Rozner: Cubs will soon say goodbye to 2016
It has been a parade with no stop sign on a road with no conclusion, the party with no last call, an open-ended Mardi Gras in a city with no borders.
Perhaps the longest title celebration in sports history continued this weekend at the Cubs Convention, one final opportunity for fans to offer thanks and prayers, one last chance for players to bathe in adoration and affection.
It's the beginning of the end for the 2016 World Series champs, who won't understand until Monday that they - just like everyone else - carry an expiration date.
Sunday night they will fly to Washington and together they will open beverages, raise a toast and fist bump for the final time as a group, before those who have retired, and those who have relocated, disperse for assorted climes.
Monday afternoon they will have an hour or two at the White House, a rather short visit that never quite lives up to the pomp and circumstance TV suggests, and they will walk out of that extraordinary building with a shocking realization.
They will know at that moment that the 2016 season is over, that the celebration is done, that the defense of their title has begun and - most unfortunate - that the team will never be together again.
It was 2:51 p.m. in Washington on a frigid Monday in February 2006, when White Sox players left the East Room of the White House, walked past us on the red carpet of the Cross Hall and down the stairs of the North Portico.
Some players and execs stopped to meet the media. A.J. Pierzynski shivered. Paul Konerko was turning blue. Aaron Rowand was in tears.
"It's kind of sad," Pierzynski said, standing outside the West Wing. "That's really the end for us, and I think we started to feel that (Sunday) night.
"Up until now, we knew there was one more party, one more chance for the guys to be together. Now, it's over."
A month after the parade, Rowand was traded to Philadelphia for Jim Thome, but he and several ex-Sox players from the title team made the trip to D.C. on short notice and with camp opening for some the next day.
"What a classy move by those guys to show up for this. It was an amazing turnout considering the late date, spring training starting this week, the snow, and all the missed fights," Konerko said. "But now we're not the champs anymore.
"It was a good way to kick off spring training. We had our last few rounds (of drinks) with our former teammates and said goodbye. Now, we start all over."
The mourning process had begun.
"I hope 20 years from now, or 25 years from now," Konerko said, "we can get together just like we do now."
Not everyone from that team felt the need to be there, but most would not have missed it for the world, trying to hang onto that feeling with fingernails scraping the ground as the reality of time and calendar dragged them kicking and screaming into a new season.
"Aaron and I had flights canceled out from under us, so we drove half the day around the state of Florida getting a flight that would get us here," Pierzynski said. "I have to go home and pack and leave for Arizona in two days, but it was my duty to come here to be part of this, and I loved it.
"I'll remember this day for the rest of my life, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity. It's kind of sad, but I'm glad it ended here."
The Cubs will learn all of this Sunday night and Monday, that no one can stop the march of time, but frozen in time will always be the memory of 2016, Game 7 in Cleveland, the rally and conclusion in Washington.
It is a most fitting way to say so long to 2016.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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