For far too long, Cubs fans have feared goats, ghosts and Gatorade. Now that they've clinched the NL Central, it is time to acknowledge the architects who built the team, the players who have dominated the league, the faithful who bleed blue despite 108 years in the desert. Their fear hasn't been unwarranted: Just as the Cubs are built on Wrigley and the ivy and the lovable losing, their identity is equally intertwined with bizarre tales of woe. The smelly goat whose eviction cursed the team in 1945. The black cat who crossed their paths in '69. The Gatorade that spilled on Leon Durham's glove in the '84 NLCS. The guy in glasses-we dare not speak his name-who reached for a FOUL BALL in 2003. No wonder some fans have been haunting Wrigley dressed as the 1908 Cubs, winners of the franchise's last title. Nice idea, but if-when-Cubs fans do get to celebrate, it won't be because Tinker and Evers and Chance reappeared. It'll be because Russell and Zobrist and Rizzo granted their wish.
ON THE COVER: When Jon Lester was with the Red Sox, he met a young ballplayer who was fighting cancer and wanted to meet Lester, a star who had beaten the disease. That player was Anthony Rizzo, now Lester's teammate with the Cubs. They bonded over their health struggles, and the bond has only gotten stronger as they attempt to break Chicago's title drought. By Robert Sanchez DON'T MISS: In "Reaching Cuba," Josh Basile, who is quadriplegic, has taken on adaptive sports like hang gliding and indoor skydiving and created a nonprofit that helps others with spinal cord injuries experience what he calls "rehabilitative adventures." This year Basile and a couple of friends took an adventure of their own, sailing on a specially outfitted catamaran from Florida to Cuba, and found out what it takes to navigate Havana by wheelchair. By Eric Nusbaum, Presented in collaboration with Vice Sports http://es.pn/2cYeyfSVideos