Chicago Bears: Chicago’s Biggest Loser

Ding dong, the goat is dead!  The Chicago Cubs ended the longest drought in American sports and captured the World Series for the first time in 108 years.  It didn’t come easy as the Cubs were pushed to the limit and then some through the MLB postseason.

The Cubs had their chances to break their drought a few times in the last few decades, but for one reason or another, they failed to get it done.  It wasn’t until Tom Ricketts bought the team and hired Theo Epstein did the Cubs get the right pieces in place to finally bring the World Series back to the North Side.

Theo came in with a plan and executed it to perfection.  He told us on the day he was hired exactly what he was going to do like a prophet.  After breaking curses in Boston and Chicago, Theo might be closer to a baseball god.

Things just seemed to break right for the Cubs the last couple of seasons.  Just a couple of years removed from losing 100 games, Joe Maddon became available and seemed like the perfect trigger man to execute Theo’s plan on the field.  The Cubs seemed to arrive a year early last season, but failed to close the deal as they got swept out of the playoffs in the NLCS at the hands of the New York Mets.

Maddon and the Cubs were considered the frontrunners for a title from the start of spring training.  Rather than shying away from it, they “embraced the target” and came out with shirts that said “TRY NOT TO SUCK”.  Mission accomplished.  103 wins in the regular season and a World Series title in the books.  108 years of waiting and futility washed away with a champagne and beer shower.

The arrow remains pointed up for the Cubs, who still have a young core of players and have the look of the 2010 Blackhawks.  Time will tell if this is a one-and-done or the start of a dynasty.