The World Series Dilemma

If you’re longtime Cubs fan Bill Murray — the comedic legend who was awarded the Mark Twain Prize last week — neither Chicago nor Cleveland has won Major League Baseball’s championship in your lifetime. The same is true of everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Meryl Streep to Jeff Bridges and George Foreman — and of a big chunk of America.

So it’s no understatement to say Cubs and Indians fans, not to mention baseball fans in general, have been waiting for a series like this for a very long time.

Game 7: Tonight in Cleveland, 7 p.m. ET.

Sports has become an integral part of the pop culture fabric, and while America’s pastime is no longer our most popular professional sport (the NFL has that honor), it remains a beloved one. Steeped in tradition and cherished by fans for staying virtually unchanged for well over a century, baseball has a certain old-school quality that sets it apart.

Which is why, even if you’re not a baseball fan, you must appreciate the historic nature of the 2016 World Series and the two long-suffering franchises at its center.

Right now, the series is tied. So where does that leave us?

[lz_ndn video=31547334]

Let’s look at some things you’ll want to know while catching up with colleagues around the water cooler this week.

The Cubs and Indians in Popular Culture
The popular 1989 time-travel film “Back to the Future Part II” largely took place in the then far-off future of 2015. Viewers enjoyed a joke about the Chicago Cubs, even then notorious for their near-eternal championship drought, winning the 2015 World Series over a franchise out of Miami. No such team existed at the time; the franchise now known as the Miami Marlins formed as an expansion team in 1993, playing as the Florida Marlins until 2012.

A fictionalized Cubs team also won a World Series title in the 1993 family comedy “Rookie of the Year.”

A fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians take center stage in the popular film comedies “Major League” (1989 — the same year as “Back to the Future II”) and “Major League II” (1994). Coincidentally, Miami has a role in “Major League” as well, with an owner trying to sabotage the team’s chances at success in hopes of moving the team there.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mi3KNEpbA4]

Fans even pushed for Charlie Sheen, who starred as pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, to provide the ceremonial first pitch on Monday, and the actor said he was interested. Instead, MLB elected to go with retired six-time All-Star Kenny Lofton, who played with both franchises.

And if you’re still searching for a rooting interest in the series:

Why You Should Root for the Cubs (or Against the Indians)
Everyone loves an underdog, and while the Cubs are technically the favorite in the series, they remain the quintessential lovable losers of American professional sports.

It’s been more than seven decades since they played in the big game, whereas Chicago’s other MLB team, the White Sox of the American League, won the World Series in 2005. The Cubs also popularized announcer Harry Caray, who was regularly parodied by Will Ferrell on “Saturday Night Live.” Ferrell reprised the role on Jimmy Kimmel’s show Tuesday night.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lh7mdekB_k]

As for the Indians, if you’re given to concern about sports teams with names inspired by Native Americans, well, there you go.

The nickname they adopted just over a century ago (yes, it’s that old) might seem rather benign compared to the NFL’s Washington Redskins, but protests pop up occasionally. Most critics seem more concerned with the team’s logo, Chief Wahoo, a caricature whose current depiction dates back 65 years. Protests have surfaced up about the logo again in recent weeks as the team has made its way through the playoffs to the World Series, but the team isn’t changing it now.

“There will always be someone offended by something. PC is way out of control,” wrote one person on a team message board.

Why You Should Root for the Indians (or Against the Cubs)
Look, Cleveland needs all the love it can get. Sure, the Cavaliers are the defending NBA champions — they received their rings Monday night in a ceremony that coincided with Game 1 of the World Series — but outside of that, it’s been hard to be a sports fan in Cleveland for forever. Just looks at the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, who have used six(!) quarterbacks just seven weeks into the season. Better yet, don’t.

As for the Cubs, you can find your fill of notorious people and incidents in their history, as is true for virtually any institution that dates to the 19th century. But perhaps the biggest one is the vilification by some fans of poor Steve Bartman, a Cubs fan who interfered with the fielding of a foul ball in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.

As benign as that might seem (it was only the second out anyway, and not an elimination game), the Cubs ended up losing the game and subsequently the series, forcing Bartman to essentially go into hiding from enraged fans. He was even under police protection for some time after the series.

While many Cubs players came to Bartman’s defense, he’s lived under the shadow of the infamous moment for years — and is reportedly hopeful the Cubs win the championship to help put it all behind him.