From left, the Cubs’ Addison Russell, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant celebrate their team’s 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game 6 of the NLCS on Saturday in Chicago. The win earned the team its first World Series spot since 1945.Jerry Lai
He stood on the grass in shallow left field, bathed in the glow of the lights above Waveland Avenue. Half a century ago, on sunny afternoons at Wrigley Field – only afternoons, back then – he would have swooped in for catches on that very spot. He might have met a smiling Ernie Banks and Ron Santo on his way back to the dugout.
Now, Billy Williams is 78, and Banks and Santo, his Hall of Fame teammates, are gone. He thought about his old friends in the ninth inning Saturday night, the moment Addison Russell scooped up a ground ball to start a double play and send the Chicago Cubs to the World Series with a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"I played with Ronnie a long time ago; we started in Double A together, and Ernie was here," Williams said. "We came up to the big leagues to help Ernie try to win a pennant, and we didn't get a chance to do that. And I thought about them, but they're somewhere celebrating now."
The Cubs raised a toast to their friendly ghosts Saturday night after Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. They banished their others, those mythical miscreants who had tortured them for decades and kept so many proud baseball men from tasting the World Series.
For the first time since 1945, the Cubs are there, matched in Game 1 on Tuesday with a Cleveland Indians franchise that has not won the title since 1948. The Cubs' championship drought is 40 years longer, and winning it all, of course, is the goal. But the players know, deep down, that the other side wants to win just as badly. What they really crave is the chance to compete on the brightest stage. Now, it is here – at last.
"It means more to win here, with Billy Williams on the field, and Santo's family here, and Ryne Sandberg in the stands," said Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president for baseball operations. "That makes it resonate more with us, but no one's weighed down by it. It's not a burden. Everyone in this organization's here to be part of this."
Epstein is now, officially, the ultimate curse-breaker in baseball history. He presided over the 2004 Boston Red Sox, guiding his hometown team to its first championship in 86 years, and then won again soon after. When things went sour in Boston, he came to Chicago, stripped down the roster and built a pennant winner within five years.
Under Epstein, the Cubs traded for some future stars and drafted others. They groomed some existing prospects, such as second baseman Javier Baez and catcher Willson Contreras, and acted boldly in free agency. The Cubs committed $155-million (U.S.) in a contract for pitcher Jon Lester, who shared the NLCS' Most Valuable Player award with Baez and came to Chicago because Epstein believed in the Cubs' future.
"He spoke so highly of these guys, and I've known Theo for a long time, and I knew whatever he said was the truth," said Lester, once Boston's ace. "We've all seen uberprospects that don't make it. But never once did that cross my mind about these guys. The way Theo talked about them, the way he went about his business – I know Theo; I know what he means; I know what he stands for. I'm just happy he picked me to be a part of this."
Lester is one of this generation's October stalwarts – a cancer survivor, no less, and a perfect leader for a team that needed mental toughness, as well as physical skills, to upend the kind of history that shrouded the Cubs.
"They know the history," said Jed Hoyer, the Cubs' general manager. "I just don't think they care."
Owner Tom Ricketts, who met his wife in the Wrigley Field bleachers, said his young daughter cried tears of joy after the final double play. She was not yet born when the Cubs kicked away pennants in 1984 and 2003. This is a new time and a new team. Even the older fans could sense it.
"You know what?" he said. "Walking through the upper deck tonight, high-fiving people – nobody was worried. Everybody was confident. People really believe in this team."
And why not? The Cubs' rotation is so deep that a 15-game winner, Jason Hammel, could not even crack the playoff roster. Beyond Lester are Jake Arrieta, John Lackey and Kyle Hendricks, the National League ERA leader, who easily outpitched Clayton Kershaw in Game 6, allowing just two singles in 7 1/3 shutout innings.
Aroldis Chapman, who throws the hardest fastball ever recorded, is the closer. The offence, led by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, outscored opponents by 252 runs in the regular season. The defence turns more balls into outs than any other team in the past 25 years.
"You saw all the ingredients tonight, things that have made us good when we've played well, which we have for most of the year," Epstein said after Game 6. "Great starting pitching, a terrific approach at the plate, grinding, working counts, using the whole field, excellent defence and then a bullpen coming in to close it out."
He added: "I was glad we played so well in our biggest game of the year. That's really fitting for this type of club. This is our 110th win of the year. It's not an accident. These guys are really good, and I'm proud of them."
Why were these Cubs the team that did it, the one that finally broke through to the World Series? The answer is simple: Because they were the best. At 103-58, the Cubs had their highest winning percentage (.640) in 81 years.
The best team does not always reach the World Series, of course, and the Cubs had to knock out the San Francisco Giants, who have won three titles this decade, and the Dodgers, who have the game's best pitcher in Kershaw. The Cubs did so, in both series, with a game to spare.