Another hostless party
Like Marlins four years ago, D-backs make Wrigley their site for celebration
Eric Byrnes was magnanimous in victory Saturday, soaked in champagne and beer and grinning broadly in the visitors' clubhouse at Wrigley Field, where no modern-day Cubs team has ever celebrated winning a postseason series.
''Who would have thought it at the beginning of the year or going into spring training?'' the 32-year-old outfielder said of the mostly unknown and unheralded young Arizona Diamondbacks. ''I don't think people thought we'd be a .500 club. But these guys got used to winning through the year, and Livan [Hernandez] was a World Series MVP [in 1997].
''I think the Cubs knew we were a good team. I don't blame them for being confident [coming into the series]. Look at their roster. They have some great hitters, and their pitching and their bullpen are great.
''It just wasn't their three days.''
As they walked into the cramped clubhouse at Wrigley, each Arizona player dropped his game cap into a bin outside the door and replaced it with the cap of a National League division champion. It was the second time in four years a visiting team had won a playoff round at Wrigley as the home team and home fans watched.
But while Wrigley Field has indeed become the Friendly Confines for visiting teams, Diamondbacks first baseman Conor Jackson insisted it wasn't as easy as Arizona made it look.
''Coming in here, it's not an easy place to play,'' he said. ''It's fun to be here, but it's so loud, you can't hear anything.''
It was Byrnes who provoked some of the loudest noise from the 42,157 in attendance, sprinting to first base like a man possessed in the fourth inning while avoiding an inning-ending double play, and allowing the D-backs to score a run.
The boos cascaded from the stands as Byrnes was called safe, and Cubs manager Lou Piniella protested to first-base umpire Mike Everett while the D-backs celebrated in the dugout.
''I was running like I stole something,'' Byrnes said, laughing. ''It was one of those things where I knew I had to do something to help us. That's how it's been all year.
''People want to call it luck,'' he said of the D-backs season. ''Call it whatever you want. This is the way we've played all year.
''I've never gotten out of the first round of the playoffs before. Unfortunately for the Cubs, it wasn't very electric [in the park].''
The D-backs' Micah Owings, who had been scheduled to pitch in Game 4 today, was as drenched as his teammates who saw action in the division series.
''These guys are unreal,'' said the former Tulane star and 2005 draft pick. ''I was ready, but I can't say enough about how Livan pitched, and Chris [Young] was so clutch.''
Teammates were ready to anoint Young with MVP honors for the series. The former White Sox minor-leaguer, who already had a two-run homer off Ted Lilly in Game 2 on Thursday, belted the first pitch of the game from Rich Hill into the left-field seats.
''That was such a huge home run,'' Jackson said.
Told the last team to win a postseason series at Wrigley Field, the 2003 Florida Marlins, went on to win the World Series, the D-backs were content to file it away for reference.
''We're not into omens very much,'' Byrnes said, smiling. ''We're just playing games. But that's definitely a positive thing if we want to keep that in the back of our minds.''
Said Owings: ''We're still taking it one game at a time.''