Theo’s Cubs look to Theo’s Red Sox for comeback inspiration
The Chicago Cubs aren’t trying to make history, yet. Right now, they’re just aiming to repeat it.
On the brink of elimination in the 2015 National League Championship Series, the Cubs are looking to become just the second team in MLB history to overcome an 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven playoffs series. The first team to pull off the feat was the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
These Cubs and those Red Sox have a few things in common: A longstanding World Series drought supposedly involving a curse, a New York opponent in the LCS, and Theo Epstein.
Epstein took over as the Cubs’ president of baseball operations in October 2011 with the goal of bringing the franchise its first World Series championship since 1908. Before setting up shop at Wrigley Field, he presided over a pair of World Series triumphs (2004, 2007) in Boston as general manager.
“If we just show up and win tomorrow, we’re danagerous. Trust me,’’ Epstein told reporters after the Cubs’ 5-2 loss to the Mets on Tuesday night. “It’s been done before, rumor has it. And we can do it. We’ve had nine winning streaks of four or more games this year. So if we get hot, we get really hot. We can do it. We just have to show up and win tomorrow.’’
After losing the first three games of the ‘04 ALCS to the rival Yankees, Epstein’s Red Sox reeled off four straight wins to reach the World Series. That team would end Boston’s 86-year wait for a World Series crown by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals. After losing the first three games of the ‘15 NLCS to the Mets, Epstein’s Cubs will need a backs-to-the-wall, four-game winning streak of its own to book the franchise’s first trip to the World Series since 1945.
“The confidence in this clubhouse is never going to go away,’’ Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said Tuesday night, via Chicago Sun-Times. “We just got to keep playing baseball. One New York team has blown a 3-0 lead, let’s make it the other New York team. That’s the way we’re going to look at it.’’
Cubs manager Joe Maddon acknowledged the similarity between the situation facing his his team and the one faced by the ‘04 Sox.
“The fact we still have an opportunity to come back and do this, of course you think about those things, you think about the parallels, think about the fact that that happened against a New York team,’’ he said. “We think about all that stuff, but it’s up to us to go out and play and execute.’’
Should the Cubs win Game 4, it might also help to have Pedro coming back and then Schilling for Game 6. Of course, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta are a formidable combination should the Cubs keep their own comeback dream alive past Wednesday.
The best Red Sox are NOT in the Hall of Fame?
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