‘Next year’ finally arrives for joyous Chicago Cubs fans

CHICAGO — Next year is here.

At exactly 11:47 p.m. local time, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series that has eluded them for 108 years. Fans who packed bars to watch the games on television near Wrigley Field — neither of which existed back in 1908 — erupted in cheers before swarming onto the streets just before midnight Wednesday to celebrate in the shadows of the statues of Cubs greats Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and legendary announcer Harry Caray.

As the game ended, the roar from inside the bars and the throng of fans on the street was deafening, before the crowds both inside and out sang “go Cubs go” at the top of their lungs.

As the celebration progressed, thousands of fans poured into the streets leading away from Wrigley, many of them singing “We Are The Champions.”

Fans hugged each other, many of them crying. They took each other’s picture and pictures of themselves, and took turns writing their names and words of congratulations in chalk on Wrigley’s brick walls. Some got on friends’ shoulders to find spots high up on the walls that were not yet covered with names of fans.

An hour after the game ended there were still thousands of people in the ballpark neighborhood, known as Wrigleyville, and there were still fireworks exploding every few minutes.

“This was torture,” said Mike Delmanowski, a lifelong Cubs fan who flew to Chicago from California just to be surrounded by other Cubs fans. “I would not have missed it for anything.

“I am so proud to be a part of it,” said his wife, Sue, who was crying off and on from the fifth inning.

Mike Dillon said all he could think about was his father, who died without ever seeing what Dillon witnessed.

“I came here by myself, but I’m not alone at all,” said Mike Dillon, 57, of Joliet.

Craig and April Likhite drove to Chicago from Evanston with their 10-year-old son, Cade, because they wanted to see history made with other fans as close to Wrigley Field as possible.

“To finally see this in my lifetime with my son here with us, it means everything,” Craig Likhite said. “This game with all the ups and downs showed him exactly what it is to be a Cubs fan.”

“My dad passed away this year. He would have loved this,” said Likhite, 50.

Judy Pareti flew in from New York City to watch the game at Murphy’s Bleachers, a neighborhood sports bar in a building where her grandfather lived and where his hot dog stand was located. “My dad and grandfather owned it, and I was born here,” she said. “I would never want to be anywhere but here for this.”

Liz Wolfe, a 36-year-old physical therapist, said, “People always said if the Cubs win the World Series it would be like hell freezing over. I’m still in shock. This is the most exciting thing in my life.”

Long-time Cubs fan Bob Newhart, who grew up in the Chicago area, tweeted his congratulations to the team. “The billy goat is dead!! As I’ve said, from the beginning, I’m getting too old for this!,” the 87-year-old comedian wrote, alluding to one of the oldest alleged curses on the team.

The 8-7 extra-inning victory over the Indians at Progressive Field in Cleveland came after the emptiness and bitterness of years past when the Cubs found spectacular and sometimes downright strange ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Every Cubs fan knows those stories, starting with the 1969 team loaded with Hall of Famers that amassed a 9 1/2-game lead in mid-August before they started losing game after game in such numbers that the Miracle Mets not only caught them but ended up winning the National League East by 8 games.

Then came 1984. After taking the first two games of the National League Divisional Series against the Padres at Wrigley, the Cubs needed just one win in San Diego to advance to the NLCS. They were swept in three games on the West Coast.

There were other playoff losses but none as painful as in 2003 when in a where-were-you-when-it-happened moment that Cubs fans still have trouble comprehending, Steve Bartman deflected a ball that seemed destined for Moises Alou’s glove with the Cubs just five outs from reaching the World Series.

Fans watched in horror as the Cubs fell apart, and few who left the park that night believed the team would win game seven the next night. They didn’t.

But that was all in the past as Cubs fans throughout Chicago celebrated into the early hours of Thursday.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Chapman, Cubs top Indians 3-2 to force Game 6 in World Series

CHICAGO — They’ve waited 108 years for a championship. So with this World Series on the verge of slipping away, the Chicago Cubs could not wait any longer.

Manager Joe Maddon summoned closer Aroldis Chapman from the bullpen in the seventh inning for the first eight-out save of his big league career, needing to hold off the Cleveland Indians in Game 5.

As nervous fans fretted at Wrigley Field, Chapman fired his 100 mph heat and preserved the Cubs’ 3-2 win Sunday night, cutting Cleveland’s lead to 3-2.

The Cubs won a Series game at Wrigley for the first time since Game 6 in 1945.

“High anxiety,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “A lot of deep breaths. Every pitch gets bigger and bigger as the game goes on. It’s unbelievable. Great win here, we sent these fans off with a win, now we have to go to Cleveland and win.”

Now, the team that led the majors in wins this year will try to extend its season again Tuesday night when Chicago right-hander Jake Arrieta faces Josh Tomlin at Cleveland in Game 6.

Chicago is trying to become the first club to overcome a 3-1 Series deficit since the 1985 Kansas City Royals and the first to do it by winning Games 6 and 7 on the road since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Cleveland, in search of its first title since 1948, is in search of its third-ever title and has won the championship at home just once, in 1920.

Chapman hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since 2012. He threw 42 pitches, 15 of them at least 100 mph.

The lefty struck out four and fanned Jose Ramirez, who had homered earlier, with 101 mph heat to end it.

With the crowd at the Friendly Confines desperate for a win, Kris Bryant homered to start a three-run burst in the fourth off Trevor Bauer.

That gave Jon Lester a 3-1 lead. The Indians nicked him for a run in the sixth, and Carl Edwards Jr. took over to begin the seventh with a 3-2 edge.

Chapman came in with a runner on second and one out. He stranded the potential tying run at second base in the seventh and at third in the eighth, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

Lester, the Game 1 loser, improved to 4-1 in Series play by allowing two runs and six hits.

Ramirez homered in the second to put the Indians ahead. Cleveland closed within a run in the sixth when Rajai Davis singled, stole second scored on a two-out single by Francisco Lindor.

Mike Napoli singled against Edwards leading off the seventh and took second on a passed ball by rookie catcher Willson Contreras, who had just replaced David Ross.

Carlos Santana flied out, and Chapman came in to strike out Ramirez with a 100 mph pitch. He hit Brandon Guyer on the left leg and retired Roberto Perez on a groundout as fans screamed in relief.

Then in the eighth, Davis singled with one out on a hard grounder down the line that Rizzo stopped with a dive — Chapman took a few seconds before heading to cover first, leaving Rizzo with no one to throw to. Davis stole second, and after Jason Kipnis fouled out, swiped third standing up.

Lindor, Cleveland’s hottest hitter, took a 101 mph pitch at the knees for a called third strike, then stood in the batter’s box for nearly 20 seconds in anger and frustration.

Bauer, his pinkie seemingly healed from a cut sustained while playing with a toy drone during the AL Championship Series, dropped to 0-2 in the Series, giving up three runs and six hits in four innings.

After a pair of relatively balmy autumn nights on the North Side, the temperature dropped to 50 degrees at game time and a 10 mph win added chill. Maddon wore a ski hat with a blue pompom rather than a baseball cap.

Bryant, in a 1-for-15 slide, led off the fourth with a drive into the left-field bleachers, where a fan in the first row dropped it.

Rizzo sent the next pitch off the ivy on the right-field wall for a double, admiring its flight before hustling, took third on Ben Zobrist’s single and came home with the go-ahead run when Addison Russell reached out and topped a pitch down the third-base line for an infield single.

Jason Heyward took a called third strike, slumping Javier Baez dropped a bunt down the third-base line for a single that loaded the bases and Ross, a 39-year-old making perhaps his final big league start, hit a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead.

CARBON COPY

Ross allowed Santana’s second-inning foul pop to glance off his glove and Rizzo batted the ball in the air with his bare hand, then gloved it. It was similar to Game 6 in 1980, when Philadelphia first baseman Pete Rose grabbed Frank White’s foul pop after it nicked off catcher Bob Boone.

WEB GEM

Cubs right fielder Heyward climbed the brick wall in the right-field corner, then reached back to catch Bauer’s wind-blown foul fly.

MOVING ON

This was the last game with the bullpens in foul territory at Wrigley, where new bullpens under the bleachers are to open next season. Zobrist had to climb the mound to catch Kipnis’ seventh-inning fly.

source: sports.inquirer.net