Tags
2016 World Series, baseball, Baseball Fans, Bob Feller, Cubbies, Cubs, Indians, The Little Prince, World Series
Photo by Ellen Miller
By now everyone knows the Cubs won the World Series last night, this morning actually, and they ended 108 years of not doing so.
But the winners are the fans.
Certainly, all those, dead and alive, who have followed the Cubbies for however many years they attended, cheered, cried, hoped, dispaired, gave up, came back, hung on, are the actual winners.
But they are not the only winners.
All baseball fans are the winners of this 2016, seven game, knock down, drag out, fight to the finish between the Cubs and Indians.
After all, baseball, in my humble opinion, is first and foremost about the fans. Yes. the players and the management are important. But they come and go.
(In fact, not to denigrate the Cubs win in any fashion, but the 2016 World Champions have not been Cubs players for very long. The team is comprised of an exciting group of very young players, a handful of recent, veteran players, purchased precisely for what they added to the team’s chances to win. Credit them all, plus the owner and management, especial Theo. But know that the players who just won have not been long suffering Cubbies. Their fans, however, are the ones who have been there a long time, as in 108+ years.)
It is the fan’s first and foremost who make baseball what it is. And the entire 2016 playoffs, from the two wonderful Wild Card games thru the extra inning game last night, rewarded those who follow baseball, whether they have done so all their lives, have come to it recently, or just tuned in these last few games.
And as a friend emailed me this morning, in baseball, as Bob Feller has said,
Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.
But never forget, it’s the fans that make baseball what it is. To misquote The Little Prince, “It’s the time we spend for our team that makes our team, and the game, so important.”
Brian Steinbach said:
Bravo.
n.b. if you live in Chicago, the game ended before midnight on Nov. 2. So in the future fans can argue about whether they won on Nov. 2 or Nov. 3. :)
Richard said:
Only a lawyer would focus on that.
I love baseball.
Cory said:
Theo Epstein from Redsox, I assume? Did he assemble this championship team.? If so, he’s amazing and must have a knack for team chemistry. Harry Caray rolling around up or down there :)
Richard said:
Yup.
Theo was hired to do in Chicago what he did in Boston. He went in 2011 and built an entirely new team.
Chuck Shuford said:
The fans who can stay up that late won. In fact that’s true for all games starting at 8 eastern time. I feel bad that kids like my grandson who love baseball but have to go to school and can’t stay up to see the ending of WS games. When I was a kid, a lot of the WS games were day games and teachers brought radios or even TVs to the classroom to watch. I don’t know what that meant for kids on the west coast. How did they handle that back in the day?
Carrie said:
I am happy for Cubs and fans
Richard said:
Deinitely.
But also for all baseball fans. Not only because it was exciting or that the Cubs won, but that it gives hope to all fans every game, every year.
Jim Cooke said:
Last night’s World Series Game 7 in Cleveland was most memorable for the ‘big bad” Cubs’ victory, after coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, and after giving up a three-run lead with Major League Baseball’s hardest throwing pitcher, Aroldis Chapman, on the mound. When Rajai Davis hit the 2-run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game 6-6, I believed the Indians, whose payroll is half that of Chicago’s, would win the game and the series, and would make the case for all the small market teams in the sport that they can compete with the bigger budgeted franchises. It was a lost moment for the underdog, but a moment that the rich and powerful Chicago Cubs and their fans will remember for the rest of their lives. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. I guess I’ll have to replay the game many more times before I’ll find the joy in seeing the higher paid Cubs win this one. The Indians will be back in the Fall Classic, and the next time they may even have all their starters healthy. Until then, we’ll tip our caps to the Cubs for wining the ultimate game in a wonderfully entertaining season of baseball.
Richard said:
But look how far the underdog got: extra innings in the 7th game of the WS. Pretty darn good.
Janet Miller brown said:
Are you by any chance a fan of a team
that has been to this rodeo before?
Richard said:
Indeed. Indeed.
Father Eliot Nitz said:
I am not a baseball fan; probably because I could never chew gum and walk at the same time. But my father was an extremely faithful Cub fan. I fell asleep watching the game, but when I awoke it was about 1 AM and the game wasn’t over. It was in the 10th inning. I was thankful to God that I awoke at that time. I actually saw the Cubs win! I did not know how to share my joy since Father Glen and a Brother Roger were fast asleep. They are not sports fans either. But I almost cried because my father would have loved seeing his team finally win.
Richard said:
Wonderful.
samuel clover jr said:
good morning rick…what a world series for us baseball fans…presidential election not so much,yuk…..sam c…ps go cowboys…smiles