CHICAGO — All day long on the North Side, fans in blue Cubs sweatshirts and caps moved nervously about the city. A night earlier, their team had lost the first World Series game at Wrigley Field in 71 years, but they thought it must have been an aberration.
This was supposed to be the year the Cubs broke their century-long hex and won the World Series. There were no visible signs of billy goats, black cats or headphone-wearing fans reaching for foul balls. It Is Happening became the new motto, replacing It’s Gonna Happen.
But after the Indians defeated the sloppy Cubs, 7-2, in Game 4 to take a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series, a quiet, tense pall descended over Wrigley Field and its environs.