The Chicago Cubs take a 3-2 lead into Wrigley Field Saturday night and it will be Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 2.13 ERA) versus Clayton Kershaw. The last time the Cubs had a 3-2 lead in an NLCS was in the 2003 NDLS. Back then a fan named Steve Bartman grabbed a foul ball away from Moises Alou, who was attempting to make a play on the ball and the rest is—all in the past. Yeah, bad stuff happened back then.
But this is a new Cubs team. They are in the process of doing a kind of Feng Shui to the Friendly Confines, to clear out all the bad karma of missed opportunities, of the ’69 Cubs, the ’84 Cubs, the 2003 Cubs, the 2008 Cubs, and last year’s team, the 2015 Cubs.