From Bad Blood to Champagne Problems? Why Taylor Swift May Have Saved the Cubs Season
Since lighting a Taylor Swift candle before every game, the Cubs have gone on an enchanted run
For much of the Chicago Cubs’ season, baseball has felt like death by a thousand cuts.
Last offseason, they hired the Milwaukee Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell to try to extract more value from a promising roster. They resigned former MVP Cody Bellinger. Shortstop Dansby Swanson said he was reworking his swing, trying to return to the level of play that had earned him a $177 million contract.
But if anybody thought the Cubs’ problems were behind them, they weren’t out of the woods quite yet.
Long story short, the team was five games behind .500 at the All-Star break. Bellinger rode the injured list with a broken finger. Swanson, for his part, was down bad, registering a measly .212 in the first half of the season. It was shaping up to be a cruel summer.
But recently, with help from the most unlikely of sources, everything has changed.
See, some time a few weeks ago, the Cubs’ clubhouse manager Danny Mueller received a Taylor Swift-themed candle as a gift. On a whim, Mueller brought the candle to Wrigley, and before their August 16 game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Mueller and Counsell lit the candle in the clubhouse for good luck. The Cubs had just been swept by the Cleveland Guardians and fell to four games out of .500—a nightmare dressed as a daydream.
The candle, though, must be enchanted. Because that first day, the Cubs beat the Blue Jays 6-5 with a walk-off single in the 10th inning. When the team returned the next day, Mueller and Counsell lit the candle again. Under Wrigley Field’s famous ivy, the Cubs won again. And so, every day for the past fortnight, the team has lit the enchanted candle before they take the field.
The results? They’re crazier than anybody’s wildest dreams.
Since tapping into the popstar’s good karma, the North Siders are 9-3. This last weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates, they scored 41 runs in three games, the most by any team in a series this year—including a wild comeback on Sunday where they erased a 10-3 deficit in the 6th inning, scored 11 unanswered runs, and completed the sweep.
Maybe one day, Cubs fans will remember this August, back when they were living for the hope of it all. But for now, they’ll keep lighting that magic candle. They’re five games back from a playoff spot, climbing every day. Luck? Coincidence? Call it what you want…the Cubs will keep lighting their candle—and they just might keep winning too.
🎾 Have you watched the final episode of In the Arena: Serena Williams yet? This one covers Serena’s controversial 2018 US Open and then discusses her decision to evolve away from tennis following the 2022 US Open. Watch it—and the rest of the season—on ESPN+ now!
✈️ The pitcher who put the Cubs into a 10-3 hole before their rally Sunday? That would be Paul Skenes, the rookie sensation electrifying baseball. Ryan Hockensmith has the best story I’ve read yet on the flamethrower, tracking how his two years at the Air Force Academy shaped the young pitcher.
🦈 The Paralympics started this weekend. Aishwarya Kumar has the story of how swimmer Ali Truwit survived a shark attack and made it to Paris.
🤘 Praise be! College football is back! You’ll find me at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday. And before then, you’ll find me partaking in what has become a college football tradition: reading Spencer Hall’s beautiful, wacky, inspiring, and always unique “opener,” an essay to get us all ready for the months to come(Paywall required).