It has been 107 seasons since the last time that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Let that number sink in. 107. Their last championship came in 1908. Since their last championship, 12 Amendments have been added to the Constitution. The Titanic was built, set sail, crashed, was discovered and a motion picture was made about it. Five states have been added to the Union, and Haley’s comet passed earth—twice.
Since 1908, the Cubs have been lovable losers. Some Chicago fans blame the curse of the goat, some say that it’s destiny and that they’re never meant to win again. Most baseball analysts will tell you that they simply weren’t that good.
Chicago loves to love the Cubs. They’ve been Chicago’s team for decades. Even their mascot, Clark the Cub, is lovable. The only thing that isn’t lovable about the Cubs is that they’ve essentially been losers for the past century. But that’s all beginning to change.
The Cubs are an absolute force of nature this year. They’re solid at every single position, with National League Most Valuable Players candidates as well as Cy Young candidates. They’re the best team in baseball—and it’s not even close.
With the Arizona Cardinals loss to the San Francisco Giants, the Cubs were the first team to clinch a playoff spot. Their run differential is impressive, with an incredible +227. They’re not just beating teams—they’re embarrassing them.
But, as we all know, baseball is a weird sport. It’s a sport where players even admit that they’d rather be lucky than good. It’s a season-long 162-game chess match. Winning a World Series, it seems, takes an aspect of magic. It takes equal parts luck and skill. In baseball, it’s not about how good your best player is, it’s about how bad your worst is.
This is the reason that this may be the year of the Cubs. They have the superstitious, magical aspect that it takes to win a championship in this sport. For example, the Cub’s bullpen plays a pretty dangerous game of chicken every single inning. When a foul ball comes hurling toward the dugout, all the pitchers that are not in the game see who can sit still and not flinch from the ball the longest, which has resulted in a couple bruises.
But it can be hilarious. It’s fun to watch, it brings the players together and it’s a perfect example of the X-factor it takes to win. It seems as though the Cubs have just that. Who wouldn’t want to see the most loveable losers in all of sports actually win? Hopefully 2016 is the year the Cubs’ curse is broken.