By Eric Getzoff
BU News Service
One of the best World Series games ever was played Wednesday night, with an unbelievable amount of drama hard to find anywhere else.
The Fall Classic featured the two teams with the longest World Series drought in baseball. The Chicago Cubs won the game – the team’s first World Series win in 108 years – coming back from a three-to-one deficit in a Game 7 that some people are saying could qualify as the best baseball game of all time.
The ratings were off the charts, and it was a lot of fun to watch. What could be better?
So what’s next for those who love the live, high-intensity drama with Twitter providing the commentary we’re missing from our boring roommate? The Bachelor doesn’t start until January, and forget about Keeping up with the Kardashians.
Well, we have the presidential election. The election that features Hillary Clinton, who would have a close-to-zero chance of winning if she were up against anybody other than one of the most irrational, egotistical and fantastical dreamers in recent memory: Donald Trump. Sure, Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Sounds a lot like the Cleveland Indians vs. Cubs Game 7.
I’m constantly asked why I like sports.
“It’s a stupid game.”
“Don’t you care more about who is running the country and deciding the rules?”
No, I don’t.
There’s a huge difference between the drama that unfolded in Wednesday’s game and what has been unfolding over the last two years in the presidential race, which concludes Tuesday on Election Day.
The players, managers and executives from the Cubs and Indians like each other. There were no hard feelings and no personal vendettas out on the diamond. But in politics, it’s personal. And the mudslinging is beyond over-the-top this election cycle. Did Barack Obama and Mitt Romney threaten to jail each other in 2012? Did Obama and John McCain have personal vendettas against each other in 2008? What about George W. Bush and John Kerry in 2004?
Life’s short and I enjoy being around people who know a thing or two about love. Love for life, love for other people and I especially enjoy being around people who don’t take anything personally. Taking something personally is one of the worst things you can do to yourself.
Game 7 of the World Series brought people together — families in Chicago who waited more than 100 years to experience the joy of the Cubs as World Series champs. ESPN reported that a man listened to the game on the radio at his father’s gravesite because they made a promise to watch the Cubs when the team reached the championship game. The man’s father has been dead since 1980. Wrigleyville partied until 5 a.m. Thursday. A Cubs win is something to celebrate wholeheartedly.
Sure, there will be parties for either a Clinton or Trump victory. But there will also be protests, either against the first female president of the United States or against Trump, who’s been a victim of some serious faux pas.
I have a feeling there will be more protests if Trump wins, but hey, I also said the Indians would win Game 7.
I already voted in the election with my absentee ballot. It’s my civic duty to vote and have my voice heard. But I’m not going to follow the coverage with as much intensity and jubilation as I followed every pitch from Wednesday’s game. Or any other big sports game, for that matter.
There’s just no joy in that.
