Commentary

This 'W' flaps for generations of Cubs

Chicago Cubs Fans celebrate after Game 6 of the National League baseball championship series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Chicago. The Cubs won 5-0 to win the series and advance to the World Series against the Cleveland Indians.
Chicago Cubs Fans celebrate after Game 6 of the National League baseball championship series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Chicago. The Cubs won 5-0 to win the series and advance to the World Series against the Cleveland Indians.

CHICAGO -- Just about anyone old enough to actually remember the last time the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series would be at least 71 and know enough to stay home instead of parking themsevles in the middle of the pandemonium that engulfed Wrigley Field late Saturday.

But Billy Williams, 78, a Hall of Famer and Cubs' mainstay through the 1960s and 1970s, was in the middle of the chaos.

This was a moment that Williams, who played 1,117 consecutive games between 1963 and 1970 as a member of the Cubs, had to see for himself.

"I think about the guys I played with who never got to see this," Williams said. "Especially Ernie Banks and [Ron] Santo. Man, we tried so hard for so many years and now they're gone. ... And I can't tell you how long these fans stuck with us or how many times I heard stuff like, 'This is the year.'

"But this," he said with a sweep of his arm toward the still-rocking grandstand, "is finally the year."

As Williams spoke, a white flag with a single blue "W" fluttered in the night sky atop the huge, manually operated scoreboard in center field -- a tradition begun in the 1930s so that riders on the nearby elevated train line would know when the Cubs won -- and their fans basked in its possibilities.

The "W" flag has grown into a rallying cry for a legion of fans that have checked their sanity at the turnstiles for seven decades, putting up with nonstop talk of being cursed by a goat (1945), crossed by a black cat (1969) and undone by one of the own (fan Steve Bartman in 2003).

The Cubs erased all those thoughts with their 5-0 victory over superstar pitcher Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday to win the best-of-7 National League Championship Series 4-2, and to hear Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts describe, the Cubs' victory was no fluke.

"They really have no weaknesses," Roberts said of the Cubs, who won 103 games in the regular season and are 7-3 in the postseason. "They've got youth, veteran starting pitching ... they catch the baseball, they can slug, they get on base, and they're relentless. That's a very good club over there."

You couldn't have said that just seven years ago, when owner Tom Ricketts handed ovefr $875 million of the family's fortune to buy the ballclub and that faith was tested mightily. Ricketts fell in love with the Cubs soon after moving to the city as an 18-year-old to attend the University of Chicago. The Cubs went 83-78 in Ricketts' first year as owner, then posted five losing seasons in a row.

In 2011, he shelled out good money to hire Red Sox boy wonder Theo Epstein to rebuild the roster as president of baseball operations; the next year, the Cubs lost 101 games. But with Epstein pulling the strings, they also began collecting youngsters like Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell and Kris Bryant, occasionally mixing in high-priced veteran pitchers like Jon Lester and John Lackey and turning around Jake Arrieta's career.

In 2015, Ricketts shelled out good money again to hire Manager Joe Maddon; last season, they were swept by the Mets in the NLCS. The cornerstone of Maddon's baseball philosophy is focus on the short term; try to win each at-bat, each inning, each game. He pulls stunts to make it fun -- bringing in zoo animals, wearing pajamas on the flight home from road trips and breaking up the monotony of a long season.

But even he struggled on this night not to look back at Cubs history.

"You stand out on that platform afterwards and you're looking at the ballpark and the fans and the W flags everywhere, and truthfully you think about everybody," Maddon said. "I think about the fans and their parents and their grandparents and great-grandparents and everything that's been going on here for a while. ... It's overwhelming ... and it's awesome."

Ricketts was asked what it would feel like to see that W flag fly at the end of the World Series, Ricketts admitted he already had his eye on a souvenir. It was likely to be more painful than expensive.

"I may make the 'W' a tattoo," he said.

He won't be alone.

Sports on 10/24/2016

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