I
thought the fact that Red Sox fans got to storm their own home field really
didn’t matter all that much. The fact that it had been 95 years since that had
last happened was no big deal.
I
ACTUALLY LOOKED it up, and found that the Cleveland Indians haven’t won a World
Series at their home field since 1920, while the Chicago White Sox only did it
once – in 1906 when their final game against the Chicago Cubs was at the old
South Side Park (at what is now Pershing
and Wentworth avenues).
And
as for the Cubs? Their only two World Series victories (1907 and 1908, both
times against the Detroit Tigers) came in Michigan, rather than the old West
Side Grounds that is now the University of Illinois Medical Center.
They’ve
never won a final game at home, to have fans tearing up the turf while
ballplayers jump all over each other in a big pile before tearing off to the
team clubhouse to douse each other with champagne and have the baseball
commissioner present the team president with a rather uninspired-looking
trophy.
That
is the factual basis of the people going on and on saying that Tuesday was
significant because the Cubs won their first postseason series at Wrigley Field
– ever.
Chicago is long overdue for a World Series that doubles ... |
THAT
LITERALLY WAS the headline on the back page of the New York Post on Wednesday,
along with a cutline saying that one-tine broadcaster Harry Caray would have
been “proud” of the celebration Cubs fans conducted following their 6-4 victory
Tuesday night that advances the Cubs to the final round of the National League
playoffs against the winner of New York Mets/Los Angeles Dodgers.
That
last sentence is what makes me think all of the hullaballoo over the Cubs’
victory is much adieu over nothing.
Cubs
fans are going on and on as though they already have reached a historic
achievement, when they really haven’t won a thing yet!
... as a City Series, to settle city supremacy for the 21st Century |
All
they have done to this point is match the same level of play they achieved in
2003 – when they made it to the final round of National League playoffs before
losing to the then-Florida Marlins. Actually, made it to being within one game
of winning that round – before all that Bartman nonsense crept its way into
Cubs lore.
CONSIDER
THAT IF the Cubs do lose to the New York/Los Angeles winner in the final
playoff round that begins Saturday, history will record that the ’15 Cubs were
no better than St. Louis, Pittsburgh or the New York/Los Angeles loser.
Nobody
will think that the Cubs achieved something significant by winning the pompously-named
“National League Division Series.” There won’t be an NLDS pennant flying over
Wrigley Field next year.
The
years 1945 (last National League championship) and 1908 (last World Series title)
will still retain their significance. Going around acting as though your team
has already won what matters is the best way possible to tempt fate and ensure
that the baseball “gods” do wind up smiting the Wrigley Field scene for yet
another year.
Besides,
I can’t help but think that the hard-core of Cub fandom really cares where the
final game of a championship season is played.
BACK
IN 2005, the Chicago White Sox took their own championship dreams even though
the division clincher (in Detroit), division series winner (in Boston), league
championship (in Anaheim, Calif.) and World Series win (in Houston) ALL came on
the road.
Lost last game of '06 series, yet still a Hall of Famer |
I
don’t think anybody seriously thinks less of that championship year – which was
the first for a Chicago ball club in the life of anyone under age 60. Actually,
that status will remain – even if the Cubs do manage to beat the New York/Los
Angeles winner, then the best of the American League to win a World Series.
And
as for White Sox fan-dom, their reaction if the Cubs do wind up prevailing this
year will be something along the lines of, “It’s about time, ya losers!”
Then
we can start wishing for a World Series that doubles as a City Series – so we
can settle the White Sox/Cubs debate for the 21st Century – just as
that 1906 series (with the Cubs losing to the Sox four games to two) set things
for the 20th Century.
-30-
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