For generations of Cubs fans, a World Series title felt less like a possibility and more like a myth. The franchise’s championship drought stretched back to 1908, a gap so long it outlasted the invention of the television, two World Wars, and the entire lifespans of most fans who followed the team. In 2016, under manager Joe Maddon, a young core built around Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Addison Russell, bolstered by veteran additions like Jon Lester and Ben Zobrist, finally gave the North Side a team capable of ending the wait.
The Cubs won 103 games in the regular season, the best record in baseball, then survived a tense National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers before facing the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. After dropping three of the first four games and falling behind 3-1, Chicago looked headed for yet another heartbreak. Instead, the Cubs won Games 5 and 6 to force a decisive Game 7 at Cleveland’s Progressive Field on November 2, 2016.
Game 7 delivered every possible twist. Chicago built an early 5-1 lead, Cleveland clawed back to tie it, and the Cubs regained the advantage before the Indians tied the score again at 6-6 in the eighth inning on a two-run homer by Rajai Davis, silencing the Cubs’ dugout and millions of nervous fans back home. As the game headed to extra innings, a brief rain delay hit the stadium. During that pause, outfielder Jason Heyward gathered his teammates in a weight room and delivered an impromptu speech urging them to refocus, a moment players later credited with steadying the team. When play resumed, the Cubs scored twice in the top of the tenth, and although Cleveland answered with one run in the bottom half, third baseman Kris Bryant fielded the final ground ball and threw across to Anthony Rizzo at first base to secure an 8-7 victory and the championship.
Zobrist, who delivered a go-ahead double in the tenth inning, was named World Series MVP. The win made the Cubs the first team since 1979 to overcome a 3-1 deficit and win a World Series, and it finally retired the “Curse of the Billy Goat,” the long-running superstition blamed for the franchise’s misfortune since 1945. Back in Chicago, an estimated five million people turned out for the championship parade and rally in Grant Park, one of the largest gatherings in United States history.
For a fan base that had watched the team fall short in agonizing fashion for over a century, including the infamous 2003 NLCS collapse, the 2016 title was more than a trophy. It was a generational release, a moment that finally allowed Wrigley Field’s faithful to stop asking “next year” and simply celebrate the year that had finally arrived.
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