All The Way Back?

In the game's first 30 years, there was scarcely a better club than the Chicago Nationals. On the heels of some of the 19th century's finest baseball (read: 1876 and 1880), the Cubs roared into the new century with a 1906-1910 stretch that witnessed four pennants and two world championships. Then, as perhaps expected, the dynasty aged and cracked, as the remnants of the game's greatest pitching staff faded away, including the legendary Mordecai "Three Finger Brown."

Later in the second decade, the Cubs arguably outplayed the Boston Red Sox, but fell victim to the pitching brilliance of Carl Mays and Babe Ruth. After spending most of the 1920s trailing the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, the West Siders roared to life in 1929, and even seemed poised to upend the embryonic dynasty that was the Philadelphia A's.

Yet, due in part to Hack Wilson's blunder, an 8-0 lead (that threatened to tie the Series) evaporated under an Athletic onslaught. Wilson would collect 191 RBI the next season as the Cubs boasted one of the more frightening offensive teams in baseball history -- but would not reach the Series again until 1932.

That year commenced a bizarre stretch where the Cubs made it to October every third year for nearly a decade -- in which they watched the Detroit Tigers finally claim a championship (after embarrassing them in aught-seven and aught-eight) sandwiched by two humiliations by the New York Yankees. In 1945, the Cubs qualified for the World Series again, once more falling to the Tigers.

The 1953 World Series program, yet another Yankees-Dodgers quarrel, officially listed the Cubs as sporting a 2-8 record in the Series, 19-33-1 overall. John Drebinger of the New York Times, proprietor of "Fifty Years of World Series Play," an article found in the 50-cent issue, cited both Brooklyn and Philadelphia's (NL) failure to win a Series. Brooklyn finally got it right in 1955, before arriving at a new home that bore witness to five World Series titles; Philadelphia ended Kansas City's (a new version, not the joke cited in '53) dreams and got off the snide in 1980.

19-33-1, with no change since Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis ruled the gridiron for the United States Military Academy. Despite close calls in 1969, 1984, 1989, and especially 2003, the Cubs have not returned to the World Series. At the time of the this writing, Chicago stands nearly 10 full games behind the surging Redbirds, but with Mark Prior healthy (as evidenced by his 08/05 start) and with a rejuvenated Greg Maddux now in the 300-win club -- the Cardinals, and the rest of baseball, must be wary of the Cubs.

2003, with the ignominious ending at Wrigley Field, was a collapse of historic, near-Bostonian proportions, but with the imported Beantown shortstop, might this be the year? With an almost comfortable margin in the wildcard race (weren't the last two champions non-division winners, no?), with a manager starving for his first championship, with the pitching staff beginning to look more like Brown, Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfiester, and Orval Overall (stalwarts of the last championship team), will only the decay of the Friendly Confines thwart their efforts?

If Kerry Wood and Mark Prior can remain healthy, complimenting the standout seasons of Matt Clement and de facto ace Carlos Zambrano, not to mention the savvy Maddux -- shouldn't this be a done deal? Cubs vs. Cards in the NLCS? True, Barry Bonds might one again carry his team to the playoffs, or maybe the Florida Marlins can ratchet their game up a notch, or maybe the Atlanta Braves will exorcise the ghosts of a 1-5 postseason record since the New York Mets walked the pennant-winning run across home plate in 1999 -- but at 8-2 in their last 10 as of this writing, Chicago might just be warming up.

The National League's first champion waited 95 years to once again claim a postseason series, a streak that ended with Wood's Game 5 besting of the Braves in Atlanta. Perhaps it would be fitting if the Cubs needed only one year after that to dispense with two more playoff rounds, and erase the futility symbolized by 1908.