No more waiting. The curses are broken. The Cubs are the 2016 World Series champions. As a lifelong baseball fan, this causes me to wax poetic.

1. Wait ‘til
This Year:
An Ode to the 2016 Chicago Cubs

2. Hope springs eternal,
The baseball sage once wrote,
But he knew not of curses,
Of Bartman…black cat…goat.

3. Cub fans held to next year
When the Cubbies would be great,
But next year turned to next year—
Disappointment since ’08.

4. Miracle Mets and Marlins
Jumped ahead in them in line
And became World Series champions
Before their should-be time.

5. Chicago teams with talent—
Like Sandberg, Dawson, Grace;
Prior, Wood, Zambrano
Could not quite win the race.

6. So the Cubs built a tradition
On Harry and WGN
While the Lovable Losers continued
On the outside looking in.

7. Then new owners came to fore
With but one thing in mind
To Fly the W beyond the wall
All winter long this time.

8. The Curse of the Bambino
Broken in ’04
Make Cub Nation wonder
If Theo could do more.

9. The woeful years that followed
While talent stockpiles built
This group would be a great one,
Loaded to the hilt.

10. Just one piece was missing
Before the story could be told
That one piece was put in place
When Maddon joined the fold.

11. They didn’t fear the Cardinals
In the playoffs in ‘15
They became the ‘16 favorites
In the off-season in between.

12. Their greatest stress reliever
Was playing fun and free
They became division champions
Their win count, one-oh-three.

13. The first two rounds of playoffs,
Their difficulties faced,
They could now prep Wrigley
For the last leg of the race.

14. Cleveland brought the hottest team,
Their pitching staff was stout;
Up three to two they went back home
Lacking twenty-seven outs.

15. But this Cub team was not finished;
They would not go away.
Russell’s slam caused them to live
To play another day.

16. The Indians’ best pitchers
For Game Seven held
And Chapman used so early that
More Cubs hopes were quelled.

17. If there is one thing that can be
Said about this team,
It’s that they never feared the odds
In chasing down a dream.

18. Then it looked all over
A new next year set to start,
Another wait’ll next year
With goats and cats and Bart.

19. But somewhere in this fabled land
Fans do sing and shout,
There is joy on the North Side—
The Cubbies have won out.

20. See the original post at:
www.alainsworth.com