100 years is a long time. Just ask a Cubs fan.

[westofyou]

This year is the 100th season since the Cubs won the World series… 100 years is a LONG time…and in fact it’s so long that until you really look at the stuff that has occurred since then you really have no idea how long a 100 years is.

Compounding this is the fact that the Blackhawks in the NHL haven’t won a championship since the early 1960’s and that even the Arizona Cardinals who began in Chicago and are currently the team in the NFL with the longest championship drought actually have a shorter view back at their successful past (NFL Championship in Chicago in 1947) the Cubs do.

The Bears have won two championships between the present and the Cardinals victory in the 47 game, the Bulls of course were darlings of the town after these long droughts and their run at a record run of championships (outside the Celtics world) was lapped up by the fans in Chicago like ice cream at a kids party. Even the White Sox who had their own run at futility and defeated that monster.

So in Chicago imagine if there is still someone… someone who is still a Cardinal fan, a Blackhawk fan and a Cub fan.

For them the beginning of any season is hope, or another run at disappointment.

100 years… say it out loud… 100 years, the last time the Cubs won the World Series the USA was 132 years old and horse and buggy’s rule the roads.. in fact a lot has happened since then, more then you realize and when you see the tip of what has happened you have to wonder about everything else too.

So let’s check it out.

1908-1910 Winning Percentage = .666

1908 - Kerosene outsells Gasoline as a fuel and Henry Ford sells his first Model T

1909 - Indianapolis opens their famous Race Track and stages the 1st ever event.

1910 - May 18 - The earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1911-1919 Winning Percentage = .553

1911 - IBM incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.

1912 - The RMS Titanic sinks, along with 1,494 people.

1913 - General Electric begins to sell stoves and toasters.

1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor.

1915 - Orson Welles is born

1916 - The light switch was invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg

1917 - The National Hockey League is formed .

1918 - Canned Tomato Sauce is introduced.

1919 - The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women.

1920-1929 Winning Percentage = .526

1920 - The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.

1921 - Green Bay Packers are formed with $500 of backing from a local meat packing plant.

1922 - In The Bronx, construction begins on Yankee Stadium.

1923 - Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1924 - American airman Russell L. Maughan flew from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit

1925 - Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1926 - U.S. Route 66 was established.

1927 - The first demonstration of television before a live audience.

1928 - Sliced Bread Introduced

1929 - The radio comedy show Amos and Andy makes its debut

1930-1939 Winning Percentage = .579

1930 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.

1931 - Nevada legalizes gambling.

1932 - Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.

1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration,

1934 - John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin

1935 - World’s first parking meters, in Oklahoma City.

1936 - The Girl Scouts of America sell their first cookie.

1937 - Spam is invented

1938 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: “nylon”.

1939 - The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.

1940-1949 Winning Percentage = .479

1940 - RKO releases Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film, Pinocchio.

1941 - Captain America Comics #1 issues the first Captain America & Bucky comic.

1942 - Lions became extinct in Iran by this date.

1943 - Rioting between military personnel and Mexican American youths erupts in East Los Angeles and is dubbed the “Zoot Suit Riots”.

1944 - Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1945 - Micky Dolenz is born

1946 - Frozen French Fries are invented

1947 - The Chicago Cardinals the NFL’s oldest franchise wins their last championship, they are now in Arizona and playing the role of the Cubs in that league.

1948 - Hells Angels founded in California.

1949 - First Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.

1950-1959 Winning Percentage = .437

1950 - Britain formally recognizes Israel.

1951 - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.

1952 - Bob Costas is born

1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.

1954 - The New York Giants win the World Series, the franchises last.

1955 - Disneyland opens, in Anaheim, California.

1956 - Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with “Heartbreak Hotel.”

1957 - Better Home and Gardens publishes their first Microwave cook book

1958 - December 28 - The Baltimore Colts beat The New York Giants 23-17 in overtime to win The NFL Championship.

1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.

1960-1969 Winning Percentage = .459

1960 - 1960 Summer Olympics: Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in boxing.

1961 - Catch-22 is first published by Joseph Heller.

1962 - AT&T’s Telstar, the world’s first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit, and activated the next day.

1963 - ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.

1964 - Coke in a can is introduced

1965 - Bob Dylan releases his album Highway 61 Revisited

1966 - Luna 10 enters orbit around the Moon.

1967 - The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. The last time they won the championship

1968 - Johnny Cash records “Live at Folsom Prison”.

1969 - The Mets win the World Championship in their 8th season… beating the Cubs.

1970-1979 Winning Percentage = .487

1970 - Riverfront Stadium opens

1971 - Nine MLB pitchers throw more then 285 innings, 4 of them topping 310.

1972 - Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the Ford Model-T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.

1973 - O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills became the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a pro football season.

1974 - Stephen King publishes his first novel, Carrie, under his own name.

1975 - NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live

1976 - The Seattle Seahawks first football game is played.

1977 - The first Apple II computers go on sale.

1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3,000th major league hit.

1979 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

1980-1989 Winning Percentage = .472

1980 - Mobster Henry Hill busted on drug possession.

1981 - Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed

1982 - The car brand Toyota Camry introduced.

1983 - Hooters opens up in Clearwater, Florida.

1984 - Cubs win Division then lose in Playoffs

1985- Mike Tyson makes his professional debut in Albany, New York, a match which he wins by a first round knockout.

1986 - Hands Across America: At least 5,000,000 people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California

1987 - Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom

1988 - The Chicago Cubs play their first ever night game at home in Wrigley Field,

1989 - The Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, strikes the San Francisco-Oakland region.

1990-1999 Winning Percentage = .476

1990 - Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.

1991 - Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV.

1992 - H. Ross Perot re-enters the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign.

1993 - Late Night with Conan O’Brien premieres on NBC.

1994 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.

1995 - Yahoo! is founded in Santa Clara, California.

1996 - The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.

1997 - The Detroit Red Wings win their first Stanley Cup championship in 42 years

1998 - Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.

1999 - Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.

2000-2007 Winning Percentage = .484

2000 - Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father

2001 - Beatle George Harrison dies of cancer.

2002 - Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field is demolished.

2003 - The Concorde makes its last commercial flight

2004 - The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918,

2005 - The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros in 4 games to win their first World Series since 1917.

2006 - The world’s longest running music show, Top of the Pops, broadcasts for the last time on BBC Two.

2007 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 14,000 for the first time in history.

[wheels]

Hilarious.

I hope another 100 years passes before they get a whiff.

Screw 'em.

They live in a great city with a million things to do, and they act like they're "suffering" "die hards".

Lee Elia said everything that ever needed to be said.

[WMR]

Here's to another 100 years of the Cubs sucking. :beerme:

[George Anderson]

I just hope and pray in 2090 a similar piece isn't being written about another certain team. :rolleyes:

[wheels]

I just hope and pray in 2090 a similar piece isn't being written about another certain team. :rolleyes:

Yeah, but the Reds lose without all of mindless bluster.

We act like we've been there before.

[cumberlandreds]

That winning percentage (.666) from 1908-1910 is what did them in. They sold their soul to the devil.

[KronoRed]

The day they win the series is the day 80% of their "fan base" goes to find something else to do

[MrCinatit]

Cubs icon Harry Caray was older than dirt. He was born in 1914 (six years later) and died 10 years ago.
When they last went to the World Series in '45, only Johnny Moore, Paul Derringer, Ray Prim and Hy Vandenberg from that team were even alive when the Cubs had previously won the series.
Cubs Managers Bruce Kimm, Dusty Baker, Don Baylor, Jim Riggleman, Tom Trebelhorn, Jim Essian and John Vuckovich were all born after the last time the Cubs were in the Series.

[vaticanplum]

Phil Cavaretta is still alive I think. Though fantastically old.

The Cubs will win the World Series in 2011. You heard it here first.

[Highlifeman21]

Phil Cavaretta is still alive I think. Though fantastically old.

The Cubs will win the World Series in 2011. You heard it here first.

The Cubs will win one before the Reds win another one.

[HumnHilghtFreel]

The Cubs will win the World Series in 2011. You heard it here first.

In what would be the last season before the year Nostradamus predicted the end of the world as we know it. How appropriate.

[westofyou]

In what would be the last season before the year Nostradamus predicted the end of the world as we know it. How appropriate.

Mayan Calendar too

[vaticanplum]

So, by logical extension, what Highlifeman is saying is that the world will end before the Reds win the World Series.

[jojo]

That winning percentage (.666) from 1908-1910 is what did them in. They sold their soul to the devil.

That may be but things really went down hill for them after spam was invented.... they don't sneak a little goat meat into that stuff do they?

[WMR]

The Cubs will win one before the Reds win another one.

LIAR!!! YOU LIE!!! :D

[WMR]

So, by logical extension, what Highlifeman is saying is that the world will end before the Reds win the World Series.

Fear The Bomb.

[KronoRed]

So, by logical extension, what Highlifeman is saying is that the world will end before the Reds win the World Series.

Bummer.

[HumnHilghtFreel]

So, by logical extension, what Highlifeman is saying is that the world will end before the Reds win the World Series.

Kinda changes the whole perception of if it's worth trading Bruce for Bedard, huh :D

[Chip R]

That may be but things really went down hill for them after spam was invented.... they don't sneak a little goat meat into that stuff do they?


Yeah, that's right. Give them something else to blame their futility on. As if the goat, the black cat, Leon Durham and Bartman weren't enough.

[RFS62]

Yeah, but the Reds lose without all of mindless bluster.

We act like we've been there before.

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

[jojo]

Yeah, that's right. Give them something else to blame their futility on. As if the goat, the black cat, Leon Durham and Bartman weren't enough.

Just sayin' maybe serving spam at Wrigley isn't a bad idea.... :cool:

[Roy Tucker]

I used to think the Cubs would play the Red Sox in the World Series someday, it would be tied 3 games each, the 7th game would go to the 9th inning all tied up, and then the world would end.

But the Red Sox spoiled that scenario. Can't say I'm unhappy about it.

[jojo]

I used to think the Cubs would play the Red Sox in the World Series someday, it would be tied 3 games each, the 7th game would go to the 9th inning all tied up, and then the world would end.

But the Red Sox spoiled that scenario. Can't say I'm unhappy about it.

I was actually really bummed when the Redsox won the first time. I thought baseball was more interesting when it seemed the other shoe was always in danger of dropping in some impossible to fathom way....

[M2]

The Red Sox and Cubs really represented different ends of the World Series drought spectrum.

The Sox were good from pretty much 1934-2003, with only a skid from 1959-1966 and a mini skid from 1992-94 representing significant struggles. The Red Sox won four pennants, seven divisions and three wild cards over that stretch. They also had 14 no-playoff second place finishes. Those years were littered with great and good players and Sox fans spent most of those seasons thinking their team could win it all until late in the season. The franchise also had the bad luck of running into the best NL teams of the 1940s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when they made the World Series, losing 4-3 each time in an instant classic. They fought the best and acquitted themselves well. The Red Sox were just about the best you could be and not win a championship.

Red Sox fans, while they got real spastic and annoying after 1998, suffered from "close, but no cigar" syndrome. They knew their team was good and they were aching for it to win the World Series.

The Cubs just suck. The highlight of the franchise since 1945 has been getting close to winning an NL championship against a Padres team that got smoked by the 1984 Tigers. That Cubs team then swiftly went back to the rubbish heap. Last year was your typical "good" Cubs season: win a weak division and then get swept by a D-Backs team that got swept by the Rockies who got swept by the Red Sox. The Cubs were only three sweeps removed from a World Series title. Score!

The Cubs have a Keystone Cops tradition, not one of frustrating near greatness. The Red Sox dry spell had tragedy and poetry and dramatic tension. The Cubs are just pathetic.

[vaticanplum]

The Red Sox and Cubs really represented different ends of the World Series drought spectrum.

The Sox were good from pretty much 1934-2003, with only a skid from 1959-1966 and a mini skid from 1992-94 representing significant struggles. The Red Sox won four pennants, seven divisions and three wild cards over that stretch. They also had 14 no-playoff second place finishes. Those years were littered with great and good players and Sox fans spent most of those seasons thinking their team could win it all until late in the season. The franchise also had the bad luck of running into the best NL teams of the 1940s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when they made the World Series, losing 4-3 each time in an instant classic. They fought the best and acquitted themselves well. The Red Sox were just about the best you could be and not win a championship.

Red Sox fans, while they got real spastic and annoying after 1998, suffered from "close, but no cigar" syndrome. They knew their team was good and they were aching for it to win the World Series.

The Cubs just suck. The highlight of the franchise since 1945 has been getting close to winning an NL championship against a Padres team that got smoked by the 1984 Tigers. That Cubs team then swiftly went back to the rubbish heap. Last year was your typical "good" Cubs season: win a weak division and then get swept by a D-Backs team that got swept by the Rockies who got swept by the Red Sox. The Cubs were only three sweeps removed from a World Series title. Score!

The Cubs have a Keystone Cops tradition, not one of frustrating near greatness. The Red Sox dry spell had tragedy and poetry and dramatic tension. The Cubs are just pathetic.

I don’t know about that, M2. Yes, the Red Sox are historically a much better team than the Cubs, and far be it from me to defend Cubs fans, but they’ve had more near-miss moments than you let on. They were in the World Series basically every three years all through the 30s with nary a win the whole decade (and current Cubs fans can’t really cite this as a reason for their heartbreak, but then, neither could Red Sox fans). The 1969 team was a good team that underwent an epic collapse and is still very resonant with Cubs fans. The 2003 Cubs were a genuinely good team that got perilously close to the World Series only to…well, you know.

Plus, haplessness does have its own heartbreak. Not for fly-by-night Cubs fans who revel in loserdom, but for true fans of the team who have to watch genuine talent wither under crappy leadership. Ernie Banks. Ryne Sandburg. The College of Coaches (worst. idea. ever). Durocher just…what did he do, just defect to Canada during a crucial series or something? I mean, that is just bizarre, and if that happened to the Reds I might have reason to whine for a while. And, all this aside, a Cubs fan could counter your argument by saying that even if Red Sox fans got their hearts broken for so long, at least they got to watch some spectacular baseball. Not getting close so many times may not have poetry and dramatic tension, but I certainly disagree that it lacks tragedy.

[Heath]

You are all wrong.

As GAC & Boyd will attest to, the world will end with the Cleveland Browns taking a knee with 47 seconds left in the Super Bowl up 4 points with the other team having no timeouts left.

[westofyou]

They were in the World Series basically every three years all through the 30s with nary a win the whole decade

You know how the baseball press always trumpets the inequality of the leagues during this era? It was equally if not wider in the 30's, the AL was the bomb.

As for the Sox they recognized that they had to take the Rickey route to be successful and they sent GM Eddie Collins west to learn as much as he could about St Louis and their farm system. Meanwhile teh Cubs were popping off about what a great place Wrigley was to visit.

Branch Rickey touched almost every NL team in some way from 1930-1950

Reds - McPhail/Giles both worked for him
Dodgers - Hired Him
Pirates - Hired Him
Cardinals - He created them
Phillies - Owner Carpenter did the same thing as Collins did.

The three that didn't were

Giants - Haven't won a WS since 1954
Braves - Had to move west to generate revenue to make it and that petered out quick
Cubs - Seriously.... They last won the year the Model T hit the market... that's incredible.

[RichRed]

You are all wrong.

As GAC & Boyd will attest to, the world will end with the Cleveland Browns taking a knee with 47 seconds left in the Super Bowl up 4 points with the other team having no timeouts left.

...as head coach Earnest Byner takes a Gatorade victory bath.

[WMR]

You are all wrong.

As GAC & Boyd will attest to, the world will end with the Cleveland Browns taking a knee with 47 seconds left in the Super Bowl up 4 points with the other team having no timeouts left.

Nope, the world will end when The Ohio State Buckeyes are finally triumphant over a team from the SEC in a bowl game.

:D

sorry, couldn't resist.

[vaticanplum]

You know how the baseball press always trumpets the inequality of the leagues during this era? It was equally if not wider in the 30's, the AL was the bomb

Yeah, but the Homer in the Gloaming? The HOMER IN THE GLOAMING?! You can't tell me you could live through that as a fan and not think you had a shot at the Series, no matter how great the disparity between the leagues. That had to be heartbreaking. The Homer in the Gloaming makes ME cry, and I was born decades later and hate the Cubs.

[M2]

I don’t know about that, M2. Yes, the Red Sox are historically a much better team than the Cubs, and far be it from me to defend Cubs fans, but they’ve had more near-miss moments than you let on. They were in the World Series basically every three years all through the 30s with nary a win the whole decade (and current Cubs fans can’t really cite this as a reason for their heartbreak, but then, neither could Red Sox fans). The 1969 team was a good team that underwent an epic collapse and is still very resonant with Cubs fans. The 2003 Cubs were a genuinely good team that got perilously close to the World Series only to…well, you know.

I forgot about the 2003 team, that would be the highlight. I wasn't counting anything pre-1945. They were, for all intensive purposes, a different franchise back then.

I was raised by a Phillies fan and have always looked at collapses as tawdry tales told by fans who've had little else to cheer about. You don't hear Blue Jays fans waxing poetic about 1987 and I imagine Mets fans want to make 2007 "that thing we don't talk about."


Plus, haplessness does have its own heartbreak. Not for fly-by-night Cubs fans who revel in loserdom, but for true fans of the team who have to watch genuine talent wither under crappy leadership. Ernie Banks. Ryne Sandburg. The College of Coaches (worst. idea. ever). Durocher just…what did he do, just defect to Canada during a crucial series or something? I mean, that is just bizarre, and if that happened to the Reds I might have reason to whine for a while. And, all this aside, a Cubs fan could counter your argument by saying that even if Red Sox fans got their hearts broken for so long, at least they got to watch some spectacular baseball. Not getting close so many times may not have poetry and dramatic tension, but I certainly disagree that it lacks tragedy.

I'm going to Aristotle's Poetics on this one. If your subject has no standing, hasn't achieved much of anything, then it/he/she has nothing much to lose and it's more bathos than tragedy.

[Chip R]

I'm going to Aristotle's Poetics on this one. If your subject has no standing, hasn't achieved much of anything, then it/he/she has nothing much to lose and it's more bathos than tragedy.


Much like the aforementioned Phillies.

[Dom Heffner]

1945 - Micky Dolenz is born


I don't get this, but I love it.

[KronoRed]

Dude he's a Monkee...aren't they involved with everything? :D

[Hoosier Red]

I don’t know about that, M2. Yes, the Red Sox are historically a much better team than the Cubs, and far be it from me to defend Cubs fans, but they’ve had more near-miss moments than you let on. They were in the World Series basically every three years all through the 30s with nary a win the whole decade (and current Cubs fans can’t really cite this as a reason for their heartbreak, but then, neither could Red Sox fans). The 1969 team was a good team that underwent an epic collapse and is still very resonant with Cubs fans. The 2003 Cubs were a genuinely good team that got perilously close to the World Series only to…well, you know.

Plus, haplessness does have its own heartbreak. Not for fly-by-night Cubs fans who revel in loserdom, but for true fans of the team who have to watch genuine talent wither under crappy leadership. Ernie Banks. Ryne Sandburg. The College of Coaches (worst. idea. ever). Durocher just…what did he do, just defect to Canada during a crucial series or something? I mean, that is just bizarre, and if that happened to the Reds I might have reason to whine for a while. And, all this aside, a Cubs fan could counter your argument by saying that even if Red Sox fans got their hearts broken for so long, at least they got to watch some spectacular baseball. Not getting close so many times may not have poetry and dramatic tension, but I certainly disagree that it lacks tragedy.

The epic collapse in 1969 is a little over played. The Mets caught on fire that year. If the Cubs played .500 ball in August and September, they still would have missed the playoffs.

[westofyou]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080403-steve-bartman-chicago-cubs-morrissey,1,7843597.column

It's time for sincere apologies to Bartman


This might be a good time for some apologies.

How about one from Harry Caray's restaurant, which received scads of publicity when it purchased the "Bartman Ball" and blew it up in the name of reversing another Cubs curse. All in good fun, the people there said, and of course it was good fun as long as your name wasn't Steve Bartman.

For starters, why doesn't Harry Caray's give Bartman free meals for the rest of his life? And here's a revolutionary thought for the restaurant: Make the offer without publicizing it.

And how about an apology from Lord Voldemort over at the Sun-Times, who suggested in a column Wednesday that "the cold war should end" and Bartman should throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game this season.

That's precious.

This is the same Voldemort who has mentioned Bartman in 107 columns since Game 6 on Oct. 14, 2003, including a very impressive collection of 11 columns in a four-week span ending last October, when the Diamondbacks swept the Cubs in the playoffs. If my math is correct, that averages out to a mention of Bartman once every two weeks for 41/2 years. That's quite the cold war.

A few excerpts:

"Then there are those wacky Wrigley fans, who evidently haven't learned from Bartman's shame—oh, how I've ached not to mention his name—and twice interfered with live balls Friday." (June 19, 2007)

And …

"When the Cubs came within a Steve Bartman brain cramp of a pennant, Soxdom stewed." (January 21, 2007)

And …

"Under Tribune rule, the Cubs have suffered 18 losing seasons in 26 tries, lost 90 or more games seven times, never made the Series, reached the National League Championship Series just twice, scalped tickets, blamed one collapse on Steve Stone and Chip Caray, let Steve Bartman's glove ruin one dream and let another trickle through Leon Durham's legs." (Nov. 28, 2006)

And my favorite, from a column about the University of Illinois' Final Four basketball team:

"But a city sabotaged by Steve Bartman and a history of sports heartbreak has quickly hopped on this bandwagon." (April 1, 2005)

A lot of people have demonized Bartman, but none with as much gusto.

More apologies are in order. How about one from all the people who have had a laugh at Bartman's expense? It's not so funny when you really think about it, is it? The reports Bartman is in "hiding" are exaggerated—he lives and works in the Chicago area—but the Game 6 incident and the resulting firestorm have affected his life drastically.

Yes, Alou started that fire, but it was fanned by a lot of people who were looking to blame somebody, anybody for all the years of Cubs futility. So the guy in the sweatshirt, headphones and baseball cap became a national laughingstock, good for jokes on the late-night talk shows and mean-spirited derision in more than a few newspaper columns.

Steve Bartman did what a lot of people instinctively do. He reached for a foul ball. People blamed him for ruining the Cubs' chances of going to a World Series, which happens about once every Ice Age. In light of Alou's admission, maybe they won't blame him anymore, which would be so very considerate of them.

But I'm still confused. Those 41/2 years … remind me again how he gets those back?

[redsmetz]

George Will's column in Newsweek this week was about the Cubs - titled Your Brain on Cubs

http://www.newsweek.com/id/129576

The premise:


It is not nice to joke about a neurological affliction. Fortunately, we can now comprehend the condition, thanks to a new book, "Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans," a collection of essays by doctors and others knowledgeable about neuroscience and brain disorders associated with rooting for a team that last won the World Series a century ago.

[westofyou]

This year is the 100th season since the Cubs won the World series… 100 years is a LONG time…and in fact it’s so long that until you really look at the stuff that has occurred since then you really have no idea how long a 100 years is.

Compounding this is the fact that the Blackhawks in the NHL haven’t won a championship since the early 1960’s and that even the Arizona Cardinals who began in Chicago and are currently the team in the NFL with the longest championship drought actually have a shorter view back at their successful past (NFL Championship in Chicago in 1947) the Cubs do.

The Bears have won two championships between the present and the Cardinals victory in the 47 game, the Bulls of course were darlings of the town after these long droughts and their run at a record run of championships (outside the Celtics world) was lapped up by the fans in Chicago like ice cream at a kids party. Even the White Sox who had their own run at futility and defeated that monster.

So in Chicago imagine if there is still someone… someone who is still a Cardinal fan, a Blackhawk fan and a Cub fan.

For them the beginning of any season is hope, or another run at disappointment.

100 years… say it out loud… 100 years, the last time the Cubs won the World Series the USA was 132 years old and horse and buggy’s rule the roads.. in fact a lot has happened since then, more then you realize and when you see the tip of what has happened you have to wonder about everything else too.

So let’s check it out.

1908-1910 Winning Percentage = .666

1908 - Kerosene outsells Gasoline as a fuel and Henry Ford sells his first Model T

1909 - Indianapolis opens their famous Race Track and stages the 1st ever event.

1910 - May 18 - The earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1911-1919 Winning Percentage = .553

1911 - IBM incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.

1912 - The RMS Titanic sinks, along with 1,494 people.

1913 - General Electric begins to sell stoves and toasters.

1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor.

1915 - Orson Welles is born

1916 - The light switch was invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg

1917 - The National Hockey League is formed .

1918 - Canned Tomato Sauce is introduced.

1919 - The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women.

1920-1929 Winning Percentage = .526

1920 - The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.

1921 - Green Bay Packers are formed with $500 of backing from a local meat packing plant.

1922 - In The Bronx, construction begins on Yankee Stadium.

1923 - Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1924 - American airman Russell L. Maughan flew from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit

1925 - Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1926 - U.S. Route 66 was established.

1927 - The first demonstration of television before a live audience.

1928 - Sliced Bread Introduced

1929 - The radio comedy show Amos and Andy makes its debut

1930-1939 Winning Percentage = .579

1930 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.

1931 - Nevada legalizes gambling.

1932 - Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.

1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration,

1934 - John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin

1935 - World’s first parking meters, in Oklahoma City.

1936 - The Girl Scouts of America sell their first cookie.

1937 - Spam is invented

1938 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: “nylon”.

1939 - The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.

1940-1949 Winning Percentage = .479

1940 - RKO releases Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film, Pinocchio.

1941 - Captain America Comics #1 issues the first Captain America & Bucky comic.

1942 - Lions became extinct in Iran by this date.

1943 - Rioting between military personnel and Mexican American youths erupts in East Los Angeles and is dubbed the “Zoot Suit Riots”.

1944 - Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1945 - Micky Dolenz is born

1946 - Frozen French Fries are invented

1947 - The Chicago Cardinals the NFL’s oldest franchise wins their last championship, they are now in Arizona and playing the role of the Cubs in that league.

1948 - Hells Angels founded in California.

1949 - First Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.

1950-1959 Winning Percentage = .437

1950 - Britain formally recognizes Israel.

1951 - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.

1952 - Bob Costas is born

1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.

1954 - The New York Giants win the World Series, the franchises last.

1955 - Disneyland opens, in Anaheim, California.

1956 - Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with “Heartbreak Hotel.”

1957 - Better Home and Gardens publishes their first Microwave cook book

1958 - December 28 - The Baltimore Colts beat The New York Giants 23-17 in overtime to win The NFL Championship.

1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.

1960-1969 Winning Percentage = .459

1960 - 1960 Summer Olympics: Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in boxing.

1961 - Catch-22 is first published by Joseph Heller.

1962 - AT&T’s Telstar, the world’s first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit, and activated the next day.

1963 - ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.

1964 - Coke in a can is introduced

1965 - Bob Dylan releases his album Highway 61 Revisited

1966 - Luna 10 enters orbit around the Moon.

1967 - The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. The last time they won the championship

1968 - Johnny Cash records “Live at Folsom Prison”.

1969 - The Mets win the World Championship in their 8th season… beating the Cubs.

1970-1979 Winning Percentage = .487

1970 - Riverfront Stadium opens

1971 - Nine MLB pitchers throw more then 285 innings, 4 of them topping 310.

1972 - Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the Ford Model-T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.

1973 - O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills became the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a pro football season.

1974 - Stephen King publishes his first novel, Carrie, under his own name.

1975 - NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live

1976 - The Seattle Seahawks first football game is played.

1977 - The first Apple II computers go on sale.

1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3,000th major league hit.

1979 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

1980-1989 Winning Percentage = .472

1980 - Mobster Henry Hill busted on drug possession.

1981 - Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed

1982 - The car brand Toyota Camry introduced.

1983 - Hooters opens up in Clearwater, Florida.

1984 - Cubs win Division then lose in Playoffs

1985- Mike Tyson makes his professional debut in Albany, New York, a match which he wins by a first round knockout.

1986 - Hands Across America: At least 5,000,000 people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California

1987 - Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom

1988 - The Chicago Cubs play their first ever night game at home in Wrigley Field,

1989 - The Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, strikes the San Francisco-Oakland region.

1990-1999 Winning Percentage = .476

1990 - Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.

1991 - Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV.

1992 - H. Ross Perot re-enters the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign.

1993 - Late Night with Conan O’Brien premieres on NBC.

1994 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.

1995 - Yahoo! is founded in Santa Clara, California.

1996 - The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.

1997 - The Detroit Red Wings win their first Stanley Cup championship in 42 years

1998 - Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.

1999 - Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.

2000-2007 Winning Percentage = .484

2000 - Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father

2001 - Beatle George Harrison dies of cancer.

2002 - Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field is demolished.

2003 - The Concorde makes its last commercial flight

2004 - The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918,

2005 - The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros in 4 games to win their first World Series since 1917.

2006 - The world’s longest running music show, Top of the Pops, broadcasts for the last time on BBC Two.

2007 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 14,000 for the first time in history.

2008 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes on 9-29-08 at 10365.45.

And the Cubs still haven't won a thing.

[MrCinatit]

Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush were all born after the Cubs last won the series.
Lyndon Johnson was born in August of that year.

[OnBaseMachine]

This time, Cubs fans have no more love left to give
Jackson

By Scoop Jackson
Page 2
(Archive | Contact)

Updated: October 6, 2008, 1:38 PM ET

CHICAGO -- No one here saw this coming. Not like this. The elimination of hope. Quick as a Jennifer Aniston relationship, instant as a Wall Street bankruptcy.

One day, the top team in the National League and a favorite to win the World Series for the first time in 100 years. Four days later, gone.

This was worse than last year. Worse than 1989. Worse than 1984. Maybe the worst ever.

Because this time the Cubs didn't just lose a series. They lost a part of their soul, and a large majority of their fans. As one Cubs fan said when leaving Bridget McNeill's -- one of the few bars just outside Wrigleyville that was allowed to sell alcohol after the seventh inning of the close-out game -- "Still waters don't run that deep."

The town has officially given up on them. For the first time in 100 loveable losing years, the love affair is over. Some of the things uttered as Alfonso Soriano struck out to end the series cannot be printed on this Web site. Some, Quentin Tarantino couldn't even put in his films.

The ugliest breakup in sports just happened. And that "It's Gonna Happen" mantra has turned into a "It's Never Gonna Happen" belief and a "We Don't Give a $%&* If It Ever Happens" feeling.

Obscene gestures, followed by obscenities. So many obscenities. "I can't think of an obscene word that describes how obscene they played," another ex-fan said, after dropping an f-bomb.

Phone calls and e-mails poured in. One read: "Man, (expletive) the Cubs! Forever! I'm done with them! Sorry sons of (expletive). Unless Mark Cuban buys them. That's the only way. … I hope the (expletive) Cubs burn in hell!"

Or, as lifelong-but-no-longer Cubs fan Andre Curry said, "They need players that can play in October, (expletive) April."

The best obscenity-free headline? In the Trib: "Making A Long Story Short." Oh, how fast the end came.

There was one scene that said it all. An image that will be played over and over, year after year, until this team finally wins a championship. Derrek Lee's batting helmet laying on the grass next to his bat. He had just thrown them both to the ground after striking out in the fifth inning of Game 3.

The way his helmet rolled over, then stopped on its side, it looked dead.

A perfect symbol of what the Cubs just became to this city.

First it was the walks (seven in Game 1), then the errors (four in Game 2), then life. The crowd gave up after James Loney's grand slam in Game 1. A straight repeat of last year, only worse. Ineptness at the plate. Bats heavier than Mississippi mud, and as slow as trying to run in it. Soriano replaced A-Rod as the worst living postseason star (1-for-14, .071 for the series, after going 2-for-14 the postseason before). Aramis Ramirez made Vlad Guerrero's postseason career look Hall-of-Fame-ish (2-for-11, .182 for the series, after going 0-for-12 the postseason before). Kosuke Fukudome was so unproductive (1-for-10 with four strikeouts) and unpopular that his benching meant nothing to the team -- or anyone else in the city.

Outside of Mr. Lee hitting .545 for the series, the team hit .204. In the elimination game alone -- the game in which they could have manned up (like the White Sox did in their first elimination game against the Rays) and acted like they wanted to live for one more day -- they were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

The totals from the past two postseasons: 12 runs in six games. All losses. Overall? A 3-11 record in NLDS history, including three sweeps. A 7-20 record at home in the postseason, the worst mark in all of Major League Baseball. The words "curse" and "choke" are no longer being used. Now it's just known that this is who they are. As Jeff Grapenthien, a fan found at Murphy's Bar after Game 3, said: "We were the best team in the league all year and then we turn into the Triple-A Pirates."

The truth, with no obscenities.

"This one's way worse [than last year], because this team is so much better than what we showed these three games," the Cubs' second baseman, Mark DeRosa, said. "To bust it for six months and win 97 games and have so many good moments, for it to end like this is wrong."

Wrong? Wrong is knowing what this city has gone through for the past century, and not just losing, but not even showing up. The city of Chicago can take an "L" -- losses are easy. But to show no desire, to display no passion, to have no pride (or at least to exude so little of it that an entire city feels you have none) -- that's wrong. That's wronger than wrong.

And the biggest problem -- probably the biggest reason why so many people are now attaching four-letter words as prefixes to " … the Cubs" -- is that there's no answer for how to fix what happened, or to make sure it doesn't happen a third, fourth, fifth, 10th time in a row. On paper, and on the field for 162 games, the Cubs were (and can continue to be) the best team in the National League. There are no glaring holes or weaknesses. Everything is in place. Perfect balance. Perfect team.

Until Game 163.

No team in sports history has ever done this to its fan base before. No other fans have had to endure pain for as long as those who perpetually "wait 'til next year." And for the first time in 36,538 days in Chicago, no one gives a damn about next year. Or the year after that.

Welcome to the new Neverland.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/081006&sportCat=mlb

[MrCinatit]

Interesting article, OBM, thanks for posting that.
If Cubs fans are planning on giving up their team, as Jackson says, then of course they are nothing but band wagoners (as many have stated before). A true fan will follow their team through thick and thin. So they got humiliated in a playoff (hehe!) - boo hoo. I do not see Angel fans doing the same. I do not see Twins fans doing the same.
Then there was this comment:



No team in sports history has ever done this to its fan base before. No other fans have had to endure pain for as long as those who perpetually "wait 'til next year." And for the first time in 36,538 days in Chicago, no one gives a damn about next year. Or the year after that.


Dear Cubs "fans":
Get over yourselves.
The rest of baseball.

[WebScorpion]

Truthfully, I can't relate to them. I remember the Reds losing the Series in 1970, the division in 1971, the Series again in 1972, the playoffs in 1973, and the division again in 1974. In 1975 I still loved that team even though they had never put it all together in the post season. Of course, my faith was rewarded handsomely, but that's another story. I feel the 2008 Cubs could be like the Reds of the early 70's...just missing a few cogs and a little more experience. To lose faith now would be the real tragedy. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/fc/doh.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

[Chip R]

Honestly, I think having to hear about this 100 year thing and the curses and all the negativity affects the players come playoff time. The first time something bad happens to them they fold like a cheap tent.

[westofyou]

Best news for Cubs fans is that Hockey season is starting, the Hawks last won it all in 1960, so the pain is not as bad.

[Roy Tucker]

This week's SI Sign of the Apocalypse...

"An Elgin, Ill., high school student was forced to remove a Cubs jersey she wore to school because a staffer thought Fukudome was a curse word."

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1146186/index.htm

[Chip R]

This week's SI Sign of the Apocalypse...

"An Elgin, Ill., high school student was forced to remove a Cubs jersey she wore to school because a staffer thought Fukudome was a curse word."

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1146186/index.htm


:lol: I think it actually was a curse word after Game 1.

[Danny Serafini]

Apparently taunting White Sox fans isn't a good idea if you're a Cubs fan.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/rosenblog/2008/10/a-sox-fan-reven.html

[Highlifeman21]

Scoop Jackson is marginally better than Stephen A Smith....

I'd rather listen to Marty than read anything written by either of those two.




... and oh yeah, the Cubs got what they deserved this year.

[BoydsOfSummer]

Yeah right. Those weenies will be annoying home town fans all over the NL come spring.

[Roy Tucker]

Apparently taunting White Sox fans isn't a good idea if you're a Cubs fan.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/rosenblog/2008/10/a-sox-fan-reven.html

I like the 100 goat signs and the mailbox address getting changed to 1908.

As they say, revenge is dish best served cold. Good job, White Sox Fan. :thumbup: