Question 1: Is this important?
I’m not a very sport-savvy person… Like, I know the basics of most popular American sports, and I know my state’s major team (I even known about the Colorado Mammoth! And lacrosse isn’t really a POPULAR American sport.) I know how to score, and if I had to I could get out on a field and fake it (though my performance would be awful as I have no athletic skills). Still, the Cubs winning the World Series is news… and the sentimental part of me wants to think that this is some kind of sign from the universe that things are turning up.
Question 2: Why is this significant?
The Cubs haven’t won the World Series in 108 years. If you’re like me, your first question is something along the lines of, “Aren’t there teams that have NEVER won the World Series?” The answer is yes, including the Colorado Rockies (I live in Colorado… that’s why they are significant). There’s something dramatically different about the Rockies and the Cubs, though, and that’s time.
The Cubs were formed in 1903… but before being the Cubs they were several other names, starting with the Chicago White Stockings in 1876. The Rockies were formed in 1993. The other teams that have not won the Series are, in chronological order of formation are: The San Diego Padres: 1969, The Washington Nationals: 1969, The Texas Rangers: 1972, The Seattle Mariners: 1977, The Tampa Bay Rays: 1998, The Milwaukee Brewers: 1998, and The Houston Astros: 2013. While I, as a Millennial, think that the 60s are pretty old (as cited in my last entry), 1876 is SIGNIFICANTLY OLDER.
None of these other teams have been around as long as the Cubs have been in a World Series Drought. The Cubs being “Lovable Losers” has been a pop-culture reference my entire life. This has been so incredibly pervasive in American culture that in 1985, the writers of Back to the Future put in a joke about the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015. They’re a year late, but holy shit.
Question 3: Does this mean anything in a universal sense?
I’m not an overwhelmingly metaphysical kind of person. I used to be, but in recent years I don’t really have a penchant for religion or ghosts or anything that isn’t based in the really, real knowable world. I still love the IDEA of demons and ghosts and things, but I’m not a believer. That being said, I like to think that maybe this win means a thing. Maybe it signifies some kind of shift that could mean this year will be better. Maybe it’s a sign?
I don’t think anyone will dispute that 2016 was a crap year. We lost a lot of good celebrities that people loved, our election options are terrifying, and while I hate snow it really should have snowed by now but we are still in flip-flop optional weather here in Colorado… which means winter will probably be a giant shit-storm nightmare that we will talk about for years to come… and I’m not looking forward to that. But the Cubs won the World Series. No one, except Bill Murray, saw that coming. (Literally, he crashed a presidential dinner and just talked about how he thought the Cubs were going to win the series… my life goal is to be Bill Murray.) So when a thing like that happens, something so unexpected, it seems like people just try to glean SOMETHING from it… Even if there isn’t really anything to get from it.
John would have been really happy. He was a Cubs fan. Mom told me that this morning. I don’t know that THAT has any significance, either… but I’m going to pretend it does. Just because… we need some good omens this year… and I could use a few to start off this year of my life.
Teh Prophet Lushpuppy 