1-Man’s Opinion in Sports-Thursday “Cubs Win-Baseball Won Too”
“Cubs Win-Baseball Wins”
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They ended 176-years of history and heartbreak last night in Cleveland. The Cubs ended their World Series drought, going 10-innings to outlast the Indians in the fall classic.
176-years of history and heartbreak combined for those two teams. It’s over for the Cubs. It will go on a bit longer for the Indians.
Drama, tension, big hits, and big mistakes highlited a fabulous World Series.
The Cubs had too many big bats and enough pitching. The Indians had great grit in the lineup and courage in the bullpen, but not enough starting arms.
The smartest man in the ballpark nearly cost his Cubs team a World Series ring. The smart guy in the other dugout, never really solved his teams defensive woes, and it cost Cleveland.
Terry Francona’s centerfield calamity opened up the floodgates on Wednesday night when a fly ball dropped between two outfielders, leading to an early couple of runs.
Then last night, Raji Davis made a high throw on a home plate play coming off a shallow sacrifice fly, then took the wrong route to a flyball that wound up at the fence, leading to more Cubs runs. And 1st baseman Mike Napoli couldn’t turn a hard hit ground ball into a double play that would have killed a Cubs rally.
Ditto for Joe Maddon. His team had lots of hits and baserunners, but he pulled his starter Kyle Hendricks in the 5th inning, despite the fact he was dominating on the mound.
Starter turned reliever Jon Lester threw a 2-run wild pitch that put the Tribe back in the game.
And Maddon, who foolishly used Aroldis Chapman for 3-innings on Wednesday, when he had a big lead, asked him to go 3-more last night, and the Cubs lefthander gave up a 2-run homer than sent the game to extra innings.
But the Cubs won with aggressive base-running, 3-home runs, and playing with a real edge.
The Cubs are built to win for awhile. Cleveland had this one shot, but might not be able to get there again, unless they can get this pitching saff healthy, and keep all their bats.
But for a week,the Fall Classic was great drama. So good, that the World Series outdrew NFL football on TV this past weekend.
The curse of the Billy Goat is over. Chief Wahoo probably isn’t smiling this morning in Cleveland.
It used to be you’d have to have the Yankees or Dodgers in the World Series, to get great fan following, sellouts and monster television ratings. Now it’s changed.
The Cubs win. And baseball wins too.
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