The road is long, but the ‘Cats have begun their journey
Former MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti described baseball in a poetically tragic way.
“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.”
At the end of every Boston Red Sox season, radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione would conclude by reading those words. In 2024, I listened as he said those words for the final time before his retirement.
But the Red Sox fans around me also remembered Castiglione saying a few other words to end the 2004 season.
“Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke. He has it, he underhands to first — and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship. Can you believe it?”
For the 86 years of heartbreak that fans endured, that moment of triumph finally came.
For the Cubs, it was 108 years. And at the end of it? Radio voice Pat Hughes, who began his career the same year as Castiglione, had this to say.
“A little bouncer, slowly towards Bryant. He will glove it and throw to Rizzo. This game’s over, and the Chicago Cubs win the World Series! The Cubs come pouring out of the dugout, jumping up and down like a bunch of delirious 10-year-olds! The Cubs have done it! The longest drought in the history of American sports is over, and the celebration begins!”
As the Northwestern Wildcats took on Ohio State at Wrigley Field, I shared the same booth donned by Pat Hughes for so many years. And in a sport where Northwestern baseball has had its heart broken time and time again, with just one postseason appearance in the last 100 years, the game felt like a step forward.
For a coach who has recruited the likes of former No. 1 overall MLB draft pick Spencer Torkelson, Ben Greenspan’s strong suit has certainly been on display thus far for a Northwestern team that netted transfers from several of the most renowned programs in the country. Sam Hliboki came from a Vanderbilt team that won two national titles in the past 11 years. Ryan Kucherak came from an LSU team that won it all in 2023. Crawford Wade went to three consecutive tournaments with Wake Forest. And, on the younger level, Alex Grant was swayed from a Vanderbilt commitment to don the purple and white in Evanston.
I won’t pretend that Ohio State is some legendary team to take down. They sat at 3-21 in conference entering that game, and they even managed to take game two from the ‘Cats the next day. But, a dominant run-rule victory is exactly what the ‘Cats needed on Friday. For a team that many predicted to undergo no significant changes from a last-place finish in the Big Ten a year ago, the win was truly a sign of change in the Ben Greenspan era. From Sam Hliboki’s seven innings on the mound to the walk-off at the plate from a new face in Ryan Kucherak, it was truly a game won by change.
And as I stared out at the ivy — the ‘Cats celebrating with Kucherak at second base — there felt no more fitting place to represent this turnaround.
Wrigley Field is synonymous with failure. Giamatti may as well have been talking about the ivy when he lamented about heartbreak. The Cubs failed time and time again until they made a run to win it all in 2016. Each turnaround has a point. A moment when the rock does not continue to slide back down the same hill it has kissed for years.
With a Northwestern baseball team that has done nothing but struggle — with coaches, with scandals, with team culture — a win at the House of Heartbreak, I believe, is a sign. The Greenspan-led regime is set for a future that likely won’t include a trophy being hoisted this season. However, as the years go on and the team develops, I believe that it can legitimately recapture the postseason berth that has eluded it every year since 1957.
For this season, there’s still a Big Ten tournament qualification to compete for. The ‘Cats have one series to go with UCLA, but as a rebuilding year, they have far exceeded expectations. First-years like Christian Forniss and Matthew Kouser, while inconsistent, have shown signs of promise. Kucherak and Trent Liolios still have time remaining in Evanston. Finally, the defensive prowess through players like Kucherak, who is one of the nation’s best in defensive runs saved (DRS), alongside a supporting cast like Jack Lausch, who has made highlight reel catches in center field, has shown the team’s ability to pick up the pitching staff time and time again.
The jury is still out on how far the ‘Cats can go this season. If nothing else, watching the 12-2 victory at Wrigley will be a moment I remember for a long time. In those college students celebrating in the stands, I saw the delirious 10-year-olds that Hughes saw in the Cubs. Throughout my future watching this team, I wouldn’t be surprised if I see wins like that come more and more frequently in the years that follow. Sometimes, it takes a place that broke curses once to break them again.
Northwestern’s seasons have consistently ended in heartbreak. But just as it took 108 years of dropped balls, fan interferences and brutal last-place finishes for Wrigley Field to be rocking like never before, the time will eventually come too for the team situated just a handful of miles north. Northwestern winning dominantly in that same venue is step one in a long journey toward a season that ends without fans, as Giamatti said, reminiscing on the game that leaves when you need it the most.