A three-hopper to third baseman Kris Bryant. A quick flip to Anthony Rizzo at first. Just like that, the Chicago Cubs closed the door on the Cleveland Indians and 108 years of heartbreak and mediocrity.
This World Series’ Game 7 was everything you hope for a Game 7 to be. Superstars like Rizzo and Bryant came through in the clutch. Relative nobodies elbowed their way into the history books, like the Indians’ Rajai Davis, who homered to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th. The game was competitive until the very last pitch.
The Indians continue to nurse their own World Series drought, which now enters its 69th season. For many Americans, it was almost too bad both teams couldn’t win. How unfair is it to pit two Cinderella stories against one another?
But tonight is the Cubs’ night, and for everyone living outside Ohio, it’s impossible not to smile along. Has baseball seen anything more heartwarming than Bryant fielding that final out?
Young Cubs fans are beside themselves. At Hillsdale College, where I attend, kids in blue and white draped themselves with “W” banners and piled onto the quad to sing fight songs and shout themselves hoarse.
And tonight in Chicago, nonagenarians like Adele Anderson may lift up a silent prayer of thanks: “Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace.”
The Billy Goat is dead. The Cubs are World Series champs.