In the heat of the night in the Valley of the Sun, the clock continued to tick.
Ninety-eight years, 11 months, 20 days and counting since the Cubs last took the World Series.
Plus how many hours? Oct. 14, 1908, was a day game.
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It is the “ticking clock syndrome,” as Cubs President John McDonough calls it.
It is what puts such an intense interest in games like Wednesday night’s, when the Cubs began yet another of their quixotic quests.
It is what makes so many people care so passionately how this series with the Arizona Diamondbacks turns out. (And the next series. And the series after that.)
It is why no true Cubs fan ever can take a best-of-five series like this one for granted.
(What’s that joke? “Why can’t the Cubs have a Web site? Because they can’t put three W’s in a row.”)
It is what made thousands upon thousands of native Arizonans and transplanted Midwesterners flock to Chase Field on a 91-degree night to catch Game 1 of this National League Division Series.
It is why a 23-year-old Cubs fan from Scottsdale stood in a line for playoff tickets a few days ago and proclaimed for all to hear, according to a Phoenix newspaper, “Just put the sign up now: ‘Wrigley Field West.'”
It is why no matter how strong the Cubs may appear to be, no one ever will truly believe they will win a World Series until they see it happen with their own eyes.
“Because of the ticking clock syndrome, we’ve always been the underdog,” McDonough said.
It doesn’t matter if Las Vegas lowers the odds on them winning one for once in your life.
It doesn’t matter if Lou Piniella doesn’t believe in a Cubs curse or never has heard of a Cubs curse or doesn’t want to hear about a Cubs curse.
It doesn’t matter that fans were in the stands at Game 1 holding up hand-made signs with slogans like: “Next Year Is Here,” “The Cubs: Every 99 Years Like Clockwork!” and that old Jack Brickhouse classic: “Anybody Can Have a Bad Century.”
Arizona’s team was well aware that Cubs fans were going to be in full party mode when their circus came to town.
That’s what the manager of the Cubs’ opponents called it.
“Anytime you play the Cubs, it can be a traveling circus,” Arizona’s Bob Melvin said.
His NL West champions should have been the clear-cut favorites for Game 1 and for this entire series, of course. They won 90 games to the Cubs’ 85.
But every time they turned on a TV, the wide-eyed Diamondbacks felt as if they were watching an episode of “Everybody Loves Chicago.”
Every prediction they heard seemed to call for a Cubs victory over their own very good but not dearly beloved team.
“I love it, love it,” D’backs first baseman Conor Jackson said.
“I’m not angry. I don’t think anybody’s angry. It’s motivation for us.”
As outfielder Eric Byrnes put it: “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people in this clubhouse who think we have a lot to lose.”
Even the players were prepared to concede there isn’t exactly a Diamondbacks Nation out there.
“It reminds me of my days when I played with the New York Yankees,” Piniella said. “There were Yankee fans all over there too. It’s an edge.”
Unfortunately, the fans can’t hit the ball.
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And with the D’backs’ edge in this series being the home field, Game 1 was of great importance to the Cubs.
After all, they took Game 1 of the 1908 World Series on the road, a 10-6 victory by Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown over the Detroit Tigers, and look at how that series turned out. It ended with the Cubs champions of the baseball world.
But they lost the first game of the 1910 World Series … and the 1918 one … and the 1929 one … and the 1932 one … and the 1938 one …
“We can’t do anything about what happened in the last 100 years,” Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot said.
“We can’t even do anything about what happened in the last five.”
All they could do was go out there and try to win one for all of their incredibly loyal fans at Wrigley Field West.
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