Three spots in Cleveland’s Progressive Field are bound to bring up World Series Game 7 memories for veteran pitcher Kyle Hendricks:
The bullpen stairs that he climbed to warm up, and descended right before the game.
The weight room where he sat between innings, and where the team gathered during the infamous rain delay.
The clubhouse, where they passed around the trophy.
“Walk in there, and I’ll feel it,” he told the Sun-Times.
On Monday, the Cubs return to the field where they clinched their 2016 World Series title. Eight years later, only one player on each side – Hendricks and Guardians third baseman José Ramirez – played in that storied game. But Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy was the team’s run prevention coordinator at the time, and first base coach Mike Napoli was Cleveland’s first baseman.
“If it wasn’t for winning the World Series in Boston [in 2013], I don’t know how I would feel, or even be able to talk about this,” Napoli said. “It’s heartbreak, getting so close.”
Cleveland had even gone up 3-1 in the series, but the Cubs forced a Game 7.
“It felt like it was the longest day ever,” Hottovy said. “Because it was a night game, … and everybody got to the field early because you’re just anxious.”
Said Hendricks: “Obviously the nerves and emotions were all a part of it, but in a funny way, looking back, the confidence of the group just stands out.”
Hendricks, in his second start of the series, looked comfortable on the mound. Baseball instincts took over once the game started.
“You knew he had good stuff,” Napoli said. ”You knew he could put the ball where he wanted to. So, for me, it was trying to shrink the strike zone and try to get something middle, try not to fall into his trap of you missing a barrel.”
Hendricks remembers walking out to throw his warmup pitches in between innings and out of the corner of his eye seeing fellow starters Jake Arrieta, John Lackey and Jon Lester walking out to the bullpen together.
“You knew what was at stake,” Hendricks said. “And it almost made it more calming and easier in a lot of ways. It’s just one pitch at a time. Literally, if anything happens, we have every single person behind you.”
Hendricks ended up handing over the ball to Lester, up 5-1 with two outs and one runner on in the bottom of the fifth inning. The lead was comfortable enough that even after two runs scored on wild pitch from Lester, the Cubs were still in control.
That changed in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Cleveland tied the game against Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman.
“I can remember looking at our hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo,” Napoli said, “just this stare we gave each other when [Rajai Davis] hit the home run, of, ‘maybe they are cursed.’”
Then came the rain.
Play paused going into the 10th inning, the Cubs retreated to the weight room, where Hottovy had been camped out all game. Both he and Hendricks recalled Chapman’s emotion and Jason Heyward’s rallying speech.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, just focus on what you need to do,’” Hottovy said of the conversation in the room. “It was like, ‘No, this is ours. We’re gonna take it.’ Such a cool moment to hear a bunch of guys all come together in this final moment.”
They followed through. When third baseman Kris Bryant’s throw hit first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s mitt for the final out, Hendricks described it as, “one of the happiest feelings in the whole world.”
“It really connected us to the fan base,” Hendricks said of breaking the 108-year championship drought, “and just how much it meant to everybody in the city and around the whole world — there’s Cubs fans everywhere. So, we really felt all that.”
The Cubs have been back to Cleveland since, but not without the core of that championship team.
“At this point in your career, you’re still obviously locked in on the moment and the day to day in the present,” Hendricks said, “but you do tend to, a little more, smell the roses, look around, reminisce a little bit.”
Hendricks isn’t scheduled to start in Cleveland. The Cubs are using their rash of off-days this month to skip his turn in the rotation. But he’s available out of the bullpen. And the Cubs will be facing their toughest test this month on their quest to get back in the National League Wild Card conversation.