The Chicagoan leading the pandemonium at Big Whiskey’s on Nov. 2 was a born-and-bred Chicago Cubs fan, but he saw his dreams come true in Little Rock, watching on TV as his team beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
The 10-inning Game 7 triumph ended a 108-year championship drought for the Cubs and warmed the hearts of just about anybody who has ever pulled for an underdog. But for Tom Lillig, director of brand management at the Chicago office of Little Rock’s Stone Ward advertising agency, it was validation of a lifetime of loyalty and championship hopes.
And Lillig had the perfect medium to capture fans’ excitement.
My Cubs Story, a Facebook page he created, captured the touching and funny tales of Cubs fans during the Series. Then it chronicled a catharsis for long-suffering supporters after the improbable victory. Along the way, the site attracted thousands of followers and likes.
A lifelong resident of Chicago and its suburbs, Lillig has managed Stone Ward’s office there for 11 years, overseeing work for clients like U.S. Soccer and Snap-on Tools. He modeled the page on the heartfelt Humans of New York site. The first story, his own, describes newspaper clippings of the close-but-no-title 1984 Cubs yellowing on the walls of his boyhood bedroom.
Other fans followed with their narratives — stories of grandfathers and dads who inspired love for the game, grandmothers and moms who bled blue for the Cubs and never gave up, of siblings who always lived for next year, and kids who inherited hope along with the “curse.”
Die-hard fans? The page even chronicles stories of terminally ill patients who staved off the inevitable long enough to see their heroes seize the title. Lillig’s favorite is Phil DeNapoli’s tribute to his mother, Dorothy DeNapoli, who at 97 finally saw her beloved Cubs win it all: “If it wasn’t for my Cubs, I don’t think I would have made it.”
Lillig, 43, was in town for Stone Ward’s annual employee retreat when Game 7 arrived. Big Whiskey’s was the handiest spot, on the ground floor of Stone Ward’s downtown office building.
The next morning, he was bleary-eyed but beaming. “A lot of people didn’t sleep much last night,” he told Outtakes and his colleague Liz Hamilton. “During the game the BBC interviewed me while the Cubs were in their winning rally, so there’s this clip of me going crazy.”
The BBC was intrigued by the Facebook page, which Lillig created on the Friday of Game 1. The Cubs lost that, the first World Series game in Chicago in 71 years, and trailed the Indians 3-1 before becoming one of just five teams in Series history to dig out of such a hole.
“I think it’s a sacred duty to curate these stories,” said Lillig, who predicted all kinds of advertising tie-ins to the title in Chicagoland. “Any time that you can tap into that emotion, you can find ways to tell stories through advertising.”
But the Facebook page was a labor of love, not marketing, even though the Stone Ward team vetted the stories and followed up with fans for photos and details. “I created it because I had an emotional awakening as the Cubs advanced. Being a Cubs fan has really shaped who I am, and this Series means that all of that belief was put forth to a place where dreams could come true. To see the Cubs at the pinnacle, that’s something my grandfather never saw as the family’s first Cubs fan. It’s something my mother never saw, but it is something that I can share with my 11-year-old son.”
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