America Needed that World Series
America owes a debt of gratitude to Major League Baseball. On Wednesday, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years in dramatic fashion – an extra innings slugfest with the Cleveland Indians. Game 7 was one of the most exciting and most watched baseball games in decades, with more than 40 million viewers tuning in for the epic Game 7.
It was just what we needed.
In the midst of the most bitterly divisive political season this century, and probably the most bitterly divisive since 1860, having a moment where the entire country was together, watching the same thing, reveling in a uniquely American outcome, was a much-needed change of pace. Even if it was just for a few hours, America was able to take its mind off politics, Hillary’s emails, Trump’s narcissism, and the impending election. And we were able to do it by coming together around our national pastime.
Baseball is too slow, the critics say. The games are too long. It’s boring. Nobody is breaking records anymore. 162 games in one season? Who has time to watch that many games? In an era of instant gratification and binge television, baseball is a throwback to the old days. And, as it often has, baseball has ignored the critics and continued to deliver what it has promised for a hundred and forty years – diversion from the slings and arrows of our daily lives.
Now, more than ever before, America needed something to tie us together. Something for everybody to root for and get behind. Something that’s not so bitterly divisive, and that’s what this World Series delivered.
It wasn’t the Yankees, this time. It wasn’t the Royals or the Giants, or some other team that people are used to seeing dominate over the past few years. On one side, you had plucky Cleveland, a mid-western rust belt city that’s gotten more national attention this year than it has in decades. They hadn’t won a Series since 1948. But on the power of their pitching and clutch hitting, they were able to put away just about everybody who faced them. On the other side, you have one of the oldest and most storied franchises in baseball. The Chicago Cubs have been the underdog for over half a century now, since the heady days of the dawning 20th century, when Chicago and New York fought for dominance, and the Cubs won four pennants in five years and two back-to-back World Series wins.
Since that last 1908 Series, though, America has marched on and the Cubs have stayed mired in the past. They play in the oldest stadium in the National League – a stadium which, up until 1988, didn’t even have lighting for night games. Since the last time the Cubs won the Series, sliced bread was invented, the United States fought two world wars, added four states to the flag, women won the vote, and this election hadn’t even started yet (I know that’s hard to believe).
Watching two teams finally break decades and centuries old droughts was sure to bring attention. And then the series itself saw some of the best baseball in years. The Indians pitched two shut out games going up 3-1 before the Cubs won 3 in a row to take the Series. The final game saw Cleveland come from a 5-1 deficit to tie the game in the 8th inning and send it to extra innings. A rain delay added a half hour to the game time, and the Cubs put together two run 10th inning to go up, while Cleveland brought back the drama by bringing the game to within one run, with the go-ahead runs on base with two outs.
When it comes to drama, it doesn’t get any better than that.
The best part, however, came afterwards. The game was over, the Cubs broke the curse that has plagued them ever since the last time Tinkers, Evers and Chance turned a double play to win a World Series game, and Chicago fans were ecstatic. At the same time, so were Cleveland fans. Rather than be angry at losing, blaming the umpires for their inconsistent strike zones (which was one blot on an otherwise great Series), and complaining about the play-by-play which clearly favored the Cubs, they acknowledged how big a deal it was for Chicago to win the Series and they accept their defeat with the kind of aplomb that you can only find in a mid-western city.
Cleveland fans were some of the most gracious losers we’ve seen in a long time. Despite coming so close to their dream – and seeing Cleveland win its second national sports championship of the year – they accepted their defeat and congratulated the winner. It’s the kind of behavior most of us pray we see next Tuesday, but don’t really expect to.
America needed a break from this campaign, and baseball gave it to us. At a time when NFL ratings are dropping, partly because of politics being injected into the sport, baseball has done what it has done consistently for over 125 years – it brought America together around something that unites us. It displayed all of the old-fashioned values ingrained in our DNA – perseverance, optimism, a never-say-die attitude no matter how inevitable defeat appears, good-sportsmanship in victory and graciousness in defeat. It proved, once again, that no curse is forever, and that eventually, things will turn around for even the most hapless of the hapless.
What it also did was remind those of us who feel like this campaign is never going to end, that everything finally ends. Even if it goes into extra innings, there are no ties in baseball. Somebody will be the victor and the game will end. That’s a message we all need to remember this election season – that it will end, eventually.
As it so often has in our national life, when we needed baseball, it came through in the clutch.
Thank you, baseball.
