Epstein enjoying support of Chicago Cubs fans

An interesting thing happened this past Tuesday night at AT&T Park in San Francisco, where the Chicago Cubs won the National League division series in four games over the Giants.

For the entire game, Giants fans turned the ballpark into a sea of black and orange, their team's colors.

After the Cubs staged a stunning comeback to win the game, the Giants fans headed home. What was left was a small patch of Cubs blue behind the visitors' first-base dugout.

The Cubs fans who stayed to cheer on their team and give them a curtain call also chanted, “Theo, Theo,” in honor of team president Theo Epstein, who has engineered a rebuilding of this team.

“That was cool,” Epstein said Friday as the Cubs worked out at Wrigley Field. “Our fans are traveling so well these days. It reminded me a little bit of the Pittsburgh game (the Cubs winning the wild-card playoff) last year, a similar dynamic.

“It's great. It's a collective experience in the postseason: players, front office, fans, ownership. Everyone's in it together.

“It's wonderful to have that kind of support and passion.”

Epstein recently signed a new five-year contract extension to remain team president. He came to Chicago in the fall of 2011 after serving as general manager of the Boston Red Sox.

Born in New York and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Epstein entered a whole new culture in Chicago. Now it seems as if he's part of the fabric of the city and the Midwest.

“You've got to live somewhere for a few years and open yourself up to the experience and understand the history and understand where people are coming from,” he said.” Without even knowing it, you start to feel it yourself. I've definitely had that experience.”

Were there any misconceptions about Chicago that Epstein might have had?

“I guess I didn't quite realize how badly they wanted to win,” he said of Cubs fans. “I thought it was more about the experience. But they want to win and deserve to win.”