World Series Game Seven: The Greatest Game Ever Played

[Box Score]

[Cleveland Plain Dealer] [Chicago Tribune] [ESPN] [Hardball Talk] [WGN]

I don’t even know what to say after that one. If that’s the final game I ever see, it’s the greatest game I ever saw, and ever will see. Game seven of the 2016 World Series was an all-timer that probably converted people to being fans of the sport.

In ten innings, curse vs. curse, drought vs. drought; the Cubs ‘beat’ the Indians 8-7, in a game that no one really deserved to lose. Unless that person was Cubs manager Joe Maddon; which I already covered.

There are too many big moments in that game to even track backwards and remember.

I really felt like all along, the Indians would come back and win the game. They weren’t as good of a team, the Cubs were probably the best team on paper that I’ve seen in twenty years. But the 2016 Indians will never be forgotten. That was without any shadow of a doubt; one of the most gutty, gritty, grinding teams I’ve ever seen.

As Rajai Davis rounded the bases after homering off Aroldis Chapman, I was sure I had seen the biggest home run in Cleveland history. I had a vision of it happening too; like I did with Marquis Grissom in Baltimore back in 1997.

I thought there was no way the Cubs would recover and reload after Chapman blew the save. No one comes back from that. No team can recoup after the punches in the 15th round the Cubs absorbed.

But they bailed their manager out. They continued to grind out really good at bats. The rain happened, and the delay; and when I saw Ben Zobrist at the plate (total snub job by baseball not to give the MVP of the series to Kris Bryant), I knew it was the perfect guy to get his old Tampa manager off the hook. It was going to happen.

But then the Indians had more in the tank. Brandon Guyer and Rajai Davis combine to knock Carl Edwards Jr. out of the game in the bottom of the 10th. It really felt like this was the Indians year to slay Goliath – it felt that way a million times.

Francona cements his legacy as one of the greatest managers ever. Andrew Miller replaces his former teammate Chapman as the game’s most dominant reliever. Francisco Lindor is now a superstar. Corey Kluber is a dominant playoff horse. But the Indians simply ran out of outs. Out-gunned at every turn, the talent won out in the end. But what a thing for a team of a few young guys and a bunch of misfits to take the mighty Cubs to the wire time and again.

I don’t know, this post isn’t flowing because no one can possibly sum up everything they just saw. I just know after watching the game for so many years that this one was the best ever. All World Series games will pale in comparison to this one.

And the curse is over in Chicago. Sports just keep one-upping themselves.