We’ve made it. The time has finally arrived. It’s time for the Fall Classic to take center stage of the sports world. A time when heroes are crowned, and legends are made. Now, I know we all wished we were cheering on our Yankees, but aren’t we spoiled to get one of the best match ups possible?
On one hand, you have the American League Champion, Cleveland Indians. A team that has mostly gone under the radar for most of the season, but has steamrolled their competition in the playoffs. First taking out the Red Sox in the division series three games to none. Then knocking out another AL East opponent, the Blue Jays, in five. They’ve accomplished this feat without top line stars Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Danny Salazar & Carlos Carrasco. Thanks to timely hitting and a lights out bullpen, the Indians make their first trip to the World Series since 1997, and look to capture their first championship since 1948.
On the other hand, you have the National League Champion, Chicago Cubs. Yes, that still is weird to write, read and see. The last time the Cubbies made it to the World Series was 71 years ago in 1945. Throw another 38 years on that number and you get the last time folks on Chicago’s North Side saw a World Series win. Led by the best rotation in baseball (Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta & Kyle Hendricks) and a potent young offense, the Cubs look to make history after getting past the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Thanks in large part to the rotation and NL-MVP favorite, Kris Bryant, they posted MLB’s best regular season record of 103-58.
There are some connections and story lines that make this series even more compelling than how good each team has been this year, especially in the post-season. Obviously you have the ‘cursed’ Cubs looking to win their first series in 108 years, the longest drought in the NL. But you also have the Indians, who have the longest championship drought in the AL, 68 years. The similarities don’t stop there. They both have pieces of the Red Sox team that broke their long win-less drought as Terry Francono manages the Indians, and Theo Epstein is the man who built these Cubs. Francono battled with current Cubs Manager, Joe Maddon, when both were leading teams in the AL East. The last factor that these teams share heading into this showdown, is the fact they both made monster trades with the Yankees for shutdown lefties out of the bullpen. Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman have given their teams a valuable asset late in games. At least we Yankees fans can take solace with the fact that one of them will be walking away with a ring; we just hoped they’d both be in pinstripes doing it together.
With all of the excitement and intrigue this series has to offer, the only thing left is, who is going to win?! Well, I didn’t want you just to see who I thought would be crowned champion, so I polled some of the other Bronx Pinstripes writers, editors and podcast hosts to see who they thought would break their droughts.
There you have it. Out of 12 of our BP writers, eight think the Cubs will finally be champions again, while four think Cleveland will reign. Let us know who you think will take home the trophy! We have a great series ahead of us with Game 1 starting tonight in Cleveland as Jon Lester faces Cory Kluber. Enjoy the series, it should be a blast!
