The Cubs were one game from the World Series before it all fell apart, suddenly and shockingly. After going down with a torn ACL in the third game of the season after an outfield collision with Fowler, he spent the entire season rehabbing and hoping he could make it back for the end. The Schwarber comeback was so unbelievable, so corny, even Disney wouldn't have dared touch it. He was the final piece to the puzzle Epstein had been working on for five years, and the move signaled the Cubs were going for broke. Did they sell their souls in pursuit of a championship? Three months and hundreds of triple-digit fastballs later, few were debating the move.Įpstein said the Cubs had done their homework and Chapman would not be an issue. It was the arrival of the controversial Chapman from the Yankees in July that sent Chicago into a tizzy.
It was one thing after another, and you loved every second. Aroldis Chapman's marathon outing to save the season in Game 5 of the Series at Wrigley. David Ross' final regular-season game at Wrigley. Kris Bryant's home run off the top of a cartoon car at AT&T Park. Javier Baez's backhand swipe to pick off Conor Gillaspie at first in the National League Division Series. Anthony Rizzo hopping on top of the brick wall. Dexter Fowler's surprise return in Arizona. The moments were so delicious you could watch them on an endless loop.
These Cubs worked together and partied together, and some of them prayed together. It was that much fun, from Kyle Schwarber's smashing of a windshield outside the outfield wall with a spring training home run to Wednesday night. The funny thing about waiting 107 years for a championship was that when it finally happened, you didn't want the season to end. It took him five seasons, three managers and dozens of moves to get the job done, but he did it. "More than anything else, that feeling influenced my decision to come to Chicago, because that was the one place in the world where you could experience something that meaningful again and play a small part in contributing to something that meaningful."Įpstein arrived in Chicago in the fall of 2011 with the gargantuan task of rebuilding an organization that had tried everything imaginable. "That really resonated," he said last year. Epstein, then the Red Sox's general manager, said fans have thanked him almost every day since 2004 for "what it meant to their family" and those who didn't live long enough to see it happen.