6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Joe Posnanski On The Cubs And Theo Epstein

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Joe Posnanski On The Cubs And Theo Epstein

Joe Posnanski can get severe logorrhea at times, but mostly he's the kind of guy I wish the Times would replace Bill Plaschke with: sensible, great writing chops, not afraid of number crunching, and honest. His piece on the Cubs' acquisition of Theo Epstein is typically understated and charming:

See, this is not about how the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. Everybody talks about that, but it’s deceiving. Between 1909 and 1945 the Cubs won seven pennants. They were a dominant team in the National League. It just so happened that they kept losing World Series. That was a different kind of pain.

No, the streak we’re talking about here is 66 years of not even reaching a World Series. It is the longest such streak in the history of baseball. Every single team except the Cubs that was in existence in 1946 has been to at least two World Series since — and the only team with only two pennants since World War II is the Chicago White Sox, who have probably had something rub off. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been to three. The Cleveland Indians have been to four. The Baltimore Orioles — formerly the St. Louis Browns — have been to six. Even before Theo’s so-called-jinxed Boston Red Sox had won in 2004 and 2007, they had been to four World Series since World War II. They just hadn’t won any of them.

Labels: cubs, front office