Baseball
NLCS: The curse continues
MARLINS 9, CUBS 6: Florida heads to its second World Series as Chicago's drought hits 58 years.
By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 16, 2003
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[AP photo]
Catcher Ivan Rodriguez, the NLCS MVP, leads the celebration after the Marlins clinched their second World Series appearance in six years.
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CHICAGO - The details of the Cubs' losing legacy, the stories about the billy goat curse, the black cat and Leon Durham's error, with Tuesday's fan interference incident the latest installment, have by now become common knowledge.
Wednesday, their season ended with the four words Cubs fans are most familiar with:
Wait 'til next year.
For the 58th straight season, the Cubs are not going to the World Series. For the second time in six seasons, the Florida Marlins are.
Extending their improbable season and the Cubs' sorry history, the Marlins advanced to the Series with a 9-6 victory in the seventh game of the NL Championship Series at Wrigley Field. They will open play Saturday at Boston or New York.
"We might just be stupid enough to win this thing," pitcher Josh Beckett said.
The Cubs were looking to get to the Series for the first time since 1945, with the old ballpark at the corner of Clark and Addison streets primed for a wild celebration, with 39,574 inside and thousands more on the neighboring streets.
Since taking over in spring training, new manager Dusty Baker instructed the Cubs to ignore the franchise's past. In the disappointment of Wednesday's defeat he insisted it had nothing to do with their collapse after taking a three games to one lead.
"If it was a burden this year, it'll be 59 going into next year," Baker said. "I don't think it's a burden. Our guys played hard, really hard. We were close and the Marlins took it from us. It's as simple as that."
Florida manager Jack McKeon, in the World Series for the first time in a 13-year managerial career, had a similar view.
"It's a tough situation," McKeon said. "It's another ballgame, another series they didn't win. But I'm not going to get into that hex, jinx, goat, whatever you got going. I don't know. I'm not into that."
As they have through their wild(-card) season, sparked by the May 11 decision to replace manager Jeff Torborg with McKeon, the Marlins kept coming back.
Trailing 3-1, they extended the series with a victory Sunday in Florida, then came into Wrigley and did what few expected: win games started by Chicago aces Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.
They are the fourth team in history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to get to the World Series, the second to complete the series on the road.
"I just had a strong belief that we'd go all the way," McKeon said.
Wednesday they jumped to a 3-0 lead, silencing a crowd still numb from Tuesday's disappointment. The Cubs went ahead 5-3, but the Marlins scored three in the fifth to go ahead for good, with series MVP Ivan Rodriguez in the center of the rally.
Rookie Miguel Cabrera had a big night, hitting a three-run homer in the first, knocking in the tying run in the fifth and making a sliding catch and a running catch on back-to-back plays in rightfield. Beckett, who kept them alive with a two-hit shutout Sunday, pitched four more dominant innings in relief, allowing one hit.
"The Cubs were America's favorites but now I think we're the darlings of the baseball world, and all those people will be rooting for us," McKeon said. "They're seeing an exciting team play."
The Cubs tried to ignore their history, but the closer they got to the Series, the more they heard about the past. There was the curse put on the team by the local bar owner who was refused admittance to their last World Series in 1945 because he had a goat with him. The black cat that crossed their dugout in 1969. The inexplicable error made by Durham that marked their collapse in 1984.
Then Tuesday, there was a new chapter. Steve Bartman, a lifelong loyal Cubs fan, interfered with Moises Alou's attempt to catch a foul ball in the eighth inning, surehanded shortstop Alex Gonzalez made an error on a routine play and for whatever reason, a 3-0 Chicago lead rapidly turned into an 8-3 loss.
Wednesday, they rallied from a 3-0 first-inning deficit to lead 5-3, but Wood, their dominant right-hander, couldn't hold it against the spunky Marlins.
Was it just another season to disappoint the Cubs faithful?
"I really don't care what people say about us," Baker said. "We know how we feel about ourselves. We didn't lose the penannt. The Marlins won it. They won it, and they won it fair and square. So that's all you can say."
That, and wait 'til next year.
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