David Ross 'The Rise And Fall Of The Chicago Cubs' Pastime

For more than eight months, from the start of spring training to the start of Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night, David Ross felt as if his baseball life had become the stuff of big-screen fiction, if not straight-up fantasy.

At 39, he was playing in his final season in the major leagues, on a team, the Chicago Cubs, with aspirations to do what had not been accomplished by that franchise in 108 years: Win a championship. As the season progressed and the Cubs evolved into the best team in the sport, Ross began to feel that he and his teammates were heading toward an ending that Hollywood might package and sell.

And in the end, he was absolutely right.

“The whole thing was storybook,” Ross said after Chicago managed to outlast