Tonight, the Chicago Cubs have their first home game since snapping their 108-year World Series drought with a thrilling Game 7 victory over the Cleveland Indians last November.
The 2017 Wrigley Field opener also means raising the championship banner as part of pregame ceremonies, and the Cubs really went all-out with the special night.
Nobody really knew what was going on, as the entire Cubs’ roster walked out into the outfield and into the opened bricks and ivy wall at Wrigley like a scene out of Field of Dreams.
Well, it turns out that the players were headed out there to head up to the center field scoreboard and raise the championship banner themselves:
Together, we raise the banners. #ThatsCub pic.twitter.com/LmsKtqK92Q
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 11, 2017
The Cubs also had Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg (1907 WS banner), Fergie Jenkins (1908 WS banner), and Billy Williams (2016 NL Pennant) raise other banners:
The banner raising was followed by Anthony Rizzo carrying the World Series trophy as he led his teammates back out to the field:
The ceremonies were actually delayed two hours by rain, and now an NLCS series rematch gets underway between the Cubs and Dodgers, with the Cubs’ ring ceremony still to come on Wednesday. It should be a very fun week at Wrigley Field.
UPDATE: Making the night even better for the Cubs was how the game finished. Fittingly, it was Anthony Rizzo getting the walk-off hit off Dodgers star closer Kenley Jansen, to give the Cubs a 3-2 win:
[ESPN]
