Cubs win, but how?
Maybe Ellen's voodoo curse did the trick. Or maybe my leaving Atlanta stripped the city of its baseball je ne sais quoi. I imagine everyone who's ever liked Chicago and disliked Atlanta wants a piece of the sweet toppling pie.
In my neighborhood there, an old metal sign hung by one of the stoplights: "ATLANTA STADIUM PARKING." That sign was old school. An Atlanta Stadium last existed in the city in 1976, before becoming Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and finally imploding by timed detonation in August 1997. Satisfying the old metal sign's prediction, the grounds of Atlanta Stadium became parking for corporate-retro Turner Field.
So I wonder if driving past that sign early in the morning and kissing the city goodbye had anything to do with last night's game. Long-awaited emotional release and all that. Because like everyone else rooting for the Cubs, I was sitting in front of the television and wondering what God would do to stop the Cubs from winning.
No reason to get biblical, you say? We're talking baseball here. Consider the numbers. It's been 95 years since the Cubs last World Series title, but a baseball year is much shorter than a regular year. Let's look at how many years of baseball have passed.
TOTAL CUBS GAMES
14,440 regular season games from last World Series through 2001 season (source) + 324 regular-season games in 2002 and 2003 seasons + 50 playoff games since last World Series until this year (source) + 5 playoff games this year = 14,819 Cubs games since winning their last World Series.
TOTAL DAYS
34,689 days between Cubs last World Series win, Oct. 15, 1908, and last night, Oct. 5, 2003 (source).
THE MATH
14,819 games/34,689 days = 0.4272. The Cubs have played baseball on 42.72 percent of the days since their last World Series win.
42.72% of 95 years = 40.58 years.
How 'bout that.
These figures are likely off by a few games and days here and there, but I doubt in any significant fashion. (If anyone wants to do more exacting calculations, I'll be happy to adjust my numbers.)
Even if one calculates to account for days possible through this World Series — 34,706 through game four — or God possibly disliking Wrigley night games — about 255 since 1989 (source) — the number of baseball years is still about 40.
And 40 years, biblically speaking, is huge.
