It’s been years, but if you close your eyes, you can still hear the sound of the ball hitting Kris Bryant’s glove. He slipped. Did you remember that? On the final play of Game 7, his spikes lost traction on the wet Cleveland turf, but it didn't even matter. He threw to Anthony Rizzo, the ball was tucked into a back pocket, and a 108-year-old ghost finally stopped screaming. The 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs didn't just win a trophy; they broke a psychological dam that had been holding back an entire city since the Roosevelt administration. Not FDR. Theodore.
Baseball is usually a game of slow burns and long afternoons. This wasn't that. This was a cardiac event spread over seven games. If you’re a Cubs fan, you spent most of October convinced that a goat, a black cat, or a guy in a turtleneck sweater was going to jump out of the shadows and ruin everything. That’s the "Cubs Way," right? Except this team was built by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer to be different. They were young, they were weirdly loose, and they were statistically terrifying.
The Curse of the Billy Goat vs. Modern Sabermetrics
People talk about the curse like it was a real, physical thing. Billy Sianis and his goat being kicked out of Wrigley Field in 1945. It’s a great story for barrooms, but by 2016, the "curse" was really just a decade-long failure of player development and bad scouting. The 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs were the byproduct of a scorched-earth rebuild.
Theo Epstein came from Boston, where he’d already killed one "curse." He didn't care about goats. He cared about On-Base Percentage and high-character guys who wouldn't crumble when the wind blew the wrong way on Waveland Avenue. He drafted guys like Kyle Schwarber, who tore up his knee in the third game of the season and somehow returned for the World Series like a character from a movie. It shouldn't have worked. It defies medical logic. But Schwarber hit .412 in that series after not seeing a major league pitch for six months.
Honestly, the 103-win regular season felt like a coronation. We all thought it would be easy. Then the playoffs started, and the anxiety came back. The Giants almost had them. The Dodgers, with Clayton Kershaw looking like a god for a minute there, almost had them. But Kyle Hendricks—the guy they call "The Professor" because he looks like he’s about to teach you Calculus II—pitched the game of his life to clinch the pennant.
When Cleveland Had Them Against the Ropes
The World Series started, and it was a disaster. The Cubs fell behind 3-1. You have to understand how bleak that was. In the history of the World Series, coming back from a 3-1 deficit is basically a statistical anomaly. The Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians) had Corey Kluber, who was pitching like a machine. They had Andrew Miller, a left-handed reliever who seemed to have about six arms.
Cleveland was dominant.
Game 5 was at Wrigley. It was the last stand. Jon Lester, the veteran who lived for high-stakes pressure, took the mound. The Cubs squeezed out a 3-2 win, and suddenly, the energy shifted. You could feel it through the TV. It wasn't confidence yet—Cubs fans don't do confidence—but it was a weird kind of "maybe?"
Game 6 was a blowout. Addison Russell hit a grand slam. Kris Bryant was doing Kris Bryant things. We were headed to Game 7.
Game 7: The Greatest Game Ever Played (Don't Argue)
If you didn't watch Game 7 of the 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs vs. the Cleveland Indians, you missed the most concentrated dose of drama in sports history. It had everything. Dexter Fowler led off with a home run—the first time that ever happened in a Game 7. David Ross, the "Grandpa" of the team who was retiring after the game, hit a home run off the unhittable Andrew Miller.
The Cubs were up 6-3 in the 8th inning. It was over. We were already chilling the champagne.
Then Rajai Davis happened.
A line-drive home run off Aroldis Chapman. The ball barely cleared the wall in left field, but it was enough. The game was tied. The Cleveland crowd went absolutely feral. Chapman, the hardest thrower in the world, looked human. He looked broken. Cubs fans everywhere collectively felt their hearts drop into their stomachs. This was it. This was the "Bartman" moment of 2016. The universe was correcting itself. It was going to snatch it away again.
Then the sky opened up.
The Rain Delay That Saved a Franchise
You can't write this. It's too cheesy for a Hollywood script. Right before the 10th inning, a massive rainstorm hit Progressive Field. The tarp came out. The players retreated to the clubhouses.
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During that 17-minute delay, Jason Heyward—a guy who struggled at the plate all year but was a leader in the locker room—called a players-only meeting in a weight room. He told them, basically, "We're the best team in the world for a reason. Go out and play like it."
When the rain stopped, the Cubs were different. Kyle Schwarber led off with a hit. Ben Zobrist—the most professional hitter on the planet—sliced a double down the left-field line. Miguel Montero drove in another. The Cubs took an 8-6 lead into the bottom of the 10th.
Cleveland didn't go quietly. They got a run back. It was 8-7. The tying run was on base. Then, Michael Martinez hit a slow bouncer to third. Bryant fielded it, slipped, threw, and Rizzo caught it.
The silence in Cleveland was deafening. The noise in Chicago was probably picked up by seismographs in California.
What Most People Get Wrong About 2016
A lot of folks think the 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs were just a team of destiny. That’s a bit of a lazy narrative. They weren't "lucky." They were a juggernaut.
- The Defense: They had one of the best team defenses in the history of the modern era. Bryant, Baez, Russell, and Rizzo were an absolute vacuum on the infield.
- The Rotation: Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester finished 1st and 2nd in ERA in the National League.
- The Bullpen: Even before they traded for Chapman, they were elite.
The misconception is that they "stumbled" into the win. No. They dominated the sport for six months and then survived the most grueling seven-game stretch imaginable. They out-hit, out-pitched, and out-thought a very good Cleveland team.
Why This Win Still Matters in 2026
Baseball is different now. We have pitch clocks and larger bases. But the 2016 win remains the high-water mark for the "super-team" build. It showed that you could actually tear a team down to the studs and build a winner if you had the stomach for it.
But more than that, it changed the culture of Chicago. Being a Cubs fan used to be about "Lovable Losers." It was about the misery. After 2016, that identity died. Now, the expectation is to win. That’s a heavy burden, but it’s better than the alternative.
If you’re looking to really understand the impact, look at the parade. Estimates say 5 million people showed up. It was one of the largest gatherings of humans in the history of the Western Hemisphere. People were bringing urns of their late grandparents' ashes to the parade route. That’s not just sports; that’s a communal exorcism.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Historians
If you want to relive the magic or understand the technical brilliance of that team, here is what you should actually do:
- Watch the Game 7 "Rain Delay" Interviews: Find the raw footage of Jason Heyward and Anthony Rizzo talking about that meeting. It’s a masterclass in leadership and sports psychology.
- Analyze the Zobrist Double: Look at the pitch sequence Ben Zobrist took in the 10th inning. It’s the perfect example of "situational hitting" that is becoming a lost art in the home-run-or-bust era of today.
- Visit the Marquee: If you go to Wrigley Field, don't just look at the statues. Look at the bricks. Fans wrote the names of their deceased relatives on the walls of the stadium in chalk after the win. It's a reminder that sports are about more than just stats.
- Study the "Theo Way": For those interested in the business side, read The Cubs Way by Tom Verducci. It explains exactly how they used data to project "human" traits like grit and resilience—something most AI scouts still struggle to do.
The 2016 Cubs weren't just a baseball team. They were a 108-year-old promise finally kept. They proved that eventually, even the longest winter has to end. It just took a little rain to make it happen.