Sam Hughes woke up in the La Concha Renaissance and noticed 260 text messages on his phone. This really wasn’t a dream. The Cubs had actually won the World Series.
“It was just overwhelming,” Hughes recalled this week. “I’m not an overly emotional guy. But the morning after, I had a few times where it seemed like somebody was cutting some onions in my hotel room. I was tearing up pretty good. It was just epic. The enormity of it all just hit me like a tidal wave.”
It didn’t register that the Cubs could still be playing in early November when Hughes got his scouting assignment for winter ball, weeks before an unforgettable postseason run began at Wrigley Field.