Yay Cubs!

I've decided that I'm living in a golden age of sports.

No, not THAT golden age. Not the one with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jack Dempsey, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, et al.

The one I'm talking about had players like Mickey Mantle, Chuck Bednarik, Joe Namath, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and Bob Cousy, Julius Erving and Mike Schmidt.

I've lived long enough to see my favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies, win their first World Series in 1980, snapping a 77-year drought that made them the last of the mostly original 16 teams of the modern era (dating back to 1903) to win a Series title.

I also lived long enough to see the Boston Red Sox snap their own 86-year Babe Ruth Curse when they won a World Series in 2004.

And now, the 2016 Chicago Cubs. Wow. I mean, 108 years. Wow. Cars and airplanes and just gotten their baptismal certificates that last time the Cubs won a World Series.

What's kind of neat here is that Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations for the Cubs, was the architect of the Red Sox 2004 championship when he was Boston's general manager.

This guy apparently knows how to end droughts.

I have to say that I didn't have a vested interest in either the Cubs or the Cleveland Indians (who see their own drought continue into its 69th year). I would have been just as pleased if the Indians had won last night as the Cubbies,

But now that it's over, now that the Cubs won in Game 7 and extra innings, it all seems so right.

And, Lord knows, in the dismal swamp of this political season, the Cubs gave us some much needed relief. I actually saw people smiling last night. With each other. I think we'd about forgotten what that was like.

I'm hoping I'm still around for other drought enders. There's still the Indians, of course. And the Philadelphia Eagles, who've never won a Super Bowl. I'd kinda like to see that happen.

But it's OK. I'm living in a golden age.