1908 Chicago Cubs

 There is a coming generation of baseball fans who will know nothing of the pain and torment that the Chicago Cubs and their fans endured for over a century. In 2016 they finally hit paydirt and won the World Series after 108 years of constant failure. To put it in perspective, when the Cubs won the World Series in 1908, their 2nd in a row, that put them all alone for the most titles of all time, with the New York Giants, Boston Americans and Chicago White Sox being the only other teams to ever win....then when they finally won their 3rd title in 2016, that put them 24 titles behind the leading Yankees for the most all time.

Player-Manager Frank Chance and the Cubs were in the midst of baseball dominance when 1908 began. They were coming off the 1907 title, and were 2x defending National League champions. With a target on their backs, the season grind was by no means easy, with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants fighting them wire to wire for the pennant. At the end of the regular season, the Cubs and Giants were tied with 98-55 records, while the Pirates fell a half game short at 98-56. That half game difference was a result of a tie between the Giants and Cubs from the infamous "Merkle's Boner" game. Long story short: the Giants had a game won if not for a baserunning mistake by Fred Merkle. The resulting one-game playoff went in favor of the Cubs, who won the pennant with a 99-55 record.

For the first time in baseball history, the World Series would be a rematch of teams that met before. The Detroit Tigers won their 2nd straight AL flag and were looking for revenge over the previous years sweep. The Cubs would handle business almost as easily, taking down the Tigers 4-1 in the series and becoming the 1st team in history to win consecutive titles, in addition to being the first team to two titles. Such an accomplishment would come at a price it seems, as it wouldn't be until 2003 that the Cubs would win a postseason series again, in addition to their 108 year wait to win it all.

Frank Chance, of the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance fame, was one of the modern era's first defensive standouts at 1st Base.

The first part of that famous double play set, Tinker brings the better-than-perfect defense to back it up. On top of that, his 6 Home Runs, 68 RBI, 14 Triples and 146 Hits all led the team.

Getting those DP tosses from Tinker, Ever also led the Cubs with a .300 BA, 83 Runs and 36 Stolen Bases.

The other regulars on a world champion Cubs team. Kling bringing that double digit defensive skill behind the plate anyone would build a team with.

The bench isn't too shabby for being a dead-ball era group.

Three-Finger Brown was in full Hall of Fame effort in 1908, striking out 123 and leading the Cubs with 29 Wins and a 1.47 ERA. And for what it's worth, he led the NL with 5 Saves, even if the stat didn't exist at the time.

Other pitchers, who are all Starters because being a Reliever was an insult in 1908. Reulbach led the team with 133 Strikeouts in addition to his own 24 Wins.

Orval Overall gained two distinctions during the 1908 World Series. First, he became the only pitcher in history to get 4 strikeouts in a single inning in the World Series, where an uncaught strike three in the 1st inning of Game 5 allowed the batter to reach 1st base. Speaking of Game 5, it was the decisive game of the series, making Overall the last Cubs pitcher to win a WS clincher for the Northsiders until Aroldis Chapman in 2016.