Jason Heyward and rain delay speech that may have changed Cubs history

The greatest weight room speech in Cubs’ history finally was revealed in “The Cubs Way,” author Tom Verducci’s inside account of their championship season.

It happened, as you may have heard, during the greatest rain delay in Cubs history, before the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series.

“I know some things may have happened tonight you don’t like …” Jason Heyward told his teammates. “We’re the best team in baseball, and we’re the best team in baseball for a reason. Now we’re going to show it. We play like the score is nothing-nothing. We have to stay positive and fight for your brothers. Stick together and we’re going to win this game.”

It worked, and the Cubs wound up winning the game and ending the greatest drought in sports history.

Heyward didn’t pull an Antonio Brown and put his speech on Facebook Live, as the Steelers receiver did with a fiery speech from coach Mike Tomlin that caused a major ruckus last winter.

Heyward was just trying to fire up his teammates, and as far as he knew, no one was recording him or writing the words down. Nevertheless, those words will be remembered for eons as the ones that sparked the Cubs to their first championship in 108 years.

When asked about the speech recently in the Cubs spring training complex in Mesa, Ariz., Heyward said he was unaware that it had been immortalized in print. He said in jest it may have been a “Pixar version” of what he actually had said, close to the real thing, as remembered by his teammates.

“I didn’t know there was a book, just like I didn’t know there was a Lego thing,” he said. “I don’t look at that stuff.”

The “Lego thing” was a Lego video reenactment of Game 7 that included a Lego Heyward addressing his Lego Cubs teammates in a Lego weight room of Lego Progressive Field.

When I asked him about the video at the beginning of spring training, Heyward said he had no idea what I was talking about. By the end of camp, someone had shown it to him.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

But wasn’t it cool to see your speech in a Lego version?

“I was there,” he replied. “That was cool.”

Heyward insists the Cubs would have won with or without his speech, which may be true. But try as he might, Heyward never is going to be able to escape the fact that his words of wisdom will be part of a story retold for generations.

There’s nothing wrong with being the Knute Rockne of the Cubs, and in truth, rain delays on the North Side never will be the same again after the 17-minute pause that refreshed. The Cubs thought so much of it they had T-shirts made this spring with a cartoon umbrella and the game’s final score printed on the front.

Before Game 7, perhaps the most memorable rain delay in Cubs history was Aug. 8, 1988, or 8-8-88 as it was known. A huge downpour interrupted and then postponed the first-ever night game at Wrigley Field and Cubs players Greg Maddux, Jody Davis, Les Lancaster and Al Nipper did belly flops on the wet tarp, later incurring $125 fines for their adventures.

The Cubs also had a legendary rain delay without rain on Aug. 23, 1999, a night game against the Giants when the threat of rain held up the start for more than 90 minutes. It was eventually delayed for 3 hours, 45 minutes before being postponed, after which Giants owner Peter Magowan referred to the Cubs as a “bush league operation.”

And don’t forget the delay of Aug. 4, 2008, when the Cubs were batting during a lightning storm at Wrigley and Astros first baseman Lance Berkman heard a loud crack of thunder, threw off his metal chain and sprinted into the dugout.

But none of these incidents came during Game 7 of a World Series, where everything is magnified, and none of them included a famous speech that reached into the hearts of teammates and inspired them to victory.

“The best rain delay of all-time,” Anthony Rizzo called it.

The next time it rains during a Cubs’ game, don’t look for fans to curse the sky. Instead they’ll raise a glass and smile, thinking about Heyward and the weight room and a rain delay to savor forever.

psullivan@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @PWSullivan