World Champion Cubs | Chicago Cubs & Wrigley Field Fan Site

 

 

World Champion Cubs is a fan site dedicated to the Chicago Cubs, their championship teams of the past, and their century-long effort to bring another World Series title back to Wrigley Field.*

Next Year is Here!

After a disappointing 2009 season, Cubs fans look to 2010 with new hope. The Cubs have captured three Division titles in the last decade and we're all ready for another run at that top spot. After 101 seasons without a World Championship, could "Next Year" finally be here?

 

Cubs Team Titles

  • 2 World Championships: 1907, 1908
  • 16 League Titles / Pennants: 1876, 1880-1882, 1885-1886, 1906-1908, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945
  • 3 Division Titles: 1984, 1989, 2003, 2007, 2008
  • 1 Wild Card Appearance: 1998

In their 10 post-season appearances from 1906 to 1945, the Cubs made it to the World Series every time - but won only twice. They have not won the World Series since 1908, or played in a World Series since 1945.

The Playoff Counter & "Eamus Catuli!"

Fans waiting for the Cubs' next World Series appearance are reminded of the Cubs' long-term playoff drought every time they look across Sheffield Avenue, behind Wrigley Field's right field bleachers. A playoff counter shows the number of years since they have reached each of the milestones above (updated for 2010):

Cubs Playoff Counter

Legend:
AC - ("Anno Catuli," or "In the Year of the Cubs.")
01 - number of years since the Cubs' last Division Championship (2008)
64 - number of years since the Cubs' last Pennant (1945)
101 - number of years since the Cubs' last World Series title (1908)

Sadly, the playoff counter will need that extra digit yet again for the 2010 season, to mark 101 years since the Cubs' last World Championship. (I'm still wondering if they'll revert to double digits after the Cubs finally end the World Series drought?)

To the left of the counter, on the same building, you will also see the phrase "Eamus Catuli!" This roughly translates from Latin as "Let's Go Cubs!" (Catuli translates to "whelps", the nearest Latin equivalent of a cub).

The Curse of the Billy Goat

One of the many excuses offered for why the Cubs have failed to claim a World Series title in almost a full century is the famed "Curse of the Billy Goat."

As legend has it, Greek immigrant Billy Sianis (then-owner of the nearby Billy Goat Tavern, of SNL "cheezborger cheezborger / no pepsi, coke" fame) had tickets to game 4 of the 1945 World Series against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Sianis' companion for the game was...a goat...wearing a sign that read "We've got Detroit's goat." Sianis and his goat were admitted into the game, but were later ejected due to the goat's foul odor. Sianis, angry at being ejected, placed a curse on the Cubs, claiming they would never play in another World Series. Sianis died in 1970, but the curse apparently lives on, as the Cubs are still in the midst of the longest World Series title drought in MLB history.

World Series Title Drought

The Cubs' 100-year title drought (1908-2008) is the longest in MLB history - and still going.

Second on the all-time list is the Chicago White Sox, who ended their 88-year drought (1917-2005) with a World Series title in 2005. Third is the Boston Red Sox who went 86 years (1918-2004) before they broke their own "Curse of the Bambino." This may be the decade of drought-busters, and the Cubs are hoping to be next in line.

The second longest active title drought is held by the Cleveland Indians, who have gone 60 years (1948) without a title.

Chicago Cubs Links

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