Imrem: 'Cubs' and 'World Series' finally belong in same sentence

Full disclosure: I had no right to moan that the Cubs never won anything in my lifetime.

I was seven months old the last time they won a National League pennant.

It's difficult to remember too much about it but all these years later I'm able to use “Cubs” and “World Series” in the same sentence without drawing snickers.

My fingers barely can type it, my head barely can comprehend it: The Cubs are in the World Series for the first time since 1945.

No, seriously, it's true after the Cubs disposed of the Dodgers 5-0 in Saturday night's Game 6 of the NLCS before a raucous hockey-style crowd in Wrigley Field.

The Cubs exorcised the demons of not winning a National League pennant in 71 years. Starting Tuesday at Cleveland they have a chance to exorcise the demons of not winning a World Series in 108 years.

It was exhilarating to stand and watch the Cubs jump around on the middle of the infield to celebrate their newly minted pennant.

You don't have to be a Cubs fan to recognize the magnitude of this, right, White Sox fans?

I expected to live to 100 or 1,000 or forever without seeing the Cubs play a World Series game.

What I just saw was so surreal that my entire life as a Chicago baseball fan flashed before my eyes.

For starters, my parents took me to Wrigley Field for the first time at age 5. Walking up through the tunnel into the grandstands, it was awesome how bright everything was.

Moving on, I'm thinking of my friend's father who painted apartments in Logan Square. During the summer he scheduled jobs for when the Cubs were on road trips so he could take us to the ballpark during homestands.

Then there's the older man who stocked shelves in a neighborhood drugstore. He always happened to be working near the radio when Cub games were on.

Look, there's my older brother taking me to the ballpark. We were first in line at the bleacher gate, raced up to get front-row seats and tossed packs of gum down to Hank Sauer because we weren't old enough to buy him chewing tobacco.

So many of those folks left us without ever seeing the Cubs win a pennant.

Today they're up somewhere listening to late broadcasters Jack Quinlan, Jack Brickhouse, Lou Boudreau, Vince Lloyd and Harry Caray capturing Saturday night's milestone.

My goodness, Ron Santo lived for this day before dying without witnessing it. Ernie Banks didn't live long enough to say, “The Cubs got their kicks in 2-0-1-6!”

Bless all the Cub fans who on their deathbeds sighed, “The Cubs are killing me.”

For seven decades, as bouncing babies aged into senior citizens, the Cubs couldn't advance to a World Series.

No wonder it has been easy for me to remember all the close calls, starting with sitting in the right-field bleachers as the Cubs soared in 1969 and on a bar stool at Keystone Liquors as they came crashing down.

Among other teases were the free-fall of 1977, the Gatorade glove of '84 and the collapse of '03.

Curses!

Now the Cubs and their fans are celebrating a National League pennant.

Ponder that a moment ... the Cubs and their fans are celebrating a National League pennant.

All the Cubs have to do from here is win the World Series to complete the journey of a lifetime.

mimrem@dailyherald.com