By Woodrow Carroll
When the Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros, four straight games in the 2005 World Series, it ended 88 years of no championship frustration for the White Sox franchise.
The 1917 championship featured the White Sox against the New York Giants, which the Pale Hose won, four games to two. What followed for the White Sox was the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and a frustrating six-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1959 World Series. Well, while it may have taken 88 seasons for the White Sox to win it all, the Chicago Cubs and their fans were going through a longer wait. A wait of 108 years before it came to an end!
Life was good to the Cubs’ franchise in the early years of the teams existence. Despite a loss to the White Sox in the 1906 World Series, the Cubs bounced back to take down the Detroit Tigers in both the 1907 and 1908 World Series.
In 1907, the Cubs beat Detroit four games to zero with one contest ending in a tie (Keep in mind that with no lights available, there was a limit as to how long a game could go on.) Even the tie was a moral victory for the Cubs who scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 3-all and send the contest into extra innings. That game, the first of what turned the Series into a five-game affair, was called on account of darkness with the two sides knotted at 3-3 after 12 innings.
The tie game in the opener of the 1907 World Series was the best the Tigers, who were sporting a right fielder by the name of Ty Cobb, could do. Cobb, who batted a meak .200 for the Series, saw his Tigers lose four straight after the opening-game tie.
The 1908 World Series again pitted the Cubs and Bengles. And, Detroit did only marginally better.
After losing the first two games of the 1908 Series, the Tigers showed some fight in winning Game 3 of the Series by an 8-3 score. It was a false display as it turned out!
Games 4 and 5 of the 1908 World Series saw Cubs’ pitching dominate by whitewashing the Tigers 2-0 and 3-0 to wrap up the World Championship.
It took some time for the Tigers to avenge the losses to the Cubs in those early of years World Series play. But, Detroit did get some satisfaction adding to the Cubs misery. In 1935, the Tigers bested the Cubs four games to two in the Fall Classic. In 1945, the two sides went the full seven games before Detroit emerged victorious.
For the Chicago Cubs it took 108 years to break through! In 2016, the Cubs’ regular-season record of 103-58 was the best in the Major Leagues. And, Chicago first ousted the San Francisco Giants three games to one to open playoff activity. Moving on, the Cubs sent the Los Angeles Dodgers packing four games to two and earned a trip to the World Series to face the Cleveland Indians.
Four games into the 2016 World Series, the Indians were up three games to one. At which point the Cubs showed their mettle.
Game 5 of the 2016 World Series played at Wrigley Field went the Cubs way by a 3-2 score. From there it was back to Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Game 6 in the 2016 World Series was all Chicago by a 9-3 final to set up a winner-take-all Game 7.
Game 7 in the 2016 World Series was a classic, as you might imagine. It took 10 innings before the Cubs wrapped up an 8-7 victory to end a 108-year title draught.
Storylines: With the Cubs Championship, Cleveland moved into Major League Baseball’s draught spot. With the Cubs’ title, the Cleveland franchise, which last won a World Series in 1948, has gone the longest stretch without a World Series trophy. Keep in mind that newer franchises in the Major Leagues have never won a World Series. Cleveland, however, was there with the opportunity win a championship the past half century long before a number of franchises ever existed.