If it takes a Cubs World Series to get me to write about baseball again, I guess that's what it takes. Aside from the Twins game 163's, that game 7 may have been the best baseball game I've ever seen in my life. So very often, we need to bend over backwards to find the narrative in a game that is so frustratingly random. But this game, it was beautiful. The retiring veteran and the guy who signed a one year contract to be "part of it" and the guy who's "one of the nicest guys in all of baseball" and the guy who's freakish natural athleticism transfixed the country all hit dingers. The guy who choked his girlfriend in the offseason gave up one of those dingers and almost blew the game. The casual fan was treated to shots of Bill Murray crying and Lebron screaming his head off, and a game of incredible high drama. Baseball hasn't made me scream in a long time. I remember being disappointed by the lack of emotion I felt while watching the David Freese game 6 in 2011. Not so here. I fucking screamed. It was amazing. Thank you, Rajai Davis, for that.
But the Cubs won. I thought I'd be more angsty about it. The Cubs and their bro-y yuppie fans have always annoyed me to some extent. And they very well may in the future. But this is their time, and there's no way to live in the city where it's all happening and not smile. People were so happy.
I went to Wrigleyville for game 5. It was fantastic. Just crowds of people, content with just being around, to hear the crown roar and to see the play 10 seconds later on a tv glimpsed through an apartment window on Sheffield. The mood on the streets rollercoastered as the Indians took an early lead, until the bottom of the 4th, when a Bryant homer ignited a 3 run inning -- a lead that would stand for the rest of the night. I listened to the 6th and 7th on the el home on my walkman, then watched the ending at my apartment. The playoffs can end your life for a month, but would you have it any other way?
After the Cubs pulled it out in the 10th, with Zobrist's double that finally put the spotlight on one of the most overlooked players of the last decade, we walked around Evanston a bit. People careened around the streets in their cars, honking and giving out high fives. On Friday I went to the parade. I ended up at the start, a couple blocks down from Wrigley. Even there, the crowds were huge. Maddon and Fowler, Rizzo and Bryant went by in a flash, and then it was over. I can't imagine being on one of those buses. The constant roar of mouth after mouth, thousands of people experiencing your presence anew with every block traveled. What happened down in Grant Park I can't speak to, but it sounded incredible.
So that was the world series for me. A special shoutout to sling tv and their easily exploitable free trial periods. Yo da real mvp.
