 Cubs seemed destined to tread the same path until they rescued themselves from a three-games-to-one deficit that, while towering, never felt insurmountable.

Not with this team assembled by president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer, managed by Joe Maddon, led by young stars Bryant and Rizzo, and buoyed by owner Tom Ricketts, whose rebuilding efforts brought in the new brain trust, which beget the loaded team that won 103 games and went into this playoff run favored to win the World Series.

Being favorite and following through are entirely different beasts. The Cubs hadn’t even made a World Series in 71 years. They had lost seven World Series since they last won one, in 1908, with the famous Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance infield and a style of baseball entirely different than the one that dominated the 2016 postseason.

This was about home runs and pitching, and the Cubs got enough of both Wednesday to finish off Cleveland at Progressive Field, which at times felt more like Wrigley Field East, with Cubs fans streaming in from around the country to bring hints of blue and extra-loud voices that were heard from nearly the first pitch.

Corey Kluber, the Indians’ ace, threw it at 8:02 p.m. local time. By 8:03, the Cubs led 1-0 on Dexter Fowler’s leadoff home run, the first in the history of a World Series Game 7. Thirty-six Game 7s had been played – and of them, only seven came after a team clawed back after being down 3-1. Five of those times the comeback kids won. Twice they didn’t. After Fowler’s home run, during which he ran backward between first and second while nodding to his dugout, the Cubs showed they were far more intent on being the former than the latter.

Bryant answered a third-inning Cleveland run with a pedal-to-the-medal run and slide on a ball just long enough for a sacrifice fly. The Cubs added another on a Willson Contreras double in the fourth, before the power returned and almost broke the game wide open. Javier Baez, who committed a pair of errors in the first three innings that personified the nerves that permeated the game, homered to lead off the fifth, chasing off Kluber and bringing on super-reliever Andrew Miller, who allowed a nine-pitch walk against Bryant to turn into a run when he was running on the pitch and sped home on a Rizzo single.

Maddon yanked his starter, Kyle Hendricks, with a runner on after 4 2/3 innings, handing the ball to ace Jon Lester, who allowed an infield hit that his personal catcher, David Ross, threw away to put runners on second and third. Lester then bounced a curveball that got past Ross and allowed both runners, Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis, to score. The blowout was on hold.

Just not the Cubs’ lead. In the top of the sixth, Ross, the 39-year-old playing in his last major league game, launched a solo home run to center, the Cubs’ third of the night. Miller, unhittable for so long, proved fallible at the worst imaginable time. Chicago relished its 6-3 advantage, which it held with closer Aroldis Chapman, the trade-deadline acquisition whom Epstein and Hoyer thought the final piece to round out their super-team, securing the final six outs.

The Cubs had done it. They had delivered the karmic retribution to Cleveland, which so loudly mocked the Golden State Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals against the Cavs. They had proven their hope was not false bravado. The flame of what could be never was extinguished, not in the Cubs’ clubhouse – where before Game 5 “Rocky” and its sequels played on all the televisions – and not in Wrigleyville, where fans wrote messages on Wrigley Field’s brick façade saying they still believed.

The ancient stadium hosted the middle three games of the series, fans taking to the streets, holding signs that said “It’s Gonna Happen” and wearing shirts that referenced the end of the Curse of the Billy Goat, purportedly placed on the franchise by a local bar owner angered by the team refusing to let his hooved pet into the stadium. The fervor relented following losses in Games 3 and 4 but regenerated following a narrow victory in the fifth game and carried over to Cleveland.

While cinching the World Series outside of the North Side took away a hint of the sweetness, the entire scene in Cleveland, in Chicago, in Cubs-fan outposts around the country, was plenty saccharine. Tears were shed, friends were hugged, family was called. Twitter was a party. Facebook was abuzz. Instagram was dyed Cubbie blue. Phones recorded people signing “Go Cubs Go” and struggling to believe this really was happening.

It was over. No more curse. No more wait. No more agita. Just seven words of pure, unadulterated bliss.

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series.

Chicago Cubs; 3x World Series Champions

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CUBS!!

#GOCUBSGO #FlytheW



Chicago Bears Flying the W after the Cubs VICTORY!!


Chicago Blackhawks Flying the W after the Cubs VICTORY!!


Chicago Bulls Flying the W after the Cubs VICTORY!!

[Schmoopie]

Such an amazing game! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

[bmasters9]

I didn't see it last night, but I was glad to hear just earlier that the Cubs took the title and broke the curse. I didn't think they ever would until now!

[MrCleveland]

And for Cleveland...we have to wait... again!

The Indians will never win it all... looks like it's 69 years!

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children
shout,
But there is no joy in Cleveland...the Indians have struck out.

The Rocky Colavito Curse STILL Stands!

[Babalu]

I'm just waiting to hear today that obama and hillary were huge Cubs fans their whole lives.

Otherwise I didn't have much rooting interest.

[AMackII]

I was surprised that Cubs won the World Series, i saw it on television last night. congrats to the team on that.

[Nordy]

Well Hillary is actually a Cub fan. She's been in the booth a couple of times. Obama is a White Sox fan. He's isn't too ashamed to admit it either.

[MrCleveland]

My city might as well play this now...



No... hope...no...hope...

[Nordy]

C'mon Mr. Cleveland. That was nothing to be embarrassed of. Indians didn't quit. I'm happy of course my team won but also breathe a sigh of relief because the Indians could have easily won that game too.....

[MrCleveland]

Originally Posted by Nordy

C'mon Mr. Cleveland. That was nothing to be embarrassed of. Indians didn't quit. I'm happy of course my team won but also breathe a sigh of relief because the Indians could have easily won that game too.....

Well...

With the Indians winning it all could've made my blue year better... I hear now that they could win next year...the Royals were down one year, but made it next year...

[Nordy]

See ya next year!! =)

[Dianne3]

So, anyone on here alive the last time the Cubs won. LOL!!!!

Because of the Cubs (and Indians) long drought, I feel that this series is the exception to what is happening to pro sports in general.
Pro sports doesn't seem to have the same hold on the public anymore.

Anyway, congrats.

And to Mr. Cleveland - you are getting too greedy. The Cavaliers won just a few months back, and didn't some minor league hockey team also win some championship? Not to mention that the Cubs drought was 40 years longer.

[TJ]

Holy cow! What an amazing series and game 7. That was the most thrilling game that I've seen in my life. I was an emotional wreck watching it like Anthony Rizzo said during the game, lol. When Chapman blew the save in the eighth inning, I thought here we go again and the curse was going to continue. I saw a black cat in our backyard earlier in the day, so I thought that was a bad sign. Thankfully they were able to regroup after the rain delay. That would have been the most heartbreaking loss ever. They won that game for my father, uncle and all the long-suffering Cubs fans.

They were very lucky to get Theo Epstein from the Red Sox. He and his team have really rebuilt them since they arrived. They are going to be good for a long time to come with their young core group of players.

Cleveland played a great series. If they had a fully healthy pitching staff, they probably would have won. Their pitching just ran out of gas. Their relievers were being used so much. Terry Francona is a great manager. They will be back. Their drought will end soon enough.

Lovable winners finally. Go Cubs Go! Hopefully they repeat in 2017.

I love these commercials:

[MrCleveland]

Okay... I'm sorry that I was blue with the Cubs winning it all, but I did have a rough year...my mom died and if I saw the Indians winning it all, my attitude would be better.

Anyone think that the Indians may win it all in 2017?

Also...how many people were at the Cubs Championship Parade? I keep hearing between 600,000 to 3,000,000...

And... I hear many people say "Cleveland didn't give up"...

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by MrCleveland

Anyone think that the Indians may win it all in 2017?

Anything is possible, but right now I think it will be difficult for the Indians next year to equal or surpass their success from this year. For one thing, I think their division is going to be more competitive next year. Cleveland has a good team with several good players, Francona is a good manager too. The main thing they need to improve on during the off season is the starting pitching, aside from Kluber the rotation isn't very deep.