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Mayor: Cubs Will "Make The Entire City Proud" In NLCS Against Mets

CHICAGO (CBS) -- They say revenge is a dish best served cold. After 46 years, the Cubs have a chance to get back at the Mets for the 1969 season that broke many hearts in Chicago, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he's confident the Cubs will pull it off.

The mayor was about 9 years old when the Mets beat out the Cubs to win the NL East division, thanks to a September collapse by the Cubs and a big hot streak by the "Miracle Mets." The Mets went on to win the World Series that year, and Emanuel said that has prepared him to get revenge now and even the score.

But…

"What's important is not about 1969. What's important is what's happening in 2015, and the Chicago Cubs are going to make the entire city proud, as they already have," he said. "I've said this before, and I'm going to repeat. They have become America's team because of their energy, their youthfulness and their sense of possibility."

Emanuel credited the players and manager Joe Maddon for that. He also went on to say he's optimistic about the upcoming National League Championship Series against the Mets, to put it mildly.

"I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I would note that in the regular season, they beat the Mets seven out of seven games," he said. "But that said, I think – as I said before – I am in awe of Maddon's ability to have the players have this youthfulness, this esprit de corps and their ability to play pro ball and not lose their kind of almost college-like game in a sense of that energy."

Game 1 of the NLCS is Saturday at 7:07 p.m., and you can listen to the game on WBBM 780, starting with an expanded pre-game show at 6 p.m.

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