‘Parks and Recreation’ Predicted the Cubs’ World Series Win
The comedy’s final season, set in 2017, predicted that Chicago would be basking in the Cubs’ long awaited World Series triumph
Jeremy Fuster | November 2, 2016 @ 11:20 PM
Last Updated: November 3, 2016 @ 6:38 AM
Last year, there was a lot of buzz surrounding “Back To The Future Part II” and its prediction that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in 2015. But while that prediction ended up being just one year off, “Parks and Recreation” managed to prognosticate the Cubbies’ World Series victory right on the nose.
In the second episode of the NBC comedy’s final season, which aired January 2015, Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Andy (Chris Pratt) travel to Chicago to find Tom’s ex-girlfriend, Lucy, in the spring of 2017. They meet up with Lucy pretending that Tom’s thinking about moving to Chicago to work for a non-profit, but he’s really trying to convince her to get back together and to move back to Pawnee with him.
Shortly after their first meeting, Lucy takes the two guys on a tour of Chicago, and one of the stops is Wrigley Field. Lucy is giving her case as to why Chicago is a great place to live, and one of her talking points is how “everybody’s in a good mood because of the Cubs winning the Series.”
Jokes about the Cubs’ hopelessness are common in pop culture, but at the time this episode aired, it really felt like a cruel joke. The Cubs had just come off a brutal 2014 season in which they lost 89 games and finished dead last in their division. But “Parks and Rec” co-creator Michael Schur, an avid baseball fan, wrote the line into the episode believing that the Cubs’ strong minor league system would make them a contender in just a few years’ time.
Schur also recognized the strong team-building skills of Chicago’s general manager Theo Epstein, who served as GM of Schur’s favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, when they ended their championship drought in 2004.
“It’s one of those things where until it happens, it seems impossible,” Schur told The Washington Post. “But that’s what makes Theo Epstein amazing. He puts together these teams and after it happens, you’re like, ‘Oh, it was inevitable. They were just the best team.'”
Still, while baseball fans will flock to Netflix to gawk and laugh at Schur’s amazing prediction, he told The Post that he doesn’t want to take credit for it.
“It’s a little like, if we had predicted that Hillary Clinton was the president in 2017, there would probably be people asking me about that now. Saying Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2014 or 2013 … that would’ve also been a pretty easy call to make based on the information that we had at the time. We’re not like wizards.”
#FlyTheW: Stars Who Are Long-Suffering Chicago Cubs Fans (Photos)
The Chicago Cubs are tied 1-1 in the Best of 7 National League Championship Series against the LA Dodgers. If the Cubs win, they will break a curse and go to the World Series for the first time since a smelly goat was denied entry to Wrigley Field in 1945.
Bill Murray A favorite subject of the cameras at Wrigley Field, Bill Murray can often be seen frowning in concentration at various Cubs games. Most recently seen: gamely pounding back beer for the cameras in Game 1 of the NLCS series against the Dodgers.
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Eddie Vedder The Pearl Jam frontman is such a die-hard Cubbies fan, he even wrote a song ("All the Way") for them, and announced Pearl Jam would no longer be touring in October, just in case the Cubs made it to the postseason.
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John Cusack The Chicago native has been a lifelong Cubs fan and a fixture at Wrigley Field for about as long, and when asked tough questions about his team, knows all the answers.
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Hillary Clinton From wearing Cubs gear to attending games to teaming up with players for charity, the Chicago native and maybe first female President of the United States is a well-documented fan, who even got her own personalized jersey for her 50th birthday.
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Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins lead singer and Chicago native is such a dedicated Cubs fan that he has criticized fellow rocker Eddie Vedder for not being a good fan ... those sound like fighting words.
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Nick Offerman ".@Cubs I love you," the "Parks and Rec" star tweeted last week. "#FlyTheW" The official team account replied back "And we love you."
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Jake Johnson The "New Girl" star has live-tweeted Cubs games, saying during the NLDS series-clinching game against the Giants, "I honestly thought I was having a mild heart attack in the bottom of the 9th. I'm not sure I can survive this October."
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Gary Sinise The "CSI: New York" star is a Chicago native so naturally a longtime Cubs fan. He, like many of his fellow famous fans, has partaken in leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch.
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The Chicago Cubs have some of the most loyal fans around, including Hillary Clinton, Bill Murray and John Cusack among the most famous
The Chicago Cubs are tied 1-1 in the Best of 7 National League Championship Series against the LA Dodgers. If the Cubs win, they will break a curse and go to the World Series for the first time since a smelly goat was denied entry to Wrigley Field in 1945.