108 years is a long time. It's a long enough strech for four generations of my family to be born, the current major North American professional sports leauges to be developed, and for four states to be added to the US. At the start of last week I could only imagine what would happen if the Cubs won the World Series, now I know.
Going into Sunday's night game Cleveland lead the series 3-1, I had never been so nervous for a Game 5. If the Cubs won, they moved on, but if they lost the dream was over. I watched nervously after Saturday's 2-7 loss, not wanting to get my hopes up. When they won I was ecstatic! As usual the window of my dorm was cracked opened, the chours of "Go Cubs Go!" floated into my room. But then I realized that Game 6 was on Tuesday, the only night I have class.
Tuesday night rolled around. Walking to my 7 o'clock class and knowing that the Cubs would be starting in 30 minutes killed me. The entire time the guest speaker leactured I wondered the score. Around an hour into class my dad starting texting me inning updates, "Top 4th 7-0 CUBS!" my Fitbit read. I got out of class at the bottom of the 6th and ran to my friend's room to watch the game. When the Cubs won we hopped around her room, screaming at the top of our lungs "Go Cubs Go", I'm surprised we didn't get written up for a noise disruption.
The next night my friends and I decided to go down to Wrigleyville. The roads were completley empty driving down, everyone was either inside watching the game or already at Wrigley. After we parked by the L we took one crowded trip to the Belmont station, as the Addison stop was closed. The train was packed with Cubs fans, the sea of blue spilled out of the train cars and down the stairs to the street. The blocks around Wrigley had been blocked off, with police barricades and snow plows, allowing for my group to wander down the middle of the streets until we met the crowds. When we settled into our spot outside Wrigley Field, it was the top of the 7th. I've never been in an atmosphere like that, the crowd was buzzing in excitment. People were hanging off of the light posts and chanting. It was chaocs. When the game became tied I was anxious that if we lost that we moved after the rain delay was called and watched the end of the game from outside a bar a block down. When the last out was called the city screamed. Everyone celebrated: champage was popped, fireworks went off, the police smiled, W flags flew.
The next day on campus you could still feel the excitement. Everyone was still wearing their Cubs gear, tired smiles on every face and many smelling like a mixture of champage and cigarettes. My choir sang "Go Cubs Go" as a round, my second class got cancelled because the movie we were supposed to watch wouldn't work and "the Cubs won", my third class designated its first 15 minutes to talking about the night before.
I don't think anyone went to class Friday. The entire population of Chicagoland and even beyond went down into the city that morning. They estimate that 5 million people made the pilgramage to Grant Park, I think they're right.
