After a 17-minute rain delay before the top of the 10th inning, the Cubs scored twice and held on to win 8-7, capturing their first World Series title since 1908. The victory ended one of the longest championship droughts in American sports, tied to the folklore of the 'Curse of the Billy Goat,' and set off jubilant celebrations across Chicago that drew an estimated five million people to a victory parade days later.
The game itself became an instant classic. Cleveland tied the score 6-6 in the eighth inning off Chicago's usually reliable closer Aroldis Chapman, sending the contest to extra innings and threatening to extend the Cubs' misery into a second century. Then the skies opened, and during the rain delay, outfielder Jason Heyward gathered teammates in the weight room for an impromptu speech, reminding them who they were and what they had overcome all season.
The Cubs emerged from that delay transformed, scoring twice in the 10th on hits by Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero. Cleveland clawed back one run in the bottom half, but Mike Montgomery closed out the final outs to spark delirium in Chicago and among Cubs fans worldwide who had waited generations for this moment.
The drought had become mythologized as the 'Curse of the Billy Goat,' supposedly placed on the team in 1945 after a tavern owner and his pet goat were ejected from Wrigley Field. Generations of Cubs fans died without seeing a championship, and the 2016 win was frequently described as a kind of collective exhale for the city, immortalized by fans leaving World Series ticket stubs and Cubs memorabilia on the gravestones of deceased relatives who had waited a lifetime for this moment.
Key people: Joe Maddon, Kris Bryant