“I’m honestly giddy with excitement,” said Zack Wade, senior catcher for DePauw University’s baseball team. “This has never happened before and I just hope they can close out the game.”
Wade’s dream and the dream of hundreds of DePauw students came true as Kris Bryant fielded the final out to first baseman Anthony Rizzo. “It was surreal and almost hard to believe,” said Jeff Collins, a senior Chicago Cubs fan and Chicago native. “I needed to make sure that the play had actually happened before I could celebrate. Right after that I called my dad and the only thing I could say was ‘this is ridiculous’.”
The Fluttering Duck was almost at capacity as students gathered to experience the ups and downs of the contest. Cubs fans applauded the first at-bat when Dexter Fowler hit a home run to debut the game and they bit their nails with anxiety when Rajai Davis tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Finally, the chorus of “Go Cubs Go” echoed throughout the establishment as DePauw students, Cubs fans, and Chicagoans celebrated history.
The Cubs stood out the entire season as one of the best teams in baseball and, from the very beginning, made their case that they were striving to be the best in the Major League. The Cubs were the fifth team in the history of baseball to begin the season 24-6 through their first 30 games and the other four teams went on to be World Series champions.
Collins felt comfortable throughout the season even as the end of the century long curse was near. “They were the best team in baseball for most of the year, and the roster moves they made around the trading deadline, and even before the season started, all pointed that this was the year they were playing to win,” Collins said.
Senior and Chicago native, Julie Block, whose Cubs fanaticism took the form of a creatively worded “get out of class” email to her professor, Harry Brown, could not have been more excited for the victory. The email, which was featured on NBC Chicago, compared her fandom to civic duty and religious devotion.
Block spent most of the week in Wrigleyville with her Cubs obsessed family. “My family has been filled with Cubs fans for as many generations as the Cubs have been in existence,” Block said. “Seeing the Cubs win it all not only made those of us who saw it proud of our identities as Chicagoans and as Cubs fans, but proud on behalf of our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents who never got to witness a moment like this.
For Cubs fans, this historical moment marked the beginning of a potentially winning era for the Cubs. With a young roster and the highest payroll in the MLB, the Cubs are poised to continue to succeed.
For now, Block and Chicago fans are relishing in the euphoria of the win. “The way that the city rallied around the Cubs not just in this series, and not just this season, but for the entirety of the franchise's history, shows how the Cubs are more than just a team to the city of Chicago,” Block said.