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Wednesday night, the Chicago Cubs clinched their first World Series championship since 1908, giving countless fans something they've been waiting their entire lives to see. It's a tough thing to understand if you're not a Cubs fan. I don't pretend to.

One Cubs fan, an ESPN writer named Wayne Drehs, was so eager to see his Cubs finally win the World Series that he postponed open-heart surgery. Drehs has an aneurysm on his aorta and was told he needed surgery sooner rather than later. The aneurysm could burst at any moment and potentially kill him.

Here is Drehs explaining his decision:

Before his nurse could even explain the procedure, before the talk of stopping my heart or putting me on a ventilator, I said four words: After the World Series. She said something about the Indians, how she wasn't sure they would even make the World Series. And I told her no. She didn't get it. This was because of the Cubs. I pulled out a calendar and told her we could schedule the procedure for the first Monday after the World Series: Nov. 7. The doctors agreed.

Friends urged Drehs to have the procedure immediately -- "This is the World Series of life," one friend told him -- but he decided to wait. He didn't want to miss the action.

Coincidentally enough, Drehs was treated by a cardiac surgeon in Cleveland, and was in town for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. He was originally scheduled to cover the series for ESPN, but couldn't due to his medical issue.

A little more than 30 years ago, on the afternoon of May 26, 1986, my grandfather had a stroke at Wrigley Field. His friends said he was heckling Pete Rose when it happened. He spent the rest of his life in a nursing home, unable to use the left side of his body. I had been to Wrigley probably a hundred times since then. Each time I climbed those cement stairs and looked out to the ivy and old scoreboard, I thought about him and how much he loved the Cubs. But on the day before this year's division series, a paralyzing fear came over me. What if I was next? I began to sweat. And shake. I tried to talk to colleagues and friends like everything was fine. But inside I was flipping out. I left without writing a word.

Drehs will have his six-hour life-saving surgery Monday, and he'll do it having seen his favorite team win the World Series for the first time in several generations. That is pretty cool.