The World Series begins Tuesday night in Cleveland when Manager Terry Francona’s Indians host GM Theo Epstein’s Chicago Cubs. And there are a lot of story lines familiar to Boston Red Sox fans.

The Cubs begin the series as the nation’s darlings. They haven’t played in a World Series since 1945, a 71-year wait that has people talking about billy goats, Steve Bartman and curses.

How long has it been since the Cubs were in the World Series? In 1945 there were only 16 major league baseball teams and 10 NFL teams. The NHL was still in its Original Six infancy. The NBA was four years away from being created.

Watching Chicago celebrate the National League pennant Saturday night brought back a lot of memories for baseball fans in Boston. It felt much like October 2004, when the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Like the Sox in 2004, the Cubs haven’t reversed any curses just yet. It will be interesting to see if Chicago carries the same momentum into the World Series that the Sox carried with them in 2004.

“To be honest, after we beat the Yankees we knew we were going to beat (the Cardinals),” David Ortiz once told me. Indeed, Boston swept St. Louis.

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The Cubs had the best record in baseball this season, but Cleveland will have home-field advantage thanks to the “this time it counts” concept of the MLB All-Star Game.

It was a dumb idea back in 2003 – created in the wake of an All-Star tie in Milwaukee a year earlier – and it remains dumb now. There is simply no reason the Indians should hold home-field advantage in this series.

Of course, the Indians’ biggest advantage in this series is Andrew Miller, who pitched for part of four seasons for the Red Sox. Francona has used him as the ultimate break-glass-in-case-of-emergency reliever in the playoffs. Miller won the MVP Award in the AL Championship Series, a remarkable feat for a middle reliever.

Yet Miller is much more than that. He threw 72/3 scoreless innings in the five-game series against Toronto. Francona brought him in at various stages of the series to snuff out rallies. Miller’s playoff run began with a season-high 40-pitch performance against, ironically, the Red Sox. He hasn’t given up a run in 112/3 innings this postseason, and has struck out 21.

His work could revolutionize the way managers use relievers in the future. You need a closer – and the Indians have a good one in Cody Allen. But a secondary arm like Miller gives you the ability to put out an uprising whenever it occurs. The Indians swept the Red Sox in three games despite the fact that two of their three starting pitchers didn’t make it to the sixth inning.

There are plenty of other familiar faces in this series. The Cubs have Jon Lester and John Lackey in their rotation. In 2013 those two combined for seven of Boston’s 11 playoff wins on the way to a championship – and David Ross behind the plate. Anthony Rizzo was drafted and developed by the Sox. Epstein has Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod in his front office, as he did in Boston.

The Indians feature Mike Napoli and Coco Crisp along with Miller. Brad Mills stands next to Francona in the dugout, just like he did at Fenway.

Of all those old friends, Miller is the one worth watching the closest. What he does in the upcoming games could very well dictate how teams build their bullpens next season.

Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.


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