Hope for the best, expect catastrophe - Chicago Cubs fans savor wild-card win
By Fiona Ortiz and Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago Cubs fans savored a rare moment of post-season victory on Wednesday after star pitcher Jake Arrieta led the team to a 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, a wild-card game shut-out that allows the Cubs to proceed in the play-offs. Cubs fans have had a unique history of misery - the professional baseball team has gone without a World Series win since 1908, when Theodore Roosevelt was president. Wednesday night's win - complete with a bench-clearing brawl at PNC Park in Pittsburgh - set off celebrations around the nation's third-largest city. Fans dared to hope that, with a young, talented team, this could finally be the year. Cheering fans gathered at Wrigley Field ballpark to watch the away game on screens, then poured into the streets waving blue-and-white "W" banners, signifying a "win." Cubs gear could be seen everywhere from school playgrounds to the LaSalle Street business district to City Hall during the day. "The strange part is I feel good, it's not something we expected this year and yet now they are here," said three-decade Cubs fan Kiljoong Kim, a 44-year-old policy analyst. Kim watched the game at The Red Lion Lincoln Square pub, too nervous to sit down. Lifetime Cubs fan Tom Kosinski, 62, said: "My expectations were that they were going to lose tonight. This is my Cubs pessimism. You hope for the best but you expect catastrophe." But his friend Mike Kearns, 50, associate publisher at a magazine, started watching the game with a winning feeling. "They fulfilled all my expectations. Jake Arrieta is the best pitcher in the league and I had total faith in him," he said. October baseball is rare in sports-crazed Chicago, especially on the North Side, which is home to the Cubs, who last made the playoffs in 2008. The last time the Cubs were in the World Series was 1945, when they lost to Detroit. The South Side's White Sox last won it all in 2005. But the Cubs have been one of the best teams in the majors this year, led by dominant 29-year-old Arrieta, who has won 23 games. The Cubs now go on to play arch-rivals the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League pennant. The winner of that will go to the World Series against the American League pennant winner. (Editing by Paul Tait)
