PREVIEW: World Series Game 7 Between Cubs and Indians

There is no better thing in sports than a Game 7 for the championship. That is just what the Cubs and Indians will get to experience this evening when they both aim to end their championship droughts: 108 years for the Cubs and 68 years for the Indians. In a game like this, every pitch matters. The crowd is going to be standing the entire time. The full 9-inning game that will probably take 3+ hours will feel like 20 minutes because the adrenaline will be pumping at such a high rate. Besides the high stakes for this championship and the end of a drought for the winning team, there are some other stories that play into this Game 7 tonight.

There has always been superstition in sports. Whether a player has a certain routine he/she has to do in order to get into the right mindset or a so-called curse has been placed on a team… superstition is alive and well in sports. One superstition, also known as a coincidence, in this case, has to do with the Cleveland Indians' appearance in the 1997 World Series against the Florida Marlins. As you might know, the football season overlaps with the World Series. And if you follow football regularly you would know that ties are extremely rare. Since 1974 there have only been 22 tied games. Two of those tied games occurred during the 1997 season. The Cleveland Indians just so happened to be in the World Series that year as well… they lost. Well, guess what? Here we are in 2016 and there have been two ties in the NFL. Are the Indians destined to lose tonight? Maybe, but there’s another factor that makes the outcome of the World Series a bit more interesting.

3-1. That’s the lead the Golden State Warriors had over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals. Yes, we are talking about basketball, but superstition has no bounds! Anyway, the Cavs became the only team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals to win it all. Over the last couple of NBA seasons, the Warriors have generated a lot of haters for many reasons; they shoot a lot of 3-pointers, and they beat everybody. I’m more of a "don"t hate, congratulate" kind of guy, but to each their own. Whenever ESPN or any sporting outlet talks about the Warriors, their haters come out and start tweeting / replying with "3-1" to remind them of what happened to the Warriors last season. Even LeBron has been caught making fun of the Warriors NBA Finals loss at his recent Halloween party, supplying guests with headstone cookies with different Warriors players' names on them. But right now, it seems like all that hating on the Warriors losing a 3-1 lead has built up a lot of bad karma for the Cleveland Indians, or dare I say the entire city of Cleveland.

Will Cleveland fall to the Cubs, giving up their own 3-1 lead tonight? If so, imagine how the internet is going to react to all the haters from or supporting Cleveland. It’s going to be mayhem. I will be live-tweeting during the game tonight. Join me in the conversation on the @AbstractSports Twitter account while I stuff my face with wings and beer at a Buffalo Wild Wings near me.