It Happened! Cubs Win Epic Game 7 to End Series Drought

It Happened! Cubs Win Epic Game 7 to End Series Drought
Chicago Cubs celebrate after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland, on Nov. 3, 2016. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
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CLEVELAND—Kris Bryant started to smile even before he fielded the ball. And with his throw to first for the final out, the agonizing wait ’til next year was over at last.

No more Billy Goat, no more Bartman, no more black-cat curses.

For a legion of fans who waited a lifetime, fly that W: Your Chicago Cubs are World Series champions.

Ending more than a century of flops, futility and frustration, the Cubs won their first title since 1908, outlasting the Cleveland Indians 8–7 in 10 innings of a Game 7 thriller early Thursday.

They even had to endure an extra-inning rain delay to end the drought.

“It happened. It happened. Chicago, it happened,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said after gloving the ball for the final out. “We did it. We’re world champions. I tell ya, we’re world champions. I can’t believe it.”

Rizzo put that final ball in his pocket as the Cubs piled up in the middle of the diamond, David Ross got carried off the field by his teammates and Bill Murray partied in the clubhouse.

Bill Murray celebrates after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs in Cleveland, on Nov. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Bill Murray celebrates after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs in Cleveland, on Nov. 3, 2016. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar