My wife’s brother posted on Facebook on Wednesday night “I think this is the third-happiest day in my brother-in-law’s life.” My wife responded “I don’t know. Josh has been with the Cubs a lot longer than he’s been with me or our daughter.”
That woman knows me so well. That’s why I love her.
I’ve got some Cubs news in here because Cubs news is MLB news this week. I know Duane won’t mind.
- Grant Brisbee sums up the Cubs breaking their 108-year drought in the one of the greatest baseball games ever played with a side-trip through Greek mythology. I don’t mean Bill Sianis, either. I’ve used the Sisyphus myth to explain the Cubs before too. By the way, those Greeks had one dark vision of the world.
- Mike Lupica writes that there will never be another sports story quite as good as this one nor a game like game 7 ever again.
- Rany Jazayerli has a great piece on how the Cubs victory marks the end of baseball’s analytics war. No longer is baseball a game between those who value information and those who don’t. It’s a battle between who can carry out their plan with the most discipline and skill. Jazayerli thinks (and I agree) that it makes for a better game.
- Dave Leonhardt makes a similar point and says that those who don’t think analytics-driven baseball is entertaining obviously wasn’t watching game 7.
- Nancy Armour gives her thoughts on why game 7 was the greatest game of all-time.
- Jonah Keri explains that game 7 had everything we love about baseball.
- Alex Kirshner gives 15 reasons why game 7 was a classic.
- Dave Cameron notes how lucky the Cubs were to survive the bottom of the ninth with a gassed Aroldis Chapman.
- Mike Bauman thinks the Cubs 2016 title was even greater than the Red Sox 2004 title. Duh.
- Ben Reiter thinks Wednesday night was the first night of the Cubs dynasty.
- This is a tradition I didn’t know about, but the Kansas City Royals bought pizza for the Cubs front office staff yesterday.
- The ratings are in and game 7 was the most-watched baseball game since game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
- I love this. The call of the final out in several different languages. I highly recommend the ESPN Deportes radio call. And yes, Korean is here too.
- These are the story that choke me up. Here are posts from social media of several elderly Cubs fans celebrating the final out. And yes, Bob Newhart is here too.
- This one really got to me. A man drove from North Carolina to Indiana to listen to game 7 at his father’s gravesite because he made a promise to him when he was still alive that when the Cubs played in the World Series, they’d listen to the game together. (His father died in 1980, by the way. This wasn’t some recent promise.)
- Robert Mays admitted that he had been a lapsed Cubs fan, but that the past two seasons turned him back into a rabid fan and brought back memories of his late father.
- Budweiser made a very clever ad in which they managed to get Harry Caray to call the final out of the 2016 World Series.
- The Indians want to know when game 8 starts.
- The Indians players came up short as their magic ran out, writes Stephanie Apstein.
- Mark Townsend doesn’t think the Indians ran out of magic, it’s that their injury-depleted pitching staff finally ran out of arms.
- Allison Duffy-Davis writes that if the Indians are looking to second-guess themselves, there were plenty of times where things went wrong for Cleveland because of their own mistakes.
- Rajai Davis went from a hero to a footnote in just a couple innings, writes Anthony Fenech. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that Davis home run. Especially since in the pre-Series roundtable, I picked Davis to be the Indian who would torment the Cubs. But I thought it would be with his legs, not his bat.
- Lindsey Foltin has six reasons for the Indians to be happy right now.
- On to winter matters. Matthew Pouliot ranks the top 111 potential free agents this winter.
- The Angels acquired Cameron Maybin from the Tigers for a minor leaguer. They also, naturally, exercised his 2017 option.
- The Tigers picked up their option on Francisco Rodriguez.
- The Rays acquired John Lamb from the Reds for the most-traded player of all-time, cash. Not sure if it’s Kevin, Dave or Norm.
- The Giants picked up their option on Matt Moore.
- The Astros claimed Nori Aoki off of waivers.
- The Binghamton Mets have changed their nickname to the Rumble Ponies! Also, the new franchise in the Carolina League will be the Down East Wood Ducks.
- John Manuel thinks silly minor league names are going too far, although he’s specifically referring to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp in this piece.
- And finally, the kids at one school figured the Cubs winning the World Series was as good a reason as any to show up late for school yesterday. And they were right.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. And every day afterwards. Because as the saying goes, “Flags fly forever.” Fly the W. Forever. The Cubs are the 2016 World Series Champions.