Is this the year for the Chicago Cubs?
There are plenty of signs. The latest came this week as NBC Chicago reports the Northsiders’ 15-game division lead is their largest in September since 1907, a year they actually won the World Series (yes, those exist).
They are also 38 games above .500 for the first time since 1945, the last time they won the pennant.
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/771195308747264000
But will they win the World Series?
Well, having the best record is no guarantee of that.
And nobody knows that better than the Cubs.
Via this handy list from NewsDay, we can see the 11 winningest teams of all time won only seven World Series (including the 1975 Reds).
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The two winningest teams ever – the 1906 Cubs and the 2001 Mariners, who both won 116 games – both failed to win it all. Seattle didn’t even win the pennant.
What’s more, the Cubs are on pace to win 104 games, something they did in 1909 and ’10… when they also failed to win the World Series.
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Hey, but on the bright side, one year after the 116-win Cubs lost the 1906 Fall Classic, they claimed the 1907 championship despite winning “only” 107 games in the regular season.
Of course this wouldn’t be a Cubs story without a fatalistic fact to finish: Since the move to three divisions in 1994, 22 teams have won at least 100 games and only two times (the Yankees in 1998 and ’09) have they also won the World Series.
So it looks like the Cubs have a chance to make history – one way or another – in October.