Monday 24 October 2016 12:13, UK
The Chicago Cubs are heading to the World Series for the first time in 71 years after a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 'cursed' Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908, and last played in Major League Baseball's championship showcase in 1945, but the victory in front of 42,386 ecstatic fans at Wrigley Field wrapped up the National League Championship Series 4-2.
They will face the Cleveland Indians in the 112th World Series starting on Tuesday in Cleveland. The Indians themselves haven't won a World Series title since 1948.
The Cubs pounced on Dodgers pitching ace Clayton Kershaw, scoring two runs in the first inning to stake Chicago starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks to an early lead.
After giving up a first-pitch single, Hendricks dominated, facing the minimum number of Dodgers hitters through 7 1/3 shut-out innings.
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo both homered off Kershaw as the Dodgers were denied their first trip to the World Series since 1988.
A Cubs team that won a major league-leading 103 regular-season games chased Kershaw after five innings. Kershaw, who pitched seven scoreless innings in a game-two win over the Cubs at Wrigley a week earlier, gave up five runs, four of them earned, on seven hits.
When the Dodgers' Yasiel Puig grounded into a double play to end the game, Wrigley Field erupted as Cubs players stormed the mound to celebrate.
"This is unbelievable right now," Hendricks said. "Today, that might have been the best game I pitched all year. I had my fastball command, changeup, curveball, I had everything going."
It was sweet relief for long-suffering Cubs fans, whose team were one win from the World series in 1984 before San Diego rallied to win three straight games and advance to the Fall Classic.
In 2003, the Cubs led the NLCS 3-2 and were up 3-0 in the eighth inning of the sixth game when a fan, Steve Bartman, tried to grab a foul ball in the front row of the stands and disrupted a potential leaping catch by Cubs outfielder Moises Alou.
Instead of the Cubs being four outs from the World Series, the Florida Marlins had new life and went on to win that game and the next to deny the Cubs again.
For some, all the heartache can be traced back to that last World Series appearance in 1945 and the "Curse of the Billy Goat," when Billy Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, cursed the club when asked to take his pet goat from the ballpark.
While the Indians still await, it wasn't surprising that the Cubs' achievement in reaching the World Series sparked celebrations beyond the "friendly confines" of Wrigley Field.
"Incredible. Absolutely incredible," an enthusiastic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.
"The Chicago Cubs are National League champions. Across Chicago and around the world, generations of Cubs fans, from the very young to the very, very old, are celebrating tonight."
