There is something to be said about watching sport history unfold before your very eyes. Sometimes you know it’s happening and other times you know it was special but would it be historic?
I remember watching Hank Aaron knock one over the fence for #715 and I knew he had just set the record for MLB home runs. Wayne Gretzky scoring five goals against the Flyers to record 50 goals in 39 games was amazing and historic. The Paul Henderson goal against the Russians in ’72 was a huge Canadian moment which has a life of its own.
The most recent slice of history served up was the World Series win by those loveable losers no more, the Chicago Cubs.
After 108 years of waiting and wanting, Cubs fans got off the snide and put a championship in the bank.
It was an historic moment for the franchise and the city of course. There isn’t a baseball fan around who has ever heard the phrase ‘ the Chicago Cubs are now World Series champions’ unless you count the actors in the Back to the Future movie where it comes true in the year 2015.
In fact, there isn’t a person on this planet now who ever heard those words, baseball fan or not.
The great part about history is how so many of those significant moments are anything but bland in the way they play out and this series win for the Cubs was no exception.
Trailing in the series 3-1, coming back to win three straight, having a pair of three run leads evaporate, going into extra innings and then having a rain delay before putting it away by the slimmest of margins is even past what the script writers in Hollywood could have dreamed up.
Real life can be quirky that way.
Blowing two leads and the hammering of mega arm Aroldis Chapman was enough to deflate any team but the Cubs youngsters were immune to that type of pressure.
These kids seemed oblivious to the albatross hanging around the neck of this franchise. They just played baseball very well and you have to think there is more this group than a one trick pony. Cub fans are giddy with what fortunes the future might hold.
It can only be brighter than the past which saw radio and television invented before the seal was broken for Chicago.
Lost in all the celebration in the Windy City was the role in baseball history Cleveland played.
The Indians are now 49 years without a title and this one might hurt a little more than the 1997 loss to Florida which went seven games and ended in an 11 inning win for the Marlins.
But Cleveland can take some solace in how they battled through injuries to key players and still came within a run of erasing some history of their own.
But the spotlight is on Chicago and they can enjoy this one until next February when they start working on defending their place in the history books.
