Historically, I am so geeked about this week – the first after the end of the World Series – because it kicks off the offseason, which is not only a time of unbridled hopefulness for the season to come, but also a fun time of rumors and planning and speculation.
This week, I’m still totally geeked, but mostly about THE CHICAGO CUBS BEING THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS.
I will undoubtedly get amped for the other stuff, probably come Monday, which is a big deadline day. But, for now, it’s still so dang hard to focus as much as is necessary on the non-World Series stuff. Fortunately for me, most of these Bullets are World Series-related.
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The victory parade and rally came together exceedingly quickly for the Cubs, MLB, and the City of Chicago, and it’ll start this morning at Wrigley Field at 10am CT. From there, the route will take the Cubs to Michigan Avenue, by way of Lake Shore Drive, for the downtown portion of the parade, starting at about 11am. Then, they work their way to Grant Park for a rally starting at noon-ish. If you can’t be among the millions – literally millions – of people who will be there, you can follow along on MLB Network or MLB.com.
An early look at Grant Park, as it opened up earlier this morning – um-holy-crap:
I love this take on Game Seven from Tom Verducci, with so much behind-the-scenes goodness. Among many other things, the piece underscores just how impactful that rain delay was before the top of the 10th. We were all thinking and saying it at the time – a great opportunity for the Cubs to re-set after such a crushing series of innings – but how often do those overwrought, dramatic things actually prove to be so important? It turns out that the Cubs really did need every bit of that short, 17-minute rain delay to put things in perspective, to be rallied by Jason Heyward in a spontaneous team meeting, and to come out bats cracking, led by the guy who wasn’t even supposed to be there, Kyle Schwarber. When they make the movie, that rain delay is going to be the dramatic turning point as the story crescendos into the two-run 10th.
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An analytical read on the moment in the 10th inning that will hopefully also get plenty of love in the history books: Albert Almora Jr.’s tag up and dash to second base. As we were watching, hoping that the Kris Bryant deep fly would leave the park, Almora was studying everything unfolding in front of him, knowing that if the ball hit the wall, he could possibly score from first … but if the ball was caught, he’d be stuck at first. So he made an instantaneous decision to tag up when he saw Rajai Davis starting to reach the warning track. The rest is history.
Cubs postseason gear is selling at a pace so insanely ridiculous that it reportedly broke MLB’s record sales for a month … in the first 24 hours after the victory. Obligatory plug, then: if you’re going to get Cubs postseason gear, please get the official stuff here at Fanatics. We’ve got a relationship with them, and when you buy there via our links, it supports BN. So if you’re going to get some lovely stuff anyway …
For those asking, no, Steve Bartman does not plan to attend today’s parade (ESPN). As he has repeatedly done over the past 13 years, he offered only a message through a spokesperson – he’s overjoyed about the Cubs’ victory – but does not want additional attention. So we’ll leave it there.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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