The CUBS WIN the World Series!
Until 2016, the Chicago Cubs had not won a World Series championship since 1908—a stretch of bad luck which some people, jokingly or not, attribute to the aforementioned Curse of the Billy Goat – although between their postseason appearance in 1984 and their most recent in 2016, they have made the postseason eight times.
108 seasons is the longest championship drought in all four of the major North American professional sports leagues, which also includes the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). In fact, the Cubs’ last World Series title occurred before those other three leagues even existed, and even the Cubs’ last World Series appearance predates the founding of the NBA. The much publicized drought was concurrent to championship droughts by the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, who both had over 80 years between championships that ended a year apart from one another. This unfortunate distinction has led to the club often being known as “The Lovable Losers.”
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The team plays its home games at Wrigley Field, located on the city’s North Side. The Cubs are one of two major league teams in Chicago; the other, the Chicago White Sox, is a member of the American League (AL) Central division. They are the current reigning World Series Champions, after defeating the Cleveland Indians in 7 games. The team, first known as the White Stockings, was a founding member of the NL in 1876, becoming the Chicago Cubs in 1903.
The 1906 Cubs won a major league record 116 games, finishing 116–36 and posted a modern-era record winning percentage of .763, before losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox (“The Hitless Wonders”) by four games to two.
The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, becoming the first major league team to play in three consecutive World Series, and the first to win it twice. The team has appeared in a total of eleven World Series, most recently in 2016. The Cubs had not won the World Series in 108 years, and they had not won the National League pennant in 71 years until finally winning both in 2016, both of which are record “droughts” in Major League Baseball. This 108 year drought is also the longest in all major North American sports. Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason eight times. This included five trips to the League Championship Series—in 1984, 1989, 2003, 2015 and 2016, which they won.
The Cubs are known as “the North Siders”, a reference to the location of Wrigley Field within the city of Chicago, and in contrast to the White Sox, whose home field (Guaranteed Rate Field) is located on the South Side. The Cubs have a divisional rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals, and an interleague rivalry with the White Sox.
