Sports

Cubs' World Series Trophy Damaged 'Crowd Surfing' During Benefit Concert

VIDEO: Watch concert-goers pass around the team's 2016 title prize during a weekend benefit held by Cubs mastermind Theo Epstein in Boston.

BOSTON, MA — This is why the Chicago Cubs can't have nice things for more than a century: They don't know how to properly take care of those precious items when they do have them. Because if they did, then someone in the franchise would have thought to pump the brakes at the idea of letting the trophy signifying Chicago's first World Series title in 108 years "crowd surf" at a weekend benefit concert in New England.

According to the Boston Globe, a few of the 30 gold-plated flags that adorn Major League Baseball's Commissioner's Trophy snapped off as the Cubs' 2016 championship prize — along with the Boston Red Sox's 2004 World Series tophy — was passed around by concert-goers at the Hot Stove, Cool Music event Saturday, April 30, at Boston's Paradise Rock Club. The baseball-meets-music soiree is part of a benefit series started by Cubs President and former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and his charitable (and cleverly named) Foundation To Be Named Later group. A similar fundraiser is scheduled for June 2 at The Metro in Chicago.

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Epstein is widely considered the architect behind the Boston and Chicago teams that ended the long title droughts¹ for those franchises in 20o4 and 2016, respectively. That's why it's jarring to see an Instagram video from the concert showing Epstein — the baseball "wunderkind" who Fortune magazine called "the world's greatest leader" earlier this year, and someone who really should know better — as the instigator behind the trophy's ill-fated crowd surfing:

A post shared by @somebodyisalwayswatching on Apr 29, 2017 at 11:30pm PDT

Proving brilliance on the diamond doesn't always translate into simple common sense off of it, the man who made savvy decisions to bring All-Stars Jon Lester, Ben Zobrist, Anthony Rizzo and manager Joe Maddon to the North Side can be seen motioning to keep the trophies circulating around the crowd, as well as physically passing one of them from the stage and into the mass of humanity. Before taking a 1 a.m. trip around the rock club to the sounds of "Rockin' in the Free World," both trophies had been back stage, possibly discussing why Boston's 2007 World Series hardware² wasn't invited to the gig.

RELATED: Is Cubs' Theo Epstein World's Greatest Leader? Fortune Magazine Thinks So

Thankfully, the broken flags were recovered³, and the trophy was fixed enough so that it still could be displayed during Sunday's matchup between the Cubs and Red Sox at Fenway Park, according to the Globe. Both trophies were showcased before the game, and fans could donate $20 to have their pictures taken with them, the report added.

RELATED: Watch The Chicago Cubs Raise World Series Banner Before Home Opener

Cubs fans also lucked out that a few dinged-up, gold-plated flags were the only team casualties from the weekend concert. Another Instagram video showed Epstein following the examples set by the Commissioner's trophies as he and Pearl Jam frontman, lifelong Cubs fan and "Bryzzo" jingle writer Eddie Vedder did their own crowd surfing with better results:

A post shared by @somebodyisalwayswatching on Apr 29, 2017 at 11:38pm PDT

Instead, the Cubs exec took a spill of his own trying to jump off a drum riser, a less-than-graceful feat captured in a video posted online by Bar Stool Sports:

RELATED: Chicago Cubs Attach $1 Buy-Back Strings To World Series Rings; Fair Or Foul?

And yes, that's Vedder calling Epstein "safe" as he wipes out onstage. See? Baseball geniuses and their rock star friends … they're just like us!

More via the Boston Globe


Footnotes:

¹And broke those teams' curses, if you can't help but mix in superstitions with your sports.

²Epstein was Boston's general manager, as well as VP, for that World Series title, too.

³Unfortunately, the honesty those Boston Red Sox fans displayed by not pocketing the snapped-off trophy flags is overshadowed by the horrifyingly racist displays directed at Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones by some of the team's supporters during a game Monday at Fenway Park.


Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo carries the 2016 World Series trophy before the team's home opener at Wrigley Field. (Photo by David Banks | Associated Press)

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