Cool story, bro. Now baseball can get back to being boring.

Wow.

What a World Series.

The story lines surrounding the Chicago Cubs ending their 108-yard drought as world champions couldn’t have been any better – or more dramatic. Here’s a few scenarios that had to have had Cubs fans with their hearts in their throats along the way.

▪ The first one is the most obvious, facing a 3-1 series deficit against the Cleveland Indians. I’m sure many fans were already thinking “There’s always next year.”

▪ Then, after Chicago rallied to tie the series at 3-all, of course Game 7 would be filled with drama. First, everything looked fine as the Cubs scored in the first inning to go up 1-0. Promptly after the Indians tied the game at 1 in the third, Chicago scored two in the top of the fourth and then added two more in the top of the fifth to build a 5-1 lead. Cleveland again chipped away with two in the bottom of the fifth, making it 5-3 before the Cubs padded their lead once again to go up 6-3. Eerily, that may have made the Chicago faithful feeling more paranoid, knowing something was coming.

▪ It sure did. Nearly untouchable with a fastball that can hit up to 105 mph on the radar, the usually trusty – but perhaps overworked – Aroldis Chapman temporarily took on the role of goat. The Indians rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 7. There it was.

▪ Then, after a scoreless ninth inning, a seemingly bad omen arrived as rain came falling down from above. It had to be a sign, right?

▪ But then the delay – which came with more rain headed toward Cleveland on the radar – proved to be only 17 minutes. Surely the Baseball Gods were simply toying with the Loveable Losers, right? Nope. Instead, it appeared to be a rite of passage as the Cubs scored two in the top of 10th and held off the Indians, who scored one in the ninth, to get away with an 8-7 victory and end the long drought.

With the drought over, it was only fitting that rain was destined to come next.

It proved to be quite the storybook ending and everyone was watching as Game 7 was the most-watched game in 25 years.

That’s good news for Major League Baseball.

The bad news?

Baseball has no choice but to get back to being boring.

With a season that drags on and games that seem to do the same, only theatrics such as this year’s World Series seem to return the sport back to the good old days of being America’s Pastime. Now, the casual fans will once again forget baseball exists and wait for the NFL season to begin like they had in recent years.

Following in the footsteps of the Boston Red Sox ending their 86-year drought 12 years earlier, the Cubs’ chase was the most compelling story line in baseball. Perhaps the Indians will be next, with their drought extending to 69 years. But we kind of wasted their story this year, so – aside from not being the big market Boston and Chicago are – I don’t know how many will care.

It’s time to pass the baton back to the diehard fans who will tune in no matter what. If my Cincinnati Reds can find their way back to relevance – which doesn’t appear to be on the near horizon – I’ll tune back in for the long haul. While I do like baseball, it’s hard to tune in unless you have a true rooting interest.

So, until then I say to baseball: Cool story, bro. Now you can get back to being boring.

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Cool story, bro. Now baseball can get back to being boring.."