The Chicago Cubs closed out the L.A. Dodgers on Saturday, sending them to the World Series for the first time since 1945. They're facing the Cleveland Indians, who haven't won a title since 1948.

NLCS - Los Angeles Dodgers v Chicago Cubs - Game Six
Getty Images
loading...

It's actually a great story. These franchises have been mocked for most of the past seven decades, with only brief stretches where they weren't terrible: The Indians in the late '90s and the Cubs for a few seasons 10 years ago.

If the Cubs win, it'll be their first championship in over a century. They last won in 1908 and 108 years is a long time. When the Cubs last won a title:

  1. There were only 46 states. Arizona and New Mexico joined the U.S. in 1912, Alaska and Hawaii were added in 1959. Since the last Cubs win, 18 different presidents have been elected, and 11 amendments have been added to the Constitution.
  2. The Eiffel Tower in Paris was the tallest building in the world. Now, it doesn't even crack the Top 100. The current tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, is nearly three times as tall as the Eiffel Tower.
  3. Consumer radio hadn't been invented. Neither had coffee filters, paper cups, crossword puzzles, bras, hairdryers, kiss-proof lipstick, hearing aids, penicillin, sun tan lotion, and ballpoint pens.
  4. The team didn't have plastic helmets. Plastic was still being invented.
  5. We were still four decades away from Jackie Robinson's arrival on the Dodgers. When Dexter Fowler leads off for the Cubs tomorrow, he'll be the first African American to play for the Cubs in a World Series. The Cubs made seven World Series appearances after their 1908 win, but none since Jackie in 1947.
  6. The New York Yankees have won the World Series 27 times.
  7. The NFL didn't exist. Neither did the NBA or the NHL.
  8. The Cubs have had 52 managers.
  9. The city of Chicago has won 24 other titles. The White Sox have won three World Series, the Chicago Bulls won six NBA titles, the Chicago Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups, and the Chicago Bears won a Super Bowl in 1986 and eight old-school championships before the NFL-AFL merger.
  10. 14 new baseball teams have been added to the Major Leagues. In 1908, Cleveland had a team, but they were called the Cleveland Naps.
    The other teams were the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cincinnati Reds, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
    Plus some names you might not recognize: The Brooklyn Superbas (which became the L.A. Dodgers), the St. Louis Browns (which became the Baltimore Orioles), the Philadelphia Athletics (which eventually moved to Oakland), the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins), The New York Highlanders (now the New York Yankees), the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), and the Boston Doves (which became the Atlanta Braves).
  11. A World Series win will easily be the best thing since sliced bread for Cubs fans, because the last time the Cubs won, sliced bread didn't exist. It was still 20 years out the last time the Cubs were champs.

More From 97X