The Cubs Win The World Series

Yes, I know. Today is supposed to be NFL Mythical Picks Day. I’ll get right on that… This will be brief.

Last night, the Cubs won the World Series in a fantastic Game 7. I said yesterday that anyone who represented himself/herself as a baseball fan had to watch that game. Well, it certainly did not disappoint. Even the losing manager, Terry Francona, said that it was a great game and that it was a privilege for him to have participated in it. There were few if any “missing elements”.

We can now put aside all notions and mentions of billy goats and Steve Bartman. It is time to turn the page because – as the FOX announcing team told us more than a few times during the Series – the Cubs are built to be a really good baseball team for now and for the next several years. [Aside: Do not think that the Indians are going to dry up and blow away; they too have a solid corps of young talent.]

Focusing specifically on the winning Cubs for a moment:

    Kyle Schwarber: I think you could wake him up at 4:00AM after he had spent a night on the town, put a bat in his hand and a pitcher on a mound and he would hit line drives all over the place. If anyone were to suggest that Spring Training might be shortened, he would be the poster child for not needing a lot of time to “get his stroke”. He is 23 years old.

    Javier Baez: He is a magician in the field. When/if he learns to hit the ball where it is pitched and to lay off pitches that are at eye level, he will be the best second baseman in baseball. He is 23 years old.

    Addison Russell: He is already an excellent defensive shortstop and is developing as a hitter; he has a long future ahead of him. The Cubs got him from the A’s in a trade for Jeff Samardzjk. He is a youngster; he is only 22 years old.

    Wilson Contreras: He is the Cubs’ catcher-of-the-future and a pretty fine player in the present. He is 24 years old.

    Anthony Rizzo: He is solid in the field and at the plate. He is an elder statesman at age 27.

I left Kris Bryant off that list purposely because I think he belongs in a category of his own. There are a bunch of young players in MLB who have shown the makings of stardom in their brief time in the big leagues. If I focus on the guys who are 25 and below, the following names come to mind – without scanning every MLB roster to make sure I get everyone. There are the four Cubs’ youngsters noted above and then, in alphabetical order:

    Nolan Arenado
    Mookie Betts
    Xander Bogaerts
    Kris Bryant
    Bryce Harper
    Francisco Lindor
    Manny Machado
    Corey Seager
    Giancarlo Stanton
    Mike Trout

Those are 10 outstanding young players and there are the four Cubs listed above. Every team in MLB would be happy to have any/all of them on the roster. Having said that, I believe that two of this list of excellent players stand out from the crowd:

    Mike Trout and Kris Bryant

I think they are both destined to more than stardom; they are destined for greatness.

Congratulations to the Cubs and to the Indians. Thank you to both teams for great runs in the playoffs, for a great 7-game series and for a 7th game that was as good as the famous one in the 60s when Bill Mazeroski hit the walk-off grand slam to end it all.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

2 thoughts on “The Cubs Win The World Series”

  1. Since a curse had to be listed, there had to be drama and also something unusual. This was the first time in over 30 years that a team came back from being down 3 games to 1, and only the second time at all that it was done on the road (’79 Pirates were the other). For conspiracy theorists it is also how the Cavs won the world title in June, winning 2 of the last three on the road, so…. does this mean there is only so much magic in Cleveland, or does this mean that 3-1 series leads aren’t safe? Cleveland doesn’t have a team in the NHL so the first part cannot be tested (the Browns? Nope).

    Maybe I missed something, but why was Crisp out in a game that still needed offense? It made Martinez’s first AB in the World Series the last out, which I hope doesn’t work on his mental health too much over the years.

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