Plagued by a scandalous ticket scalping scheme in Chicago, the series had the worst attendance record to date for the World Series. After exciting pennant races for both teams, the Cubs won the best of seven competition in five games with little resistance. Little did fans in north Chicago know that the boring 1908 contest would be the last championship that the Cubs would see for over one hundred years.
However, as of Wednesday night, the longest championship drought in American sport is finally over. In perfect symmetry, game seven of the 212th World Series was undoubtedly one of the most exciting in recent memory. Buster Only of ESPN went so far as to call it “the most memorable game in the history of baseball.”
Fans all over the world tuned in to watch slugging and heads-up base running win the day for the Cubs in the tenth inning. Needless to say, Cubs fans were very happy.
Some fans had been waiting an awful long time for such a victory:
my grandpa has been waiting 81 years for this #GoCubbies pic.twitter.com/K5GIl4TpZr
— clare (@_claremoser) November 3, 2016
@Cubs My 86 year old grandmother had been waiting a long time! The wait is over! CUBS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!! #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/Oy1YJrbki8
— Jeffrey Miley (@JeffroMilo85) November 3, 2016
71 yrs ago my grandfather sat in Wrigley Field watching the @Cubs in the 1945 #WorldSeries tonight at 93 he witnessed his team #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/5BbqpgF3ef
— Kacie Long (@kacielong) November 3, 2016
Many people on social media made reference to the scene from the movie Back to the Future II, that predicted the Cubs winning a World Series in the early twenty-first century — though they did miss the year by twelve months:
The space-time continuum was disrupted by the 1994 baseball strike, causing this alternate reality where the @Cubs win in 2016, not 2015. pic.twitter.com/cvlftTtWfT
— Back to the Future™ (@BacktotheFuture) November 3, 2016
The celebrations of semi-official mascot and Chicago native Bill Murray were also all over the Internet:
We are all Bill Murray tonight. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/xzslwVbWVE
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 3, 2016
Theo Epstein the President of the Cubs even showered Murray in champagne:
THIS IS AMAZING. Bill Murray interviews & celebrates with @Cubs' President Theo Epstein. #WorldSeries November 3, 2016
Even President Obama, a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan joined in the joy:
It happened: @Cubs win World Series. That's change even this South Sider can believe in. Want to come to the White House before I leave?
— President Obama (@POTUS) November 3, 2016
Whether you’re a Cubs fan or not, there’s no denying the joy that took over the Internet following the 2016 Chicago victory.
