.
The last Cubs victory in the World Series was 1908, 108
years ago, the longest championship drought in all sports. For the Cleveland Indians it has been 68
years, since 1948, making the combined total of years without winning the
series an astounding 176 years.
The ratings will be through the roof as these two classic
franchises take the field, in the finals
of a hard fought series.
Both coaches, Joe Maddon of the Cubs and Terry Francona of
the Indians, are class acts. As Steve
Wulf of ESPN sports wrote;
"It's probably time to eject
"skipper" from the baseball lexicon. The word is just too inadequate.
The modern manager is so much more than the captain of a ship. He is a
counselor, a teacher, a leader, a thinker, a storyteller, a cheerleader and a
bearer of news, both good and bad.
If there's one thing this epic World Series has
demonstrated, it's that the Cubs and Indians are here because of their
managers. It's not just a coincidence that two storied Midwestern franchises
with Cs on their uniforms are facing each other in the seventh game, hoping to
finally write a happy ending. It's also a dazzling demonstration of how the
manager has evolved in modern baseball.
Joe Maddon and Terry Francona are both
Italian-American, both close to their families, both from small, working-class,
Pennsylvania
towns. They're not exactly alike -- the ready-for-his-close-up Joe likes fine
wine; the self-effacing Tito fondly recalls Boone's Farm -- but they share a
sensibility for their players, a willingness to think outside the box and a
gift for expressing their thoughts honestly and humorously."
The teams are young, hungry, and gritty with new stars being
born in every game. In spite of the
amazing drought in championships, these are two of the best teams in baseball
and deserve to be there. Both are
underdogs when it comes to the series but one will reign supreme and cast off
the decades old jinx.
The Cubs battled back from a 3-1 deficit and must win two
straight in Cleveland
to be world champions. One will win
tonight but in truth both are winners as they have brought America's favorite
past time back with class and power while for one night will knock politics
from the minds of the public hungry for a feel good story.
The following is a great account of game six by Yahoo Sports
writer Jeff Passon.
Cubs rout
Indians to force Game 7 of World Series
Jeff Passan,Yahoo Sports 8
hours ago
CLEVELAND – Game 7 of the World
Series is coming Wednesday. This seemed almost preordained, even after the
Cleveland Indians found themselves in control of the Chicago Cubs. Both of
these franchises have spent far too long craving a championship for it to come
down to anything less than a do-or-die, empty-the-bullpens,
batten-down-the-hatches dance to 27 outs. This is a baseball dream, and it’s
coming live at 8 p.m.
Game 6 of the World Series came and went
Tuesday. It was a blowout. The Cubs thumped the Indians, 9-3, and made the
three-games-to-one advantage Cleveland
held seem like a millennium ago. By the third inning, flights were being booked
into Cleveland and ticket prices were spiking and the inevitability of 176
years of championship-free baseball boiling down to one game was titillating
the collective mind of a country suddenly enthralled with postseason baseball.
Mostly, admittedly, because of the Cubs. Lest
this further the Indians’ Other Team™ complex, the Cubs are the story
captivating the country, 108 years of heartbreak hanging over their heads,
their binary destinies either a delicious, satisfying end to it all or the most
painful tease yet. The Indians aren’t some mediocre story, of course, not with
their 68 years and the prospect of blowing the same lead their
across-the-street neighbors, the Cavs, came back from to steal a championship
from the Warriors over the summer.
This is baseball, of course, and there is no
singular, transcendent figure like LeBron James patrolling the diamond for the
either team. Corey Kluber has been the closest thing, and he’ll start for the
third time this series, giving Cleveland
its best hope after Trevor Bauer lost Game 5 and Josh Tomlin imploded in Game
6, the latter in a first-inning flurry and third-inning meltdown.
The Cubs’ first run-scoring burst wasn’t
entirely Tomlin’s fault. After Kris Bryant walloped a 433-foot home run with
two outs, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist roped back-to-back singles. Addison
Russell followed with a fly ball to right-center field that should’ve been an
out until a miscommunication between center fielder Tyler Naquin and right
fielder Lonnie Chisenhall caused the ball to drop between them. Rizzo and
Zobrist scored, staking Cubs starter Jake Arrieta a three-run lead.
Even though he needed no more, the Cubs
provided it in the third. A walk and two singles loaded the bases and prompted
Indians manager Terry Francona to pull Tomlin. Russell deposited the third
pitch from reliever Dan Otero 434 feet over the left-center field wall, becoming
the youngest player to hit a grand slam in a World Series since Mickey Mantle and tying a World
Series record with six RBIs. It was the third inning, the Cubs led 7-0 and Game
7 was practically inevitable.
Cleveland did muster a pair of
runs and was threatening in the seventh, with two on and two out. Cubs manager
Joe Maddon summoned closer Aroldis Chapman, who squeezed out of the jam by a
hundredth of a second. Francisco Lindor hit a chopper to Rizzo, whose flip to
Chapman came just in time to get Lindor – a call that was reversed after
first-base umpire Sam Holbrook called him safe.
The next inning was little trouble for
Chapman, and Maddon pulled him after a walk in the ninth at 20 pitches, a
number that shouldn’t significantly affect his ability to pitch multiple
innings in Game 7. It was a call made easier by Anthony Rizzo’s two-run home
run in the top of the ninth that gave Chicago a seven-run lead. Pedro Strop
gave up a run and Travis Wood recorded the final out for the Cubs. With starters
Jon Lester and John Lackey both available to pitch in Game 7, Chicago’s bullpen is fortified for its run at
history.
The Cubs are trying to do something only the
1925 Pirates, 1958 Yankees, 1968 Tigers, 1979 Pirates and 1985 Royals have
done: come back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series. Here’s an even more
heartening note for Chicago:
Only the 1967 Red Sox and 1972 Reds game back to force a Game 7 after being
down 3-1 and lost the finale. These Cubs have adopted something of a Rocky
theme, with the original film and its sequels playing on clubhouse TVs before
Game 5, a tense 3-2 affair, nothing like the blowout of Game 6. It still imbued
in Chicago a greater sense of hope than the
gloom that hung over the city after Cleveland
took Games 3 and 4 at Wrigley Field. Game 5 brought back the signs that said
It’s Gonna Happen and left at least some semblance of optimism going into
Tuesday.
It was warranted, and
now, with standing-room-only tickets starting at $2,000 and actual seats
running closer to $2,500, with the highest TV ratings in decades expected, with
Major League Baseball riding this close-to-a-dream series to its
close-to-a-dream conclusion. Now all it needs is a compelling Game 7 that will
remind one city why the wait is worth it and the other about how getting so
close can feel worse than not being there at all.
