CHICAGO -- Joe Maddon stood up on a stage just outside of Wrigley Field on Saturday morning, holding up a page of notes from the first day of 2016 Spring Training. On it, the then-Cubs manager had scribbled what became one of the mottos for that year’s club -- embrace the target.
That target -- a World Series title -- was indeed embraced throughout Chicago’s 2016 campaign, which culminated in Maddon’s crew ending the Cubs’ 108-year championship drought during an epic seven-game series against Cleveland. Ten years later, he was standing in front of the club’s latest commemoration for a moment that changed the lives of both him and everyone else involved with bringing home that title.
The Cubs unveiled their brand new Champions Gate outside the stadium, a bronze monument that honors the club’s three World Series championships. The moment served as a 10-year reunion for those who secured the most recent one, as players, coaches and staff members of the 2016 Cubs were on hand for the official dedication. Multiple players from the club -- including pitchers Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta, World Series MVP Ben Zobrist and three-time All-Star Anthony Rizzo -- took part in the unveiling, capping off a week-long homecoming for the curse-breaking club.
“Today we celebrate that championship,” Cubs executive chairman Tom Ricketts said to open the ceremony. “But even more importantly, we celebrate the people who made it possible and the generations of fans that never stopped believing.
“The journey wasn't easy. It took years of hard work, difficult decisions, unwavering belief and the commitment of countless people throughout this organization. And while every year there is a champion, it's difficult to imagine any championship that meant so much to so many people.”
The gate, which stands 31 feet wide and 22 feet tall, features a medallion celebrating each of the club’s championships, with 2016 positioned in the center. Along both sides are plaques listing the full rosters and the manager from each championship-winning club. Under the 2016 roster sits another plaque, a bronze image of the Cubs celebrating the final out of Game 7 at Progressive Field.
“It's a special group,” said Theo Epstein, who served as the team’s president and helped construct the roster that finally ended Chicago’s championship drought. “The chemistry they had -- how much they supported each other, what they mean to each other -- lives on to this day.
“This championship, and what it meant for all these fans and how they supported this group along the way, just all comes flooding back. And now the permanent physical manifestation of it is here in a very fitting way.”
The celebration served as a special opportunity for the club to reconnect and relive various memories from such a monumental moment of their careers. Players shared various tales from the 2016 season, from following Maddon’s famous “try not to suck” motto to the famous speech Jason Heyward gave the group as they waited out the Game 7 rain delay.
But more importantly, it further illustrated just how much that title meant to everyone who followed along.
“It's evident more and more each and every day how important this is to Cubs Nation,” said Arrieta, who won Games 2 and 6 of the 2016 Series. “Whether it's in Chicago, in Illinois, nationwide or worldwide -- we get told stories on a daily or weekly basis of what this meant to families and generations of families. That's special. This is something that we were able to do and cement ourselves in Cubs history forever.”
Cubs Nation saved its loudest ovations of the day for Rizzo, who spent 10 years with the club and took the stage donning the jersey he wore for Game 7. Before the official Champions Gate ribbon cutting, he made sure to note there was plenty of room to commemorate future Cubs titles. For Rizzo, along with everyone else on hand, the monument represented how special it was to be part of such a pivotal moment in franchise history.
“Being a Chicago Cub, win or lose, makes this place the best to play,” Rizzo said. “There have been a lot of great players before us that didn't win here that are celebrated and loved dearly here, and the list goes on and on, obviously.
“Winning in Chicago, the magnitude of what we won has elevated our careers and lives and brotherhood tremendously.”