Rain delays usually suck. Usually, they're just a reason to buy an overpriced beer and stare at a tarp while wondering if you’ll get home before midnight. But on November 2, 2016, a little bit of water falling from the sky in Cleveland changed the course of sports history. If that rain doesn't fall, the Chicago Cubs might still be the "Lovable Losers" and the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians) might have ended a drought of their own.
Game 7 World Series 2016 wasn't just a baseball game. Honestly, it was a collective exorcism. You had two franchises with a combined 174 years of misery between them. The Cubs hadn't won since 1908. The Indians hadn't won since 1948. Something had to give, but nobody expected it to give in such a chaotic, heart-wrenching, and ultimately legendary way.
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The Setup Nobody Saw Coming
The Cubs were dead. Down 3-1 in the series, they looked like every other Cubs team that had let fans down for over a century. They were facing a Cleveland pitching staff that seemed untouchable. Then, Joe Maddon’s squad clawed back. By the time Game 7 rolled around at Progressive Field, the momentum had shifted, but the tension was so thick you could barely breathe through it.
Dexter Fowler did something crazy right off the bat. He hit a lead-off home run off Corey Kluber. Kluber was a beast that year, but he was pitching on short rest for the third time in the series. You could see he didn't have that "deadly" movement on his sinker. Fowler rounded the bases, and for a second, Chicago felt like the heavy favorite. But baseball is never that simple.
David Ross and the Rollercoaster of Emotion
People talk about the stars, but Game 7 World Series 2016 was defined by the old guy. David "Grandpa" Ross was playing his final game. Imagine retiring on a night like this. He actually committed a throwing error and was behind the plate for a wild pitch that let two runs score, making the game tight. It looked like he might go out as the scapegoat.
Then he hit a home run.
A 39-year-old catcher, in his last ever professional game, took Andrew Miller—the most dominant reliever in baseball at that time—deep to center field. That's the kind of stuff scriptwriters reject for being too cheesy. It put the Cubs up 6-3. At that point, Chicago fans were already planning the parade. The "Curse of the Billy Goat" was supposedly over.
The Rajai Davis Moment
If you want to talk about pure, unadulterated shock, you have to talk about the eighth inning. Aroldis Chapman was on the mound for the Cubs. He was gassed. Joe Maddon had used him heavily in Games 5 and 6, and it was clear the 100-mph fireballer was human after all.
Brandon Guyer doubled. Then Rajai Davis stepped up.
Davis wasn't a power hitter. He was a speed guy. But he hung in there against a 98-mph fastball and smoked it over the left-field wall. The camera shot of LeBron James in the stands losing his mind says it all. The game was tied 6-6. The stadium was shaking. If you were a Cubs fan, you weren't just sad; you were convinced the universe was actively conspiring against you again. It felt like 1945, 1969, and 2003 all crashing down at once.
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The 17-Minute Rain Delay That Saved the Cubs
Then came the rain.
It was only 17 minutes. Just a quick burst after the ninth inning ended in a tie. But in those 17 minutes, Jason Heyward called a meeting. He pulled the team into a weight room. He basically told them to forget what just happened. He reminded them they were the best team in baseball for a reason.
Most people get this wrong—they think the rain delay was a momentum killer for Cleveland. It was actually a reset button for Chicago. When play resumed in the 10th, the Cubs looked different. Ben Zobrist, who always seemed to be in the middle of everything, hit a double down the left-field line to score Albert Almora Jr. Then Miguel Montero singled in another run.
The Final Out and the Aftermath
The bottom of the 10th was pure stress. Mike Montgomery came in to face Michael Martinez. It wasn't a strikeout. It was a slow roller toward third base. Kris Bryant slipped a little as he fielded it, but he was smiling before he even threw the ball to Anthony Rizzo.
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8-7. The Cubs won.
The immediate aftermath was weirdly quiet in the stadium because of the shock, followed by an explosion of blue jerseys. For Cleveland, it was a tragedy. They were so close. For Chicago, it was a literal cultural shift. Over five million people showed up for the parade later that week. Think about that number.
Why Game 7 World Series 2016 Matters Now
We look back at this game as the peak of the "Theo Epstein" era of baseball, where analytics and "breaking curses" became the blueprint. But honestly? It's just a reminder that baseball is incredibly unpredictable.
Here is what we can actually learn from that night:
- Rest matters more than talent: Corey Kluber and Aroldis Chapman were the two best pitchers on the field, but they were both exhausted. Modern managers now watch workloads much more closely because of how they struggled in this game.
- The "Human Element" is real: Jason Heyward’s speech isn't in a box score. You can't quantify "leadership" in an OPS+ stat, but every player in that locker room says they don't win without that 17-minute talk.
- Bullpen management is a tightrope: Joe Maddon was criticized for weeks after for how he handled his pitchers. It shows that even if you win, your process can be flawed.
If you want to really understand the gravity of Game 7 World Series 2016, you should go back and watch the "all-nine-innings" broadcasts available on YouTube. Pay attention to the fans' faces in the stands. It wasn't just sports; it was a three-hour heart attack.
Next Steps for Baseball History Fans
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the mechanics of how that 2016 Cubs team was built, you should check out the book The Cubs Way by Tom Verducci. It breaks down the scouting and the psychological work that went into picking players like Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez. Also, look up the "Rain Delay Speech" accounts from different players to see how much the stories vary—it’s a fascinating look at how different people experience the same high-pressure moment. Finally, if you ever get a chance to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame, they have Ben Zobrist’s cleats and the final-out ball on display. It’s worth the trip just to see the artifacts of the night the longest drought in sports history finally ended.