CLEVELAND _ From Sister Sledge to "Embrace the Target."
Thirty-seven years separate those "We Are Family" Pirates, the last team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a World Series on the road and what these growling Cubs will try to duplicate in Wednesday's improbable yet "here we are" Game 7.
"I remember the song," Joe Maddon said before Game 6. "I loved their hats."
If that sounds like a long time, well, it's very difficult to do. And let's be honest. Who thought the Cubs would get this far after dropping two of three at Wrigley Field over the weekend? Raise your hand. Anyone?
No, these Cubs were lined up to fall victim to Terry Francona's wizardry, the diabolical Klubot, Andrew Miller's razor-blade slider and the cruel, unrelenting history that buried the franchise's last crown way, way back in 1908.
It would be the Indians' turn this year, to end their own drought dating to 1948, to give Cleveland another trophy to put next to LeBron's. A nice story for a city that's easy to root for. And for the Cubs, there was always next year.
Once this Series returned to the shores of Lake Erie, however, the dynamic changed and the momentum shifted, just as the Cubs said it would. We nodded, scribbled down those words and relayed them. But to make those sentences come alive was going to require a special effort, beginning with a strong statement in Tuesday night's Game 6.
And that's exactly what the Cubs came up with in whacking around the Indians, 9-3, to force a Game 7, which, in the sporting world, can be a truly magical event. The stunning part was the Cubs' avalanche tilted downhill on one pitch: Josh Tomlin's 0-and-2 curve that Kris Bryant hammered for a 433-foot homer with two outs in the first inning.
To repeat, two strikes, two outs, nobody on. And once Bryant's moonshot landed halfway up the bleachers in left field, embedded Cubs fans suddenly came out of hibernation. Entire sections, clad in Cubbie blue, rose and roared, taking the rest of Progressive Field by surprise. As Bryant rounded the bases, they chanted, "M-V-P! M-V-P!" at a decibel level that had to be unsettling for the Clevelanders.
It would get worse. Tomlin began teeing it up for the Cubs, and two more hard-hit singles set up an Indians gaffe that will live in infamy if they're not able to finish this thing off. Addison Russell's lazy fly to shallow center should have been inning over. Instead, it dropped impossibly between the converging Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall as each one looked at the other.
The screw-up handed the Cubs two runs and a gift 3-0 lead for Jake Arrieta, who, unlike Tomlin, was well rested and on top of his game. While Francona uses a three-man rotation for the Series, Maddon has his foursome working on a regular schedule, and the Indians showed cracks the past two games.
The Cubs toppled Trevor Bauer at Wrigley in Game 5, and the adrenaline surge appeared to rejuvenate them in Cleveland. Russell smashed a grand slam in the third inning _ the first by a shortstop in a World Series _ to make it 7-0. Playing for survival was something the Cubs seemed to thrive on.
"It's beautiful," Maddon said. "It's a beautiful thing. We're trying to win one game. Just go play. Do what we've been doing."
And what they've been doing lately. After using Aroldis Chapman for eight outs Sunday, Maddon went to him with seven outs to go Tuesday night. There's nothing left to save him for. Winter is now a day away.
"When you get to a Game 7," Ben Zobrist said, "anything can happen."
For the Cubs, it would be everything.
