High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Introducing The Run - 2016 Chicago Cubs

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

There’s nothing like a great postseason run. Relive the twists and turns of the Cubs curse-breaking 2016 World Series campaign: game-by-game, controversy-by-controversy, heartbreak and triumph, all culminating in the most epic Game 7 ever.   Matt Spiegel (670 The Score) and Roy Wood Jr. (Daily Show) are joined by Cubs legends and celebrity superfans to talk about what the run meant for the city of Chicago, the Cubs faithful -- and everyone around the country who stayed up late during that rain delay. This podcast is not just for Cubs fans, but for anyone who wants to revisit fall of 2016 and be reminded of a moment when baseball showed us how magical a great run can be. “The Run” will be a really fun ride. A new podcast from Audacy and Major League Baseball To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shop Best Buy's Ultimate Smartphone Sale today! Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, what's up? We're here to talk to you about a new podcast from Odyssey and Major League Baseball that relives the Chicago Cubs' magical run to the 2016 World Series title. You know, the one that finally broke a 108 year curse. That's Roy Wood Jr. of The Daily Show who loved every minute of it. I'm co-host Matt Spiegel of Chicago's 670 The Score. I was on the ground for every bit of it. The run

is a 10 part series that relives that postseason game by game, but also talks about what the win meant for the Cubs, the city of Chicago, and honestly, for anyone who just loves a great sports story. This is your chance to remember what it felt like as we watched history in the making. I know you remember, Roy. I was there for game seven in Cleveland, and then I lied to my girlfriend about what I spent the money on. Roy, you know, like she might hear this or somebody might talk to her about it. I told her our son needed a car.

How old was he at the time, Roy? Three. Anyway, here's a few minutes from the first episode of The Run where we talk about the history of Cubs curses. And while you listen, make sure you go and subscribe right now to The Run, wherever you get your podcasts. Take a listen. All right. So the culture of Cubdom, Roy, is pre-2016 is all about losing. There's so much losing in the history.

And some of it is anecdotally rooted in curses in general. Do you believe in curses? I do believe in curses. I believe in ghosts. I do pretty much everything but Santa Claus. I'm rocking with even the Tooth Fairy and the the Easter Bunny I'll give some 20% validity to. So you didn't have to sell me on the Cubs being cursed. Like, that was not a hard sell.

The real curse, by the way, before we even do this, the real curse is bad ownership. That's the real curse is like owners that just didn't hire the right people and do the right things. Then there's about 15 major league teams that are cursed. It's true. But all right, so 1908, Cubs are the absolute state of the art. Three straight World Series trips. No one had ever done it. They won two in a row.

Then in 1908, something happens. It's called Merkel's Boner. It's true, kids. It's Fred Merkel. Wait, a boner? Hang on. Stop here. Is this a Wait, a boner? Hang on. Stop here. Is this a synonym for something else? He made a boner,

which is a mistake. And this is golden folklore of baseball. Like, I read about this in six different books before I was 10. Johnny Evers of Tinkers to Evers to Chance, the double play combo.

Those were Cubs. They were so good. But he called out Fred Merkle for not running the bases. It's complicated. Google it, kids. But Fred Merkle had to live with the name Bonehead for the rest of his life. That's cruel, man.

But they did that to Fred. So a lot of people think that's where it began. And then in 1945, we get the curse of the Billy Goat. Because between 1908 and 1945, Cubs were good. They went to the World Series like every five years or so. A whole bunch of times they went. They never won, but they went.

Then in 45... Competitive. Yeah, competitive, like you're talking about. Then in 45, they go to the World Series. And the dude who owned the Billy Goat Tavern, right, he liked to bring his goat to ballgames at Wrigley. Because

of course, who doesn't like to bring their goat to ballgames? Yeah, I mean, it's a traveling trash can. Sounds convenient. The goat's name was Murphy, by the way. Hence the bleachers, the bar behind the bleachers, if anybody knows that one. But legend says the Cubs eventually made him stop bringing the goat.

He got pissed off. He put some kind of magical Greek gypsy curse on the Cubs. He wrote a telegram to P.K. Wrigley that said, you are going to lose this World Series and you will never win another World Series again because you insulted my goat. And bam! Curse the Billy Goat exists. And they never go to another World Series after 45 minutes. Bananas. To me, part of the issue, Matt, was that

the losing happened for so long that it just became this thing that was endearing about the team. Like, well like well yeah they're supposed to lose they're the cubbies they're the lovable losers and also the the logo the bear wasn't ferocious there's no teeth on this bear he has a gut he's holding a bat it's like it's not like when they went to the i remember early 90s they went to the cubby bear patches some of the more prominent you know symbols and

logos and a lot of the paraphernalia and i was like finally at least he has evil white eyes and it's like maybe he has a desire to win in his heart but this idea of just really just being the place to drink during the day like oh yeah it's just it's a bar it's just a bar where baseball is happening i think that helped to feed into that ideology some i think you're absolutely right because it became sort of a badge of honor like i love a team that loses all the time and people would give you respect like you would tell people in the 80s and 90s i'm a cubs fan Okay. You may as well tell people, yeah, I drink whiskey for breakfast. Wow. Okay.

I wouldn't do that to myself, but all right. More power to you. You're strong. You're stronger than me. That's the run from Odyssey and Major League Baseball. Listen and follow on the Odyssey app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.