ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: October 14

The Cubs win the 1908 World Series, then the drought begins

I so do not give a fuck about baseball, but when the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016 it was kind of exciting, from this historian’s perspective, because it ended the longest World Series championship drought in history.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: October 14, 1908--

Personal note: I’ve only ever been to a single MLB game. I was on a business trip to Chicago in 2001 and my boss got us all tickets to a Cubs game. I don’t remember who they played or who won, but I do remember the desperation in the voice of the guy trying to sell peanuts. There was an obvious pecking order of what you got to sell. No one wanted the peanut the guy. I felt so bad for him, because fuck peanuts. The beer guy was obviously the top of the heap. He was making loads of cash.

Anyfuckingway, in 2016 the Cubs were up against Cleveland, who hadn’t won the championship since 1948. But for Chicago, it had been over a century. The last time the Cubs won the World Series was on October 14, 1908.

It was against the Detroit Tigers, it was a rematch of the previous year’s World Series, which the Cubs also won. So, Chicago wins two championships in a row and then fucking nothing for 108 goddamn years. They appeared in seven more World Series between 1910 and 1945, losing all of them, two of them to Detroit so suck on that, Chicago. Then since 1945 the suckage really began.

But in 2016 the suckage ended, and then it started again, in more ways than one. I’ll get to that in a moment.

The series against the Cleveland Indians, who thankfully came to finally realize this is the twenty-first century and changed their name to the Guardians in 2022, went the full seven games. I only watched the seventh game, and I’ll tell you what I remember about it. I remember a shit-ton of anxiety. I remember that it seemed like Chicago was soooo close, and then nope. And then really close again, but wait. And it looked like they were sure to win but then something happened that dragged it out and Cleveland refused to die and it went on and on and fucking on and Jesus Chocolate Christ on a Fucking Pogo Stick just make it be over.

And then it finally ended, and Chicago was victorious and the drought was over and then the Cubs went back to sucking. But it wasn’t just the Cubs that went back to sucking after that date. Everything did.

See, for someone who doesn’t give a fuck about baseball, I was still happy for Chicago. I knew this meant a lot to the city and the fans and I’ve been there a few times and it’s a cool place. Lotta history in that town. But November 2, 2016, was the last time that it seemed that America was going to be okay.

Just five days earlier, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress saying he was reopening an investigation in Hillary Clinton’s emails, and it hit her in the polls. A number of political experts who evaluate such things say that with the razor thin margins in certain states, the negative impact of the letter very likely cost Clinton the Electoral College on November 8, 2016.

That’s what I remember about the 2016 World Series, that the team I wanted to win did, and then six days later the worst possible person became president of the United States. And we’ve been paying for it ever since.

“Fuck Donald Trump” goes with saying, but don’t forget what an absolute corrupt piece of shit James Comey is. Fuck that guy too.

Get my book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.

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