The Chicago Cubs have finally won a World Series, shocking the baseball world with one the most improbable seasons ever. The “Curse of the Billy Goat” has been lifted and Steve Bartman’s alleged “fan interference” can now be forgotten. Game 7 may have been the greatest baseball game ever played and with everyone’s emotions soaring through the roof, the last out was marked with a smile by third baseman Kris Bryant.
A 108-year-old lifelong Cubs fan, Hazel Wilson, is as old as the original Model T automobile. She has always wanted to witness a championship ever since she was born in the North Side of Chicago in 1908, which happened to be the last year the Cubs won a World Series, where they beat the Detroit Tigers in five games.
Wilson currently resides in Sunapee, N.H. and watched her team’s incredible journey with her 80-year-old son, Bob. Despite living in the Eastern Time Zone when Game 7 ended at almost one in the morning, the Wilsons stayed awake to see the greatest triumph they so desperately wanted to witness during their lifetime.
Always wanting a title to remember, Wilson was hoping that first baseman Anthony Rizzo and Bryant could grant her wish. She put on the rally cap during the thrilling, decisive Game 7, showing excitement and despair at every twist and turn.
Through the first batter of the game with a leadoff home run by center fielder Dexter Fowler, to the bottom of the eighth inning where it appeared that Chicago had a comfortable three-run lead, it came down to the wire. Closer Aroldis Chapman blew the save, surrendering three runs to allow the Cleveland Indians to tie the game. It most certainly didn’t sit well with Cubs fans, especially Wilson.
Then the ninth inning came, where the Cubs couldn’t tack one on and Chapman came back out in a 6-6 game to try to send the game to extras. He did just that with a perfect bottom half of the inning and the game only got crazier as the tarp came out, marking the start of a rain delay.
Fortunately, Wilson only had to sit through 17 more minutes of anxiety and witnessed her Cubs score two runs in the top of the tenth. The Indians got one back when it was their chance to hit, but an 8-7 victory for Chicago ended up being enough to secure their first championship in 108 years.
It couldn’t have ended any better for Wilson, who celebrated like any other die-hard Cubs fan, spraying champagne all over the place. This is a win she’ll forever remember and it was about time that the Cubs won.
Ironically, this World Series title came 108 years after the last one, with a 108-year-old fan celebrating it and winning it in the game of baseball, which has 108 red stitches on it.
In a world of conspiracies, this couldn’t be truer for the Cubs. They have ended the longest drought without winning a championship in professional sports and they’ve proven that despite having to wait this long, there’s still a chance it will happen someday.
Wilson will never forget this spectacular night and it’s a relief that she was finally able to see the Cubs, the loveable losers, get a World Series win. Forever enshrined in baseball lore, this will be one the greatest accomplishments by any team in history, as it tops the Red Sox drought of 86 years.
Next year could have some new possibilities, as the Cubs could be making another postseason run with a chance at back-to-back titles. That could be against the Red Sox, who fell short in Big Papi’s last season, but only time will tell what will happen.
