Tuesday night’s historic playoff clincher at Wrigley Field set off a World Series-caliber celebration at a ballpark that has seen more sorrow than celebration in the more than 100 years it’s been around.
“It does feel like more than [a World Series win] tonight,” catcher David Ross said. “Maybe more the fans than us. I feel like they’re more nervous than we are and [have] more got anxiety when things go wrong.”
It’s that history of futility that had everyone in the ballpark on edge with the Cubs clinging to a 5-4 lead in the 7th inning—including the players themselves.
“It was tight in the dugout, which it never is,” Ross admitted. “It’s rare that our dugout is tight, to be honest with you. We’re in there cutting up, joking around 90 percent of the time.”
Then, Kyle Schwarber stepped up to the plate in the bottom half of the frame and launched a home run of epic proportions to right field that left everyone who saw it in awe.
“I thought it hit the ‘L’ train,” Ross said. “It may be in the lake out there.”
Schwarber’s mammoth home run brought life back to the crowd and, more importantly, to the players in the dugout, buoying the team to a 6-4 win in Game 4 of the NLDS and touching off a massive celebration in and around Wrigley Field.
Tuesday night’s clinching win meant there’s more October baseball to be played for a team that isn’t used to playing October baseball.
“We don’t know any better,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “We’re just so young and reckless that we’re just having a good time.”
And while Tuesday night was an unforgettable one for those who were there, if the Cubs have their way, this was just the beginning.
“I signed here to win World Series,” said pitcher Jon Lester, who signed a six-year, $155 million contract to join the Cubs this past offseason. “We’ve got a long ways to go. This is part of it. This is the growing process. We still got some tough guys to go through.”
“We’re not there yet,” Cubs owner Tom Ricketts added. “We’ve got two more series to go. The fans have hung with us for these years. We’ve all kind of grown up together, and now they’re delivering on the field and everybody is so bought in.”
So, how far can this unexpected joyride go exactly?
“This is going to be a great run,” Ricketts said. “We’re gonna go all the way.”
Matt Lindner is a RedEye special contributor.
