CHICAGO — A few blocks north of Wrigley Field sits the final resting place of Ernie Banks, the eternally ebullient Mr. Cub. His grave site, on the edges of a pond and shaded by leafy trees at Graceland Cemetery, was adorned Sunday with several bouquets of wilting red roses and yellow mums, and a small white towel emblazoned with a blue W.

Two young women wearing Cubs caps laid pennies on the towel to mark their visit. A man passing by with a group said, “We need you tonight, Ernie.”

The broad diaspora that follows the Chicago Cubs carries with it a unique mix of fatalism and optimism, bracing for the inevitable heartbreak but never letting it dull the belief that the long wait for a championship — now at 108 years — may finally be ending.

On a night when those competing emotions coursed through a packed-to-the-rafters Wrigley Field, the Cubs kept their hopes of a World Series title alive Sunday by beating back the Cleveland Indians and their own nerves with a 3-2 victory.