Late Mom's Rosary Beads Give Cubs Needed Divine Intervention to Win World Series

This was for Ernie, and this was for Billy and Ronnie. It was also for Cis Dobbyn, an Irish lass who came to Chicago’s South Side in 1957, didn’t know any better, and fell in love with the Chicago Cubs.

Like so many fans who never lived to see the Cubs win a world championship in their lifetime, Cis’s presence weighed heavily on her eight children and several of her 29 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren who had gathered at Jack Desmond’s in Chicago Ridge to watch Game 7 of the World Series.

“She died six years ago, so we’re all rooting for her,” said Eileen Desmond, nervously palming her late mother’s red rosary beads. “She cried when the Cubs lost and she cried when they won.”

Not only did Cis raise her children to be Cubs fans in the middle of White Sox country, even worse, they were South Side Irish Catholic Cubs fans.

“Whenever I wore my Cubs shirt as a kid, I’d get a hard time,” Desmond said. “We never wavered, we stayed true to the Cubs.”

Cis immigrated from Ireland to the United States in the mid 1950s, settling in Washington, D.C. where she had family. She hated it so she came to Chicago to catch a plane home to Ireland, fell in love, got married and raised eight children in St. Symphorosa Parish near Midway Airport..

“She didn’t know anything about baseball,” Denis Dobbyn recalled of his late wife. “She didn’t know a pitcher from a catcher when she came here, but she loved her Cubs.”

Was he thinking of her Wednesday night?

“I think of her every night,” Dobbyn said. “I’m sure if there is a way in the afterlife for her to watch the game, she is watching.”

Cis was known to pick up converts for her beloved Cubbies too, including Desmond’s Ireland-born husband, Tim, an Oak Lawn village trustee.

“I’ve been lighting candles,” Eileen Desmond said. “I lit one Sunday night and they won. I lit one last night and they won. I lit another one today.”

The air got sucked out of the party room at Jack Desmond’s in what looked like to be a tardy appearance by the goat curse during an eighth inning Cubs collapse, when the Cleveland Indians erased the Cubs 6-3 lead with a three-run rally.

Out came Cis’ red rosary beads. Desmond, daughter, Grace, and an aunt went to a quiet place in the bar and prayed the rosary.

“C’mon, grandma,’” Grace said.

And then, a rain delay. The skies parted over Progressive Field, slowing down the Indians’ momentum, giving the Cubs time a chance to shake off their despair. The Cubs fought back in the tenth, scoring two runs and hanging on to win their first World Series in 108 years.

Jack Desmond’s erupted, with patrons climbing on the counters and chairs, singing Go, Cubs, Go and the bartenders spraying the patrons with champagne.

For Cis and the generations of other departed Cubs fans, thank-you for the rain delay. We hope your spirits were brightened.

Photo: The family of the late Cis Dobbyn and patrons at Jack Desmond's celebrate after the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.