Wow– what a way to end a drought!
While I was rooting for the Cleveland Indians, I was thrilled to see the Chicago Cubs end over a century of futility as baseball’s lovable losers with their victory last night in the deciding seventh game of the World Series.
It was dramatic from the very first at-bat as the Cubs’ first hitter slammed a home run to set off the festivities. The Cubs took a strong lead but the Indians fought back then tied the game in the 8th inning with a line drive home run that looked to set the Cubs back on their heels. You could see the anxiety on their fans’ faces in the stands as it seemed as though the curse might rise up and bite them yet again. It was a feeling they knew all too well.
But they persisted and fought to take the lead in the 10th inning. They held on and the weight of a century of coming up short in every way for this team was lifted off the shoulders of the Chicago Cubs.
It was 1908–108 years– since they last felt this thrill. Think about that. 108 years. Multiple generations of Cubs fans came and went without seeing them win.
In 1908 the first Ford Model T rolled off the first auto assembly line in October.
In 1908 we were still a decade from the World War I and Communism had not yet overtaken Russia as Czar Nicholas II still ruled that country.
In 1908 the Wild West era was still alive in America. Buffalo Bill Cody, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Annie Oakley and Geronimo were all alive. Harriet Tubman was still alive (in nearby Auburn, NY!) when the Cubs last won the series.
In 1908 there was no television, movies were relatively new and silent, radio had yet to move into the home and telephones were just taking hold in homes. The computer and the internet were generations away from even being imagined by early sci-fi writers.
In 1908 there was no NFL and NBA. And in baseball, it was still nearly forty years away from the time when the first black man, Jackie Robinson, would be allowed to play in the major leagues.
In 1908 penicillin was still 20 years from being discovered. In 1908 if you had any number of medical conditions you were in pretty bad shape because cures, preventatives and treatments for them had yet to be developed– tuberculosis, polio, diabetes, typhus, malaria and on and on. Vitamin D had yet to be discovered!
In 1908 Mark Twain, Tolstoy and Kipling were still alive. So were Claude Monet, Degas and Renoir.
In 1908 Teddy Roosevelt was the president. Mount Rushmore, featuring his face, was decades from being finished in 1941.
In 1908 Hillary Clinton could theoretically run for president but would not be able to cast a vote for herself for another 12 years.
Think about how much the world has changed since the last World Series banner flew for the Cubs. The idea that fans of that team held on to hope for that long is amazing. Next year’s spring training and season will be unlike any they have ever felt. I hope they can truly savor it.
Redtree Times 