Baseball. America's favorite pastime. If you've been watching any news or sports channel in the past couple days, you will know two things: the Chicago Cubs just won the World Series for the first time since 1908 and Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant play each other for the first time since Kevin left Oklahoma City for Golden State. The former being more historic news.
Now, I will be honest with you. I am not much of a baseball fan. I only pay attention during the playoffs and only really watch the World Series. As a sports fan and being from Oklahoma, I somewhat follow the Rangers but that is my extent of caring about baseball. Until this year. This year, or more this postseason, I became a Cubs fan.
Before you start calling me a bandwagon fan, I want you to know a few things about me. First, I did not order a single piece of Cubs gear because I am not a baseball fan. Secondly, you won't catch me rooting for the Cubs next season because I am not a baseball fan. Lastly, after watching the playoffs and World Series I can still probably only name 1 or 2 of the Cubs' players because I am not a baseball fan.
I rooted for the Chicago Cubs because, over the last few years, they became more than just a baseball team. I rooted for the Cubs because they were the team everyone joked about winning the World Series growing up. All over social media and movies and shows we saw people making predictions of what year the Cubs would actually win the World Series. And I cannot decide if those people were making a joke or truly believed. The Cubs were the underdogs. Always had been. As a result, they became not only the team we wanted to win, but the team we needed to win.
The Cubs gave us hope. In a world full of insanity, Chicago brought us back to reality. They showed us that even during the darkest of days, we will make it back to the light, even if it takes 39,466 days. But who's counting? They showed us that tough times only make us stronger. They taught us to never back down, to never give up, to always get back on our feet and keep pushing forward. Whether or not people want to admit it, the Chicago Cubs united us.
When the series went 3 games to 1 in favor of the Cleveland Indians and heading back to Cleveland for the final two games in a best-of-7 format (games 6 and 7 being if necessary), many people thought the possibility of ending the dreaded "curse" was over. But fear not, the Cubs had a better plan. Clawing their way through each and every stumble, the Chicago Cubs prevailed victoriously. We not only witnessed them breaking the "curse" and a 108-year-old drought, but we also got to witness only the sixth time in MLB history a team as come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the World Series. To me, and what should be to any other true sports fan, that is pretty remarkable. The Cubs seemingly accomplished the impossible.
So as we move out of baseball season and into the final moments of 2016, don't forget how the Chicago Cubs made you feel, even if it was only for one night. Because in the end, their journey to success will be unforgettable. And that is how the Chicago Cubs became America's team.
