WRIGLEY FIELD — Mike Brumfield doesn't need any presents to unwrap on his birthday — he already got a World Series.
"It's like a dream. It's the best birthday," Brumfield said Thursday, just an hour after the Chicago Cubs won the World Series title after 108 years of waiting. "I'm telling everyone not to get me any gifts, because I own the world. This is everything."
Brumfield, his fiancée and his brother watched the Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in an extra-innings, rain-delayed Game 7 at his apartment at Sheridan and Irving Park roads.
As the World Series wrapped in an 8-7 nail-biter five minutes before his 39th birthday, Brumfield and his family jumped up and down along with the rest of Wrigleyville.
"Next thing I know, we're outside," he said. "And we saw every neighbor come out at the same time."
As if in a dream, "Everyone turned and was walking toward Wrigley," Brumfield said. "It was just biblical."
Brumfield admitted to getting nervous as Cleveland tied the game 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning.
"I lost faith — I've got to be honest," he said. "It got very close, and I just saw it not going our way," he said.
But the Cubbies prevailed, and the 2016 World Series became a part of history that Brumfield said can never be repeated.
"You'll never see this again," Brumfield said. "This curse? For so long? It'll never happen again. And to beat a curse like this, the Cubs had to be a really, really great team."
Consider his faith firmly restored.
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