This was the way it had to be, right?  The Cubs could not just win a World Series.

First they had to walk through glass while holding an anvil and being kicked. “It had to be super hard,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said.

They had to go seven games in the World Series.

They had to be tied after nine innings.

There had to be a 17-minute rain delay before extra innings could begin — a water-related delay for the 2 teams with the longest championship droughts in the sport.

There had to be one more moment in the bottom of the 10th inning with the tying run on base that the Cubs had to encounter.

Because. Well. Because.

“You really wouldn’t expect it any other way,” said Cubs ace Jon Lester, a relief pitcher in Game 7 for the first time since 2007.

There had to be heroes and goats, and goats who became heroes, and enough plot twists to stretch believability even if you were watching it all go down on a Wednesday night that became Thursday morning at Progressive Field. And there had to be one moment of such abject Cub pain - Rajai Davis’ tying two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman with 2 outs in the 8^th inning - that would feel as if Steve Bartman came riding in on a billy goat while holding a black cat.

Chapman had entered with 2 outs in the eighth, with Chicago leading by 3 runs. The Cubs were 4 outs away from the largest party perhaps in baseball history - certainly the largest exhale.

But ultimately these Cubs were not all those other Cubs teams. And so finally - at last - this was indeed the year. The euphoria and a championship came at 12:47 a.m. ET on Nov. 3, 2016 - 39,466 days since the last one or a period in which there were 2 World Wars, 18 U.S. presidents and 27 Yankee titles.

The Cubs scored twice in the 10^th after a rain delay that actually “allowed us to regroup,” Hoyer said, and perhaps was “divine intervention after 108 years.” Right fielder Jason Heyward inspired his teammates with a speech about the quality of the individuals and the group. The final score was 8-7, and finality was key to this. This team proved too formidable for the rest of the sport and the franchise’s entire jinxed history. “We killed it, it is done, it is over,” Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said.

Can't Wait 'Til Next Year!