Wearing a backwards baseball cap beneath an iridescent party hat and, according to Rolling Stone, acting “seemingly inebriated”—so, himself—last night comedian Bill Murray accepted the ESPY Award for Best Moment on behalf of the 2016 World Series Champions, the Chicago Cubs. The infamous Cubs fan and future restaurateur was presented the award at the 25th ESPY Awards (short for “Excellence In Sports Performance Yearly Awards”—they certainly didn’t get too creative with that acronym, did they?) by fellow comedian and Cubs fan Nick Offerman.
“One hundred eight years of waiting is hardly ‘a moment,’” Murray remarked in his acceptance speech, referring to the North Siders’ century-plus World Series drought. He then rattled off the names of a bunch of celebrated Cubs players, including Rogers Hornsby, Ron Santo, and Ernie Banks, providing what was essentially an oral version of one of those “people who died” video montages from the Oscars. Though, to be fair, he got in living legends like Greg Maddux, Ryne “Ryno” Sandberg, Sammy Sosa, and Mark Grace, too.
Murray’s speech, as it were, devolved into a sort of skit, with a disguised “janitor” rolling a mop bucket filled with champagne onstage and Murray sabering open and chugging straight from the bottles. The janitor revealed himself to be Chicago Cub David Ross, who performed a choreographed dance, perhaps reprising his cameo role from last November’s stripper sketch on SNL. The recently retired 40-year-old catcher, “Grandpa” to his teammates, hit a home run in game 7 of the World Series, becoming the oldest player in World Series history to do so. As these seemingly off-the-cuff awards spots so often are, the bit was a little drawn-out and embarrassing—not unlike the Cubs’ 108-year losing streak.
