Yes it’s true, the World Series does not have the same mystique and allure as the Fall Classics in the past. It gets fewer ratings than a primetime NFL and NBA game and even the NFL draft. There are several reasons why this is: the delusion of the game's sentimentalism with the scandals in steroids and PEDs over the past decade, the decrease in offensive power, and social media and technology having people today not have the patience or attention to follow a long game like baseball. This month however, is the best time for the summer sport in October. For anyone who has watch the game there are chills that come to mind when looking back to the drama and intensity of the playoffs and World Series. Even though it is not as big of a drawing card as it was, baseball in October today still brings thrills, excitement, and devastation for fans of the losing side.
And the 2016 World Series is quite possibly the most electric in a decade between the two teams whose fan bases have wait the longest for a championship. The National League representative is the Chicago Cubs, a team that has the longest championship drought in all of professional sports with 108 years of waiting. That’s no typo, the Cubbies and their fan base believe psychologically that they are cursed and blame it on a man who declared “The Cubs aint gonna win no more!” because they wouldn’t let his pet goat in the stadium. Chicago fans who have embraced the image of being “Lovable Losers” for over a century of losing would throw a parade for this team already for being in the World Series for the first time since the year World War II ended and avoided a playoff collapse that occurred in 2003 in which fans blamed random fan interfered on a catchable foul ball for their team choking. But what was it that made this team shake off this’s teams mountain of past failures? The cool and confident leadership of baseball’s most well-known curse doctor: Theo Epstein. Epstein was the bold general manager who orchestrated the end of the Boston Red Sox’s Curse of the Bambino in 2004, which was their first title in 86 years. Epstein wasn’t even thirty years old yet and he already performed voo-doo magic to break the most notorious curse in sports next to the Curse of the Billy Goat. With the Cubs he brought in a veteran and greatly talented manager in Joe Maddon and built a team of young superstars on the rise like Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo and veterans like Jon Lester and Jake Arietta. The ingredients are all there, but now Chicago has to get past the manager who helped Epstein break the Curse of the Bambino.
Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona goes hand in hand with Epstein as the Curse Doctor who broke the Red Sox’s curse. In his first season as Boston’s manager he orchestrated arguably the most remarkable comeback in sports history when the Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series against the franchise who are the opposite of cursed in the New York Yankees. They would go onto win the 2004 World Series and another in 2007 before Francona left to become manager of the Cleveland Indians. After Boston won the title in 2004 and the Chicago White Sox won their first championship in 88 years the Cleveland Indians became the American League’s snake bitten franchise. Not only were the Indians cursed, but all Cleveland teams were poisoned beyond belief. Only a couple words bring can bring up excruciatingly painful sports memories: The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Move, The Decision. The Indians were also victims of the Cleveland Curse when the team resurfaced in the 1990s after decades of losing. The 1995 Indians are considered as one of the most loaded and talented teams ever, as they managed to win 100 games in a shortened season and make it to the World Series. They would however, lose to the Atlanta Braves in the Fall Classic but managed to get back two years later. This time it was against the Florida Marlins who were in only their fifth year of existence and in Game 7 they had the lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. Unfortunately closer Jose Mesa blew the same and Cleveland lost in eleven innings, they have not returned to the World Series since and blew a 3-1 ALCS lead to a Red Sox team…managed by Terry Francona.
This year however things have turned around dramatically for the tribe as unknown talents like as Corey Kluber, Mike Napoli and Francisco Lindor have gotten red hot and cruised through the American League and back to the Fall Classic. A certain athlete who plays for a another Cleveland team might have played a part in storing some confidence and swagger, and LeBron James and the Cavaliers lifted the burden of Cleveland’s Curse by winning the NBA Championship in remarkable fashion and the city’s first title in 52 years. If the Indians win the World Series, then Cleveland in a single year would go from the most depressing city to be a sports fan to the city of champions.
So for a game that has victimized teams with over a century’s worth of superstition and paranoia how is it that the two teams with the worst luck managed to make it all the way to the finals? Because in some aspects the mystique and lore of the game has disappeared over the last decade. Instead of living in the old times where the key to success were mental preparations that represented obsessive compulsive disorder and allowing Friday the 13th bad luck to affect a team with somehow the New York Yankees still winning every year, baseball today is down to earth. Teams and built and games are won through analytics, mathematics and technology. The Moneyball era has been in full swing for a while and now the Yankees win only once a decade. So the Curse Doctors Epstein and Francona look to display their latest work of medicine in a World Series that will still have fewer viewers than the NFL Draft’s first round. Regardless however of who wins, it shows that baseball has reached a new age and an entire fan base and city will rejoice for it in tears, laughter, and ecstasy.
