Bill Murray
 

The Cubs playing in their first World Series since 1945 has Chicagoans feeling lucky. Karen Michel of Evanston, Illinois, was brought back to reality Tuesday evening in Cleveland.

She trekked to Progressive Field with the hope of grabbing a last-second ticket at the box office. Being as this was a World Series game, and the Indians had a chance to clinch their first title since 1948, all tickets were sold out.

So Michel walked away from the ticket window, down on her luck. She then ran into the Cubs' Evanston-born human mascot: Bill Murray.

"He turns around and says, 'Here, here's a ticket,'" Michel told MLB.com. "And he kind of shuttled me into the door. I thought it was just a ticket to get in. But it was a ticket to sit right here."

For Michel, "here" was a box seat a few rows behind home plate next to Murray.


"I watched five games at home and they're showing Eddie Vedder, [Chris] Chelios, whatever, and I'm like, 'I wonder if I'll see any of those people,'" Michel says. "Of course now, I'm here, and I see all kinds of people."

Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, and Chelios, a former Blackhawks star (turned semi-villain, but that's another story), sat a few rows in front of Murray and Michel. Indians fan Al Roker cheered from a seat directly behind them.

Michel, who wore a No. 18 Geovany Soto jersey, says she and Murray shared stories of their long Cubs fandom.

"I asked, 'When you went to the Cubs game, who did you go with?'" Michel says. "He said his brother and his father. I have all sisters, and me and my dad would go to the baseball games. We talked about stuff like that."

The formula Murray and Michel created worked. The Cubs won, 9-3, and forced a Game 7 Wednesday.

Maybe luck is a real thing for the Cubs and their fans this year.

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