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Grind: Extra Fine (Small Circles & Effect: High Contrast), Brew: Color Gels (1/2 Pic & Full Blended Circles), Serve: Stirred (Flash Burn Tone & Brown Bag Texture)

Photo by Ellen Miller

Great playoffs already.

Starting with two thrilling Wild Card games, moving on thru the losses of my beloved Sox and adopted Nats in their Division series, and to Indians and the Cubs deserved wins in the Championship series, we’ve already seen wonderful playoff baseball.

And tonight to the World Series, where along with the rest of the baseball world — except those who live in Cleveland and those who are related to the players and staff of the Indians — I too hope the Cubs win it all and give relief to all those who have suffered for the past 108 years.

(I know something about what it means to win the WS after decades and decades of failing to do so. Among so many other things, it means that no matter what happens in the next decade and beyond, the Cubs fans will not have to put up with the albatross any longer. The constant failure will be over, and they will never again have to be careful of sharp instruments and high places when/if the Cubs don’t make it to or through the WS. Although my wife would not agree, I find it much easier to ‘accept’ a Sox loss or failure to win throughout the playoffs — tho the fact that they won two more WS in the decade following their 2004 win may also have some impact on that ‘change’ in my behavior.)

If the baseball Gods are paying attention, then the Cubs should win because they’re the best team in baseball this year, and not (just) because of their long and tortuous drought.

And since baseball is about the fans as much or even more than it is about the players who come and go, then the time the Cubs fans have spent caring about their team will make this World Series win even sweeter than the Sox one in 2004, if that is possible. (Shades of the Little Prince caring for his rose.)

The Crowd

PS – After writing the above, I happened to see that one of my favorite sports writers, Thomas Boswell, has a good column in today’s WaPo on this very issue where in he writes the the Cleveland fans know about this too, having spent decades, 68 years to be exact, without a WS win. See: Cubs-Indians World Series Shows What Fans Long Have Known. Life Is Suffering.

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