CHICAGO — Sitting atop the right-field scoreboard at Wrigley Field for the last week, encased in a plastic box, was the baseball that Kyle Schwarber had deposited there — a metaphorical marker of Schwarber’s prodigious power and the Chicago Cubs’ defeat of their perpetually haunting rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Schwarber, perhaps more than any member of the Cubs, is a proxy for the franchise: young, powerfully constructed and, with a baby face graced by a scruffy patch on his chin, still growing into himself.
During the National League Championship Series sweep by the Mets, Schwarber left impressions on baseballs — he hit two impressive home runs — and on the left-field grass at Wrigley Field.