2008 Chicago Cubs
There have been some notable championship droughts in baseball history. The Cleveland Indians last won a title over 75 years ago...the Red Sox and White Sox both went over 80 years...some teams have never won...and the Yankees consider it a drought if they've gone two or three years without a title...but no one can hold a candle to the Chicago Cubs, who went over 100 years between World Series championships.
The Cubs won back-to-back titles in 1907 and 1908 and the future looked bright...and then the baseball gods proved how cruel they could get. Sure, they got back to the World Series, but something about a billy goat jinxed them and they never took home the title. After their 1908 title, they were back in the WS a couple years later, but lost to the A's. No big deal, they were back again by 1918, but fell to the Red Sox (who after began a long drought of their own). In 1929 they were checked by the A's again, then in 1932 Babe Ruth called his shot en route to a sweep. Back again in '35, this time stopped by the Tigers. In '38 they were swept again by the Yankees. Finally in 1945 they were bested again by the Tigers. Then, they stopped winning.
As the years ticked by, the lovable losers failed to put together much of any competitive teams as they floundered in the cellar of their divisions. In the 80's they won themselves a couple of division titles, but couldn't get beyond the NLCS. They as the playoffs expanded into the 90's, they found new ways into October with the Wild Card, but still failed to reach the fall classic. After a few more failures in the early 2000's, a new milestone for their failure became a very real possibility; their failure streak was about to reach triple digits. Getting swept out of the 2007 NLDS officially put their drought at 99 years.
To win it all in 2008, the Cubs needed everything to click for them. It helped that they were continuing with improvements that began in 2007, as well as having manager Lou Piniella in his second year with the club. Sweet Lou would win the Manager of the Year award as he led the Cubs to a 97-64 record, 7.5 games better than the 2nd place Brewers to win their second straight NL Central title. They were the best team in the NL and the attention of the baseball world as they strode to the playoffs to avoid the dreaded 100 years mark...if only the Dodgers cared.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Division Series matchup, the Los Angeles Dodgers kicked in the door to Wrigley Field and blew away the Cubs in the first two games 7-2 and 10-3. When the scene shifted to LA, the Cubs pitching finally found a way to limit the Dodger bats, but the offense was nowhere to be found until a 2 out single in the 8th drove in the only Cubs run in a 3-1 defeat. The Cubs got swept again, and ran up their postseason losing streak to 9 in a row to boot. But the only losing streak that mattered in Chicago was the one at 100. Then it became 101...then 102...103...and up until 107 when in 2016 they finally found paydirt and won the World Series, and fittingly passed their "biggest loser" crown to the opposing Indians.
Jason Marquis hit 2 Home Runs of his own, too, so I decided he gets a card as well.
