Rain, Heyward all they needed

The rains came down from the heavens heavily late Wednesday night in Cleveland.

It turned out to be a godsend for the Chicago Cubs.

A stunned bunch of Cubs had just watched the Cleveland Indians rally against closer Aroldis Chapman to tie Game 7 of the World Series at 6-6 in the eighth inning.

What looked to be a certain World Series victory for the Cubs suddenly had the look of a postseason failure.

Then right fielder Jason Heyward took matters into his own hands, calling a players-only meeting in the weight room.

"I just felt like we needed to be reminded of how good we are," Heyward said in the Cubs' postgame celebratory clubhouse. "I needed to love on them a little bit and tell them, 'Hey, I love everybody in here. You guys should all look in the mirror and understand that you can get it done. I don't care who it is. There's a lot of things you have to overcome in a season. You're not going to be happy about some things. Some things are going to be easier than others to swallow, but just be ready in this moment and this situation because you can come through.'"

The Cubs came through, scoring 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning to take an 8-6 lead over the Indians. They held on in the bottom of the inning, winning 8-7 to capture the franchise's first World Series victory since 1908.

On one hand, it might seem odd that Heyward was the man to call the meeting. After all, he endured a poor regular season at the plate, and things got so bad in the postseason that he was benched for a time.

"My year had nothing to do with that," he said of giving his talk.

On the other hand, to know the Cubs is to know that Heyward is most respected and admired by his teammates for his professionalism, leadership, knowledge of the game and his Gold Glove-caliber defense.

He was on third base in the ninth inning when Javier Baez tried to bunt with two strikes and fouled the pitch for a strikeout. Baez, the MVP of the National League championship series, had a rough World Series, punctuated by 2 errors in Game 7.

"For me, it had everything to do with being on third base with Javy up, the MVP of the NLCS, up at the plate," Heyward said. "He was asked to safety squeeze. It's a tough thing. We've all got to be ready to do what our manager asks us to do, and that's not easy. It's not easy for him (manager Joe Maddon) to make the calls, to pull the strings. But it's not an easy thing to do to ask a guy right there. It's a tough pitcher to bunt off, too.

"I understood he (Baez) was frustrated, but I understand that we all as a group live and die with each other's at-bats. And I just wanted to remind them, 'Hey, you guys are fine. We've overcome it before. We can do it again. Just everybody be ready. Yeah, I know it's the situation it is now. It's game tied. It's Game 7, whatever. But just know you can get it done, and I want everybody here to feel like they accomplished something to help this team get to this point."

Heyward made his move as the team was coming off the field and into the clubhouse to wait out what became a 17-minute rain delay.

That was just enough time to regroup.

"I just said, 'Hey, let's get everybody in the weight room,' because it's right there by the field," Heyward said. "It was an easy location. It was players only. We had to do what we had to do."

Series MVP Ben Zobrist credited Heyward for the inspiration.

"J-Hey called a meeting and said, 'Come in here, I've got something to say,'" Zobrist related. "And he said, 'You know what, whatever's happened up to this point, forget about it. It's over. We're still the best team. We're going to pull this thing out. We need to pull together and chip away. We're going to win this game.'

"And everybody kind of rallied together like we've always done all year long."

First baseman Anthony Rizzo agreed.

"Best rain delay of all time," he said. "You never, ever want a rain delay, but that's the best rain delay of all time. It kind of settled us down, got us regrouped."

Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer agreed, and he also acknowledged the franchise was due for a change in fortune after not winning a World Series since 1908.

"So maybe after 108 years, you get some divine intervention, right?" Hoyer said.