I don’t subscribe to the idea that goats or cats or dudes in green turtlenecks have cost the Cubs a title, nor do I believe that some sort of biennial planetary alignment has been critical to San Francisco’s even-year runs. But dammit if I didn’t find myself watching Game 2 of the NLDS and thinking something bigger was at play.
I’m not saying I sensed that the fates have been cutting the strings that animate Hunter “I’m a Real Boy!” Pence in order to grant the Cubs safe passage to the NLCS. It’s more like, I don’t know, Joe Maddon and Co.