NEWSLETTER
Just a fun flashback for your Thursday afternoon, as we watch the Cubs head into their series finale against the Mets.
With the Cubs trying to sweep these Mets at a time when their standing in the postseason race is a little precarious, I’m reminded for whatever reason of an early-July 2015 series in New York: the on where Joe Maddon brought the magician along.
The Cubs had lost a bunch in a row, including a sweep by the Cardinals, and had just fallen 11.5 games back in the NL Central. We didn’t yet know what the Cubs would become a year later at the time, but it still felt like maybe this team could make a playoff run if they could just get a little spark. A little magic.
Whether it was a lasting image of magic or not, it’s what comes to my mind when I think of “magic” and the “Cubs” – it was Anthony Rizzo doing this the night of the magician’s arrival, and then dropping the line:
The Cubs wound up sweeping that three-game series in New York, and although they didn’t ultimately close that gap on the Cardinals, they did take the Wild Card, and then beat the Cardinals in one of the best NLDS ever.
… and then they got swept by those same Mets in the NLCS, but whatever. It was a fun, magical run.
