Wait ‘til This Year:

An Ode to the 2016 Chicago Cubs

Hope springs eternal, The baseball sage once wrote, But he knew not of curses, Of Bartman…black cat…goat.

Cub fans held to next year When the Cubbies would be great, But next year turned to next year— Disappointment since ’08.

Miracle Mets and Marlins Jumped ahead in them in line And became World Series champions Before their should-be time.

Chicago teams with talent— Like Sandberg, Dawson, Grace; Prior, Wood, Zambrano Could not quite win the race.

So the Cubs built a tradition On Harry and WGN While the Lovable Losers continued On the outside looking in.

Then new owners came to fore With but one thing in mind To Fly the W beyond the wall All winter long this time.

The Curse of the Bambino Broken in ’04 Make Cub Nation wonder If Theo could do more.

The woeful years that followed While talent stockpiles built This group would be a great one, Loaded to the hilt.

Just one piece was missing Before the story could be told That one piece was put in place When Maddon joined the fold.

They didn’t fear the Cardinals In the playoffs in ‘15 They became the ‘16 favorites In the off-season in between.

Their greatest stress reliever Was playing fun and free They became division champions Their win count, one-oh-three.

The first two rounds of playoffs, Their difficulties faced, They could now prep Wrigley For the last leg of the race.

Cleveland brought the hottest team, Their pitching staff was stout; Up three to two they went back home Lacking twenty-seven outs.

But this Cub team was not finished; They would not go away. Russell’s slam caused them to live To play another day.

The Indians’ best pitchers For Game Seven held And Chapman used so early that More Cubs hopes were quelled.

If there is one thing that can be Said about this team, It’s that they never feared the odds In chasing down a dream.

Then it looked all over A new next year set to start, Another wait’ll next year With goats and cats and Bart.

But somewhere in this fabled land Fans do sing and shout, There is joy on the North Side— The Cubbies have won out.

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