As anticipated, the Rapture was short-lived for Cubs fans, failing to get any moment against a 44-year-old knuckleballer throwing pitches at around 65 mph.

But hey, in three-game series, at least they had one inning that went really well.

Although it was not exactly as Harold Camping predicted, the Rapture did occur.

As the World knows, there are no True Believers like Cubs fans.  In the face of all evidence that their Team will be unconscionably miserable year after year after year after year, Cubs fans continue to Believe.  Even when their beloved shortstop boots what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball (jump past the whole Bartman thing to 4:55)–an inning that then saw 7 more runs score*–to ruin their chance of making the World Series for the first time since Noah built the Arc, they still Believe.  They believe, this year will be the year. At the start of every season, no matter how much nothing has changed from the previous season, this will be the year.  There are those that poke fun at Cubs fans, that mock them for clinging to the futile belief that one year–maybe even this year–the Cubs will do something miraculous.  But Cubs fans have always ignored this mockery, keeping the Faith.  One day, it will happen.

And so it was, in the 8th inning of the second game of the series against the Red Sox at Hallowed Fenway Park, on the 52nd day of the season, December 21, 2011, the 17th day of the 2nd month by the Hebrew calendar:  Judgement Day.  The day True Believers would ascend into Heaven, leaving all others to rot in Hell.  On that day, in that inning Cubs fans were lifted to the Heavens as they miraculously watched their team score 8 runs, the Red Sox players–clearly the victims of some form of Divine Intervention–dropping routine balls, finding themselves unable to catch balls thrown by a teammate fifteen feet away, walking in runs, and otherwise pitching like all of the sin from their lives had returned to them in the form of ineptitude, causing them to miss the strike zone repeatedly except for those times when they lobbed it nicely into a location where the Cubs’ batter could smack it.

And Cubs fans around the world–the True Believers–experienced Rapture.

Even if only briefly.  Tonight is Game 3.

* Note:  Game 6 of the NLCS was on October 15, 2003.  The Cubs, having already scored 3 runs of their own, gave up 8 runs in the 8th inning that night.  On May 21, 2011, the Cubs scored 8 runs in the 8th inning, after the Red Sox had scored 3 runs of their own.  The 8th year after 2003 is 2011.  October is the 5th month after May, and the 5th month of the year is, itself, May.  Those two games were exactly 2,775 days apart.  2+7+7+5 = 21.  8 runs in the 8th.  May is the 5th month, and the sum of the difference in days adds up to 21.

Month 5, Day 21, Year 2011.  I’m really surprised no one saw this coming.