Would Pakistan, like the Chicago Cubs, wait 108 years for a win?
A 108-year-old woman had been waiting with a lucky bear her whole, long life to see the Cubbies lift the trophy.
A dream 108 frikkin long years in the making. A yearning held by millions across numerous generations for 1,296 lengthy months. A craving that hundred thousand others never got to satiate because they perished during the intervening 39,420 days.
After the longest win-less championship drought in major league baseball history, Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 at Progressive Field in Cleveland to end a 108-year wait for a title and in doing so banished the ‘billy goat curse’ once and for all.
In 1945, the last time the Cubs contested a World Series, a local bar owner, Billy Sianis, and his pet goat were allegedly removed from their home park, Wrigley Field, because of the animal’s foul smell.
“Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more,” a fumingly livid Sianis supposedly declared, giving birth to the curse of the billy goat.
Chicago Cubs lost the ‘45 Series and went more than a 100 heart breaking years without glory before finally claiming the MLB world series title in a dramatic finale on Wednesday night.
Loveable losers for generations, the Chicago cubs last won this title in 1908, which was even before my granddad was born. Way before Pakistan even existed. Since that time both, World War 1 And World War 2, have been fought. TV and radio got invented and The New York Yankees won the same title for a record 27 times.
But at 00:48 in Cleveland, Ohio, when the ball landed in Anthony Rizzo’s glove, the World Series was over. The Cubs had played seven exhilarating games against the Cleveland Indians – who last won a championship in 1948 – to emerge victorious. Their combined droughts spanned 176 years, but there could only be one winner. And Chicago’s beloved Cubbies were the fortunate ones.
‘Any team can have a bad century’.
That’s how the late, great Chicago Cubs announcer, Jack Brickhouse, used to talk about the Chicago Cubs. But, after battling back from a three-one series deficit, the Cubs are now officially the toast of the town. And there are a lot of stories to be told.
Like the grandfather who is being filmed while cracking open a 32-year-old can of beer he’d been saving in his fridge until his team won the World Series.
Or the 108-year-old woman who has been waiting with the lucky bear her whole long life to see the Cubbies lift the trophy.
It was not just the ordinary people celebrating the triumph, the celebrities also jumped on the band wagon.
US President Barack Obama, and the first lady (who claims to be a Cubs fan) also got in on the act.
It happened: @Cubs win World Series. That's change even this South Sider can believe in. Want to come to the White House before I leave?
— President Obama (@POTUS44) November 3, 2016
Go @Cubs, go! Been rooting for you since I was a kid, and so incredibly proud tonight. #FlytheW -mo
— First Lady- Archived (@FLOTUS44) November 3, 2016
Even Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was able to cheer her hometown Chicago Cubs on an aide’s iPad during the final moments of the match after finishing a rally in Arizona on Wednesday night.
https://twitter.com/VoteHillary2016/status/794049620007526400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Contrast this wait of 108 years with sports fans of other teams and it makes you wonder what if, let’s say, the Pakistan cricket team had to go through something similar.
No major cricketing trophy for 108 years?! In this culture where conspiracy theorists and glory supporters would pull out their proverbial knives if we go 108 days without winning something important, a whole century is simply too long a period for our nation’s patience quotient.
But having said that, we would all really appreciate if the green caps can somehow beat the boys in blue at least once in a world cup match before the current century ends!
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