CLEVELAND
Seven hundred and thirty days before Game 7 of the World Series, on his first day on the job as the manager of the Chicago Cubs, Joe Maddon stood inside a Wrigleyville bar and offered to buy the joint a round of shots and beers.
The joint was called the Cubby Bear, a venerable spot that sits just across the street from Wrigley Field. The occasion was an opening press conference. The moment was meant to send a message, to toast a new era of Cubs baseball, to foreshadow a party that Maddon hoped would happen at some point in the near future.