By Brendan Jordan

One hundred and eight years is pretty long for an MLB franchise to wait for a championship, but the Chicago Cubs held out and have finally taken home a World Series Championship.

On Nov. 2, the Chicago Cubs made history as they took an 8-7 victory in the 10th inning against the Cleveland Indians to declare themselves the 2016 World Series Champions. This was the Cubs first World Series victory since 1908, when they defeated the Detroit Tigers in five games.
The Cubs finished the regular season as the best team in the MLB, winning 103 of their 162 game season and leading the league in runs batted in (RBIs) with 785.  Third baseman, Kris Bryant led the team with 121 RBI’s.

The Cubs had tremendous amounts of success in the regular season and took it straight into the postseason. The Cubs played the San Francisco Giants in their first postseason series. This wasn’t much of a challenge to the Cubs, as they eliminated the Giants three games to one to advance to the next matchup. They would next face the Los Angeles Dodgers to determine who would represent the National League in the World Series. The Cubs took an early series lead against the Dodgers, winning game one of the seven game series by a score of 8-4. But the Dodgers responded back and took a quick 2-1 series lead over the Cubs, winning game two by a score of 3-2, and game three by the most boring score of all, 1-0.

However, the Cubs took control of the series after game three, and won games four, five, and six to secure themselves a spot in the World Series. The Cubs shutout the Dodgers in game six 5-0 and took their triumph to the World Series.

Now here’s a matchup that a lot of baseball fans didn’t see coming: The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in the World Series. As we all already knew, this was the Cubs’ first World Series appearance since 1908. But the Indians, on the other hand, were pretty opposite to the Cubs in this case. The Indians had advanced themselves to the World Series in the 1997 MLB postseason, but lost to the Florida Marlins in seven games.

This series seemed like a repeat of history for the Indians, as they took a very early series lead when they shutout the Cubs 6-0 in game one. The Cubs would answer back in game two, but the Indians countered back and won game three and four to take a stranglehold 3-1 series lead on the Cubs.

The Cubs saw the way there were playing, and reassured themselves of who they represent and what they’re playing for, and turned themselves around. The Cubs dominated game five and six to force a seventh game. This game was one of the biggest nail biter’s I’ve ever watched. The Cubs took an early lead in the game, finishing the first inning ahead of the Indians by one point. The Indians answered back and scored a run in the third inning to tie the game at one.

That’s pretty much how the whole game played out, as the Indians and Cubs just traded off runs. But the ninth inning ended with the game tied at six, and the World Series final game would go into extra innings.

Following a 20-minute rain delay between the ninth and tenth inning, play was ready to resume. The Cubs scored two runs at the top of the tenth inning on a double by second baseman Ben Zobrist and an RBI single by catcher

Miguel Montero. The Indians stopped the bleeding and headed into the bottom of the tenth inning with a two run deficit. The Cubs, tasting victory on the tip of their tongues, knew that it was only three outs until a championship.

The Indians received one run off an RBI single by their center fielder Rajai Davis, but it was the pitching by Cubs’ pitcher Mike Montgomery that sealed this game seven off. After a ground ball to Cubs’ third baseman Kris Bryant and a throw across the diamond to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, the Cubs sealed their fate in history, as they became the new new World Series champions after a 108 year wait.