ONE CLUB WILL STILL HURT
Cubs, Indians have paid the price
History is not on the side of the Chicago Cubs.
Luckily for them, it’s not on the side of the Cleveland Indians, either.
Since their last World Series victory in 1908, the Cubs have been cursed by a Billy Goat, sabotaged by a Bartman and bad fielding, and saddled with the title of the “Lovable Losers,” a moniker that defined over a century of baseball on the north side of Chicago.
It hasn’t been much better in Cleveland, even if an NBA championship earlier this year took some of the focus off a World Series dry spell that dates back to 1948.
Both sides know something has to give in the 112th Fall Classic.
But both sides, thanks to a bevy of wide-eyed, fresh-faced 20-somethings, don’t really care about the World Series droughts, one of which will come to an end in the next week or so.
Despite a celebration after the NLCS victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers that screamed, ‘Finally!,’ the young Cubbies, in their first trip to the World Series since 1945, haven’t been talking much about the long-suffering fan base, curses, or what it would mean in a historical sense.
They’re more focused on simply scoring more runs than the Indians, starting with Game 1 on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
“We probably should talk about it because it’s pretty cool, but we haven’t,” said 24-year-old third baseman Kris Bryant, who was just 11 years old when Steve Bartman infamously got his hands on a foul ball that Cubs outfielder Moises Alou could’ve caught, sending into motion a series of events that helped Chicago lose their grip on a 3-2 NLCS lead over the Florida Marlins in 2003. “Hopefully, 20 years from now we can all sit back and grab a bite to eat and talk about this time, but right now we’ve got a lot more to focus on and games to win.”
While their history of failure has been mythologized far less than that of the Cubs or the Boston Red Sox, the Indians suffered through two agonizing World Series losses in the 1990s, before spending much of the past decade, like the Cubs, rebuilding to get to this point.
Reliever Andrew Miller, who’s been in Cleveland for less than three months but played an enormous role in helping the Indians get past the Toronto Blue Jays, setting an ALCS record for most strikeouts out of the bullpen with 14 punchouts in 7⅔ innings, isn’t thinking much about his team’s potential place in baseball lore.
“It’s a side note, honestly,” said Miller, who walked away with ALCS MVP honours thanks to his series-shifting dominance.
“I think it’s really cool, and, I think, it gets the fans excited in these two cities. The winning team is going to get to be a part of something pretty neat afterwards. Right now, nobody’s worried about anything like that. We’re worried about how to get these guys out, and our hitters are worried about trying to get hits off their pitching staff. We’re trying to prepare ourselves to win four games, outscore them in four games. It’s as simple as that.”
Saying it doesn’t matter ahead of Game 1 when no one is up, no one is down, there’s no adversity, no headlines, and there are no pundits wondering aloud, “Have they blown this glorious opportunity?” is easy, though.
The Indians, at 7-1, have been the hottest post-season team in either league, while the Cubs, at 7-3, haven’t been far behind.
They both possess potent offences — the Cubs scored the thirdmost runs in the majors this season, while the Indians were fifth — aces at the top of the rotation, stingy defences, and important trade deadline acquisitions from the New York Yankees in Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs and Miller holding down the back end of the Indians’ bullpen.
As the Cavaliers raise their firstever championship banner right next door at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night, the Cubs and Indians will lean on those aces — Jon Lester (19-5, 2.44 ERA) for the Cubs, and Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14 ERA) for the home side — to get them started on the right foot in Game 1.
Neither manager is worried about the weight of expectations playing a role.
“I just think if you look too far back, you look too far forward, and you miss what’s right in front of you,” said Indians manager Terry Francona, who led the Red Sox to their curse-ending title in 2004.
“These players have earned the right to try to see if we can beat the Cubs, and that’s going to be a tall enough task. I don’t think we need to go back and concern ourselves with 40, 50, 60 years ago.
“Now, if you win, it makes for a cool story.”
Cubs manager Joe Maddon simply points to the aforementioned birth certificates his players are carrying around.
“I think we all have a tremendous amount of respect for history and what’s happened before us or not happened before us,” Maddon said.
“But, you know, you go in that room right now, they’re very young, really not impacted by a lot of the lure, I don’t think, other than the fact that we are impacted by our city and our fans.”
Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, 22, doesn’t need anyone to tell him what’s at stake and what a win would mean for either World Series-starved city.
“It’s cool because someone’s going to end it,” Lindor said. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be great for both of our cities. They’re in the World Series; Chicago deserves it. We’re in the World Series; we deserve it. Two passionate cities are going against each other and, at the end of the day, someone’s going to come out with a World Series title.”