The last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series the Baltimore Orioles (as they exist now) didn’t exist. And in fact they wouldn’t exist for a long time from that point. Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House, and the legendary double-play combination of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance was still active. Just for some historical perspective.
Two world wars, a great depression, a cold war, and generations later, it’s finally happened again. I suppose that the only sad thing about this particular World Series was the fact that someone had to lose. Both Chicago and Cleveland were feel-good stories, and both had compelling storylines that made you want to root for them. This World Series was truly a win-win for baseball.
The main storyline of course is Chicago breaking the curse that had made it to 108 years. However another major part of this is the fact that Chicago was down 3-1 in the series before coming back to win. That’s how you break a curse!
Ironically, the other big curse that was broken in most of our lifetimes was the Curse of the Bambino, of course with the Boston Red Sox. In that case, keep in mind that Boston was down 3-1 in the ALCS against New York before storming back and advancing to the World Series. So perhaps there’s something to be said for having your back against the wall. It sure seemed to work for those teams!
Needless to say, this will go down as one of the greatest World Series’ in history. In fact, game seven itself might go down as one of the greatest games in World Series history. Heck, perhaps even baseball history. The rain delay at the end seemed to add to the mystique of the event, and that combined with the curse made it perfect.
So with that said, the entire league is now in the off season. But given that this World Series ended in November and spring training (games) begins in February, we have only two full months without baseball. Easy, right?! The Orioles specifically have a lot of work to do regarding which players are staying and which are walking. Needless to say, there’s no such thing as an off season in that sense.
But with that in mind, America should take a collective breath today and celebrate with the new champions of her national pastime. It’s certainly been a long enough time coming. And as I said, this World Series was a win-win for everyone involved.
Birdland Crush 