The year is 1945. William Sianis and his goat, Murphy, have just been asked to leave Game 4 of the World Series at Wrigley Stadium. Enraged, Sianis utters a curse declaring the Cubs will never win another World Series. Following this event, the cubs remained without another World Series win, which lead some to believe Sianis’ threat. Others blame the lack of a World Series trophy to 1908, the year the Cubs angered the ‘baseball gods’ with a cheap, tainted win. Whatever the cause, the Cubs became victims of the alleged curse. That curse was broken on Wednesday, November 2nd, when the team finally secured its first national championship in over a century.
Several incidents have since supported Chicago’s claims of a curse. In a crucial seasonal game in 1969 a stray black cat walked past the Cubs dugout and their team captain, Ron Santo. The New York Mets would eventually win that game and move on to win the 1969 World Series. In 1984, Leon Durham’s alleged wet glove allowed an easy out to snowball into four runs, a lost game, and a lost World Series. Even on other teams, Bill Buckner, a former Cubs player, was seen wearing a Cubs batting glove at the time of a crucial error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series, an error that led to the Mets winning yet another World Series. In more recent times, Steve Bartman, a fan in the stands, deflected a ball which could’ve been an out for the Cubs and seemingly tipped the dominos that led to an eight run inning for the Florida Marlins, who came back to win the Series after being down 3 games to none. After such unfortunate events, it seemed The Cubs would never again win the World Series.
Everything seemed to change on November 2nd around 11:28 CT. After miraculously surviving and coming back from a 3-1 game deficit, the Cubs seemed to have Game 7 in the bag.
Up by three runs, the Cubs’ heart furiously pumped as they watched the Indians score a run off a line drive to the wall. Then, their chests grew exceedingly heavy as they watched Rajai Davis of the Indians smoke a two-run home run out to left field, thus, tying the game up in the eighth inning. The ninth inning was a real nail biter, as neither the Cubs, nor the Indians scored a single run.
Anxious to go into the tenth inning, Mother Nature whipped up a seventeen minute rain delay that forced both teams to wait it out with amassing anxiety. The weather diminished and allowed them to go into extra innings, where the Indians prayed that the Cubs’ curse would defeat them once more. Alas, there seemed to be no curse as the MVP, Ben Zobrist, hit a double in the outfield gap scoring one run. The baseball gods even seemed to support the Cubs as Miguel Montero, who had a .091 batting average, hit a single for his first at bat of the night, also scoring one run. The bottom of the tenth inning was no less exciting as Davis once again came in clutch with an RBI single bringing the game to a 8-7 score with the Cubs in the lead. However, nobody else seemed able to come through for the Indians as the Cubs fended them off and won their first World Series in over 100 years.
Chicago was bursting with an excitement that hasn’t been seen since 1908. Even the Cubs’ third baseman Kris Bryant was beaming a smile as he fielded and threw out Michael Martinez for the t
hird and last out of the World Series. Knowing they were finally able to overcome and break their curse, the Cubs decided their overwhelming joy was only fit for the happiest place on Earth, Disney World.
