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The Chicago Cubs are a Major League Baseball team that plays at Wrigley Field in the North Side Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago , Illinois . The Cubs are part of the National League . They are one of two clubs in Chicago, the other being the Chicago White Sox of the American League . Both are charter franchises of their respective leagues. The Cubs are affectionately referred to by the media and fans as "The Cubbies" and are also known as "The North Siders," in contrast to the White Sox, who play on the city's South Side. The Cubs are one of the only two remaining charter members left in the National League, ( Atlanta Braves ) and the only team in its original city. , 2007 The Cubs are managed by Lou Piniella . The team's president is John McDonough, and their General Manager is Jim Hendry . FRANCHISE HISTORY See Also: History of the Chicago Cubs White Stockings The success and fame of the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first openly all- Professional team, led to a minor explosion of openly professional teams in 1870, each with the singular goal of defeating the Red Stockings. A number of them adopted variants on that name and color, and it happens that Chicago adopted white as their primary color. On April 29, 1870, the team played their first road game against the St. Louis Unions, defeating the Unions 47-1.1 After a summer of individually arranged contests among the various teams, the time was right for the organization of the first professional league, the National Association , in 1871. The Chicago White Stockings were close contenders all summer, but disaster struck in October 1871 with the Great Chicago Fire , which destroyed the club's ballpark, uniforms, and other possessions. The club completed its schedule with borrowed uniforms, finishing second in the National Association, just 2 games behind, but it was compelled to drop out of the league during the city's recovery period until being revived in 1874. After the 1875 season, Chicago acquired several key players, including pitcher Albert Spalding of the Boston Red Stockings , and first baseman Adrian "Cap" Anson of the Philadelphia Athletics . Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the club president, William Hulbert , was leading the formation of a new and stronger organization, the National League . With a beefed-up squad, the White Stockings cruised through the National League's inaugural season of 1876. The Chicagoans went on to have some great seasons in the 1880s, starting with 1880 when they won 67 and lost 17, for an all-time record .798 winning percentage. Extrapolating an 84-game season onto a 162-game season is a dubious proposition, but it does provide some perspective to note that a similar winning percentage nowadays would yield 129 wins. By then, Spalding had retired to start his Sporting Goods Company . The length of the season was such that a team could get by with two main starters, and the team had a couple of powerhouse pitchers in Larry Corcoran and Fred Goldsmith . Those two were fading by mid-decade, and were replaced by other strong pitchers, notably John Clarkson . Much has been written about Old Hoss Radbourn 's 60 victories for the Providence Grays of 1884, but Clarkson also had a fair year in 1885, winning 53 games as Chicago won the pennant. A second major league, called the American Association , came along in 1882, and Chicago met the American Association's champions three times in that era's version of the World Series . Twice they faced the St. Louis Browns in lively and controversial Series action. That St. Louis franchise, which went on to join the National League in 1892 after the American Association folded, would later be renamed the St. Louis Cardinals and continues to be a perennial rival of the Cubs. During this period the team was captained and managed by first baseman Cap Anson , one of the most famous and arguably the best player in baseball in his day. He was the first ballplayer to reach 3,000 hits. However, the Hall Of Famer is chiefly remembered today for his racist views (which he stated in print, in his autobiography, lest there be any doubt) and his prominent role in establishing baseball's color line, rather than for his great playing and managing skills. After Chicago's great run during the 1880s, the on-field fortunes of Anson's team (by then often called "Anson's Colts" or just "Colts") dwindled during the 1890s, awaiting revival under new leadership. The Cubs are the only team to play continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876. The other surviving charter member of the National League, the , Milwaukee and Atlanta . The White Stocking were called the Chicago Colts and the Chicago Orphans for brief periods before becoming the Chicago Cubs. Golden years "Tinker to Evers to Chance" Joe Tinker ( Shortstop ), Johnny Evers ( Second Baseman ), and Frank Chance ( First Baseman ) were three legendary Cubs Infielder s who played together from 1903 to 1910, and sporadically over the following two years. They, along with third baseman Harry Steinfeldt , formed the nucleus of one of the most dominant baseball teams of all time. After Chance took over as manager for the ailing Frank Selee in 1905, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span. Their record of 116 victories in 1906 (in a 154-game season) has not been broken, though it was tied by the Seattle Mariners in 2001, in a 162-game season. The 1906 Cubs still hold the record for Best Winning Percentage of the modern era, with a .763 mark. However, they lost the 1906 World Series to their crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox . Curiously, both of those teams were so far in front that they seemingly lost their edge, and fell in the post-season. The Cubs again relied on dominant pitching during this period, featuring hurlers such as Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown , Jack Taylor , Ed Reulbach , Jack Pfiester and Orval Overall . The Cubs' pitchers posted a record for lowest staff Earned Run Average that still stands today. Reulbach threw a one-hitter in the 1906 World Series, one of a small handful of twirlers to pitch low-hit games in the post-season (another was Claude Passeau of the Cubs' 1945 squad). Brown acquired his unique and indelicate nickname from having lost most of his index finger in farm machinery when he was a youngster. This gave him the ability to put a natural extra spin on his pitches, which often frustrated opposing batters. Some experts believe the Cubs could have been in the Series for five straight seasons, had their great catcher Johnny Kling not sat out the entire 1909 season. He had temporarily retired to play professional pocket billiards, but his primary reason for not playing was a contract dispute. His absence hurt the stability of the pitching staff. When he returned in 1910, the Cubs won the pennant again, but the veteran club was unable to defeat the powerful young Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. The infield also attained fame. After turning a critical Double Play against the New York Giants in a July 1910 game, the trio was immortalized in Franklin P. Adams ' poem '' Baseball's Sad Lexicon '', which first appeared in the July 18 , 1910 , edition of the '' New York Evening Mail '': :These are the saddest of possible words: :"Tinker to Evers to Chance." :Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, :Tinker and Evers and Chance. :Ruthlessly pricking our Gonfalon bubble, :Making a Giant hit into a double-- :Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: :"Tinker to Evers to Chance." At that time, the Giants and the Cubs were two of the league's strongest teams. "Gonfalon" is a poetic way of referring to the league championship Pennant that both clubs were symbolically fighting for. The expression "Tinker to Evers to Chance" is still used today, and means a well-oiled routine or a "sure thing". Tinker and Evers reportedly could not stand each other, and rarely spoke off the field. Evers, a high-strung, argumentative man, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1911 and rarely played that year. Chance suffered a near-fatal beaning the same year. The trio played together little after that. In 1913, Chance went to manage the New York Yankees and Tinker went to Cincinnati to manage the Reds , and that was the end of one of the most notable infields in baseball. They were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together in 1946. Tinker and Evers reportedly became amicable in their old age, with the baseball wars far behind them. Every three years The Cubs fell into a lengthy doldrum after their early 1900s Glory Years, broken only by their pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918. Around that time, chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley obtained majority ownership of the Cubs, and things started to turn around, especially after they acquired the services of astute baseball man William Veeck, Sr.. With Wrigley's money and Veeck's savvy, the Cubs were soon back in business in the National League, the front office having built a team that would be strong contenders for the next decade. During that stretch, they achieved the unusual accomplishment of winning a pennant every three years - 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1938 - sometimes in thrilling fashion, such as 1935 when they won a record 21 games in a row in September, and 1938 when they won a crucial late-season game with a game ending home run by Gabby Hartnett , known in baseball lore as the "Homer in the Gloamin'." Unfortunately, their success did not extend to the post-season, as they fell to their American League rivals each time, often in humiliating fashion. One example was in game 4 of the 1929 World Series when the Cubs, leading by 3 at the time, yielded 10 runs to the Philadelphia Athletics in the seventh inning. A key play in that inning was center fielder Hack Wilson losing a fly ball in the sun, resulting in a 3-run inside-the-park homer. Since their last World Series win in 1908, the Cubs have appeared in and lost seven World Series. By the late 1930s, the double-Bills (Wrigley and Veeck), were both dead, and the front office under P.K. Wrigley was unable to rekindle the kind of success that P.K.'s father had created, so the Cubs slipped into mediocrity. The Cubs enjoyed one more pennant, at the close of another World War. Due to the wartime travel restrictions, the first three games were played in Detroit, where the Cubs won two of them, and the last four were to be played at Wrigley. In game 4 of 1945 World Series , the Curse Of The Billy Goat was laid upon the Cubs when Mr. Wrigley ejected Billy Sianis, who had come to game 4 with two tickets, one for him and one for his goat. Upon his ejection, Mr. Sianis uttered, "the Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs lost game 4, lost the 1945 World Series , and have not been back since then, at least through the 2006 season. THE INVISIBLE YEARS (1946-1983) Even a few years into the post-World War II era, astute observers of the game began to suspect that something had gone wrong with the Cubs franchise, and that it might take them a long time to recover. In his 1950 book ''The World Series and Highlights of Baseball'', LaMont Buchanan wrote the following prose next to photos of Wrigley (apparently taken during the 1945 World Series ) and of their newly-hired manager: "From the sublime to last place! Wrigley Field, the ivy of its walls still whispering of past greatness, watches its Cubs grow less ferocious in '47, '48, '49. New doctor of the cure is smiling Frank Frisch, veteran of previous baseball transfusions who thinks, 'It's nice to have the fans with you.' Chicago has a great baseball tradition. The fans remember glorious yesterdays as they wait for brighter tomorrows. And eventually their Cubs will bite again." Little did anyone realize how long "eventually" might turn out to be. 1969 disaster In 1969, the Cubs had a substantial lead in the newly created . After 1969, and until 1984, the Cubs rarely tasted any substantial success. Following the disastrous fall to the Mets in '69, the Cubs finished slightly over .500 in 1970, 1971 and 1972, while most of the core players from the 1969 team were still in uniform, including Santo, Williams, Banks, Jenkins, , Rick Reuschel , Bill Madlock , Bill Buckner , Jose Cardenal , and Ivan DeJesus . DeJesus was traded in 1983 for Ryne Sandberg and Larry Bowa . RECENT ERA (1984-PRESENT) Heartbreak While the Cubs have not won a World Series championship since 1908, the past 40 years have seen some potentially great seasons come to abrupt and agonizing conclusions. In the middle of the 1984 campaign, the Cubs, managed by Jim Frey , acquired star pitcher Rick Sutcliffe from the Cleveland Indians to complement an already good team which boasted players such as third baseman Ron Cey and closer Lee Smith , as well as second baseman Ryne Sandberg , the eventual 1984 NL MVP. The result was a league-best 96 victories and the NL East Championship. In their first postseason appearance since 1945, the Cubs won the first two games of the NLCS at Wrigley Field against the San Diego Padres by scores of 13-0 and 4-2, respectively. The Padres held home field advantage in 1984, and Games 3, 4, and 5 would be played in San Diego. The Cubs needed to win only one those next three to make it to the World Series. After being soundly beaten in Game 3, the Cubs lost a heartbreaker when Smith, the team's All-Star closer, allowed a game-winning home run to Steve Garvey in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4. Many fans remember Garvey rounding first after his homer in Game 4, pumping his fist into the air, as one of the lowest moments in Cubdom. Game 5 was just as bad – the Cubs took a 3-0 lead to the sixth inning with Sutcliffe, the eventual 1984 NL Cy Young Award winner, on the mound. But Sutcliffe tired, and a critical error by first baseman Leon Durham helped the Padres win the clinching game. The 1989 Cubs, anchored by Sandberg and Sutcliffe as well as outfielder Andre Dawson , won the NL East again, finishing with up a 93 win season and a six game lead over New York. Some young faces contributed to the team's success, as Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith finished 1st and 2nd in the race for NL Rookie of the Year, respectively. First baseman Mark Grace led the team in hitting in only his second full season. The pitching was solid as well, featuring starters Greg Maddux , Jamie Moyer , and Mike Bielecki . This time, the Cubs met the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS . After splitting the first two games in Chicago, the series headed to the Bay Area, and despite holding the lead at some point in each of the three games, and an MVP caliber series from Grace, the team was unable to overcome bullpen meltdowns and managerial blunders by Don Zimmer , which ultimately led to another early exit from the post season. The Giants went on to lose to the Oakland A's in the famous "Earthquake Series." Between 1990 and 1997, the Cubs fell back into the dulldroms of mediocrity, but in 1998 made some major offseason moves. Shawon Dunston was replaced by Jeff Blauser and the team also acquired Henry Rodriguez , fresh off a 40-HR season with the Montreal Expos to compliment Sammy Sosa , on a team that also featured Grace and Kevin Tapani . The Cubs, involved in an intense Wild Card race with the Giants and Mets, were paced by Sosa's amazing 66 home run, MVP season and Kerry Wood 's dominating Rookie of the Year pitching, which included an MLB record-tying 20 strikeout game versus Houston. On the last day of the season, the Cubs fell 4-3 to Houston, but the team was saved when Colorado's Neifi Perez hit a walk-off home run to beat San Francisco in their last game, so the Giants and Cubs finished tied for the wild card. The teams met in a one-game playoff at Wrigley Field, in which Gary Gaetti , claimed off waivers near the end of the season, hit a game-winning home run. Next up was Atlanta, but the Cubs played poorly, scoring only four runs as they were swept in 3 games. The Sosa/McGwire home run chase, however, is believed to have "saved baseball," bringing in new fans and bringing back old fans soured following the 1994 Major League Baseball Strike . After the season, GM Ed Lynch and manager Jim Riggleman opted to keep many of the same players who had career years in '98 for the '99 season. That team was 9 games over .500 in June when they were swept by the crosstown rival White Sox in Comiskey Park , which was the genesis of an epic tailspin, resulting in the club finishing in last place, 30 games behind Houston. The 2001 Cubs made a respectable drive for the playoffs, finishing only 5 games behind both St. Louis and Houston. (The Astros were awarded the division title due to beating The Cardinals in head to head play) The Cubs had acquired Rondell White in late 2000 and made a deadline trade to acquire All-Star 1B Fred McGriff , though McGriff took over a month debating whether or not to approve the deal and leave his hometown Tampa Bay Devil Rays . Jon Lieber had a 20 win season, and along with Tapani and Wood made up a solid rotation. Sosa had perhaps his best season, hitting 64 homers with career highs in batting average (.328) and RBI (160) for Don Baylor 's club. The team's spirits took a hit in early September as the Cubs led the eventual Wild Card winning Cardinals by 2.5 games, but Preston Wilson 's game winning home run off of the Cubs' closer Tom "Flash" Gordon killed the team's momentum, and they failed to make another serious charge. The Cubs did manage to win 7 of their last 9 games to finish 88-74, but had a disastrous 2002 campaign, after which manager Don Baylor was fired and replaced with Dusty Baker . 2003 and beyond The Cubs won their first division title in 14 years in 2003, after trading for Aramis Ramirez and riding Sosa, Wood, and Mark Prior to an 88 win season. The Cubs played rather poorly near the end of the season but beat out the charging Astros and clinched the division on September 27th against Pittsburgh (exactly as they did in 1984) extending to a 2 game lead in the NL Central with one game to play. The Cubs ended up winning by only one game. Prior and Wood were dubbed "Chicago Heat" by Sports Illustrated and the name stuck. The team regrouped for the playoffs, and their NLDS victory over the Atlanta Braves was the team's first postseason series win since 1908. The Cubs then took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Florida Marlins , and it appeared they would reach the World Series for the first time in 58 seasons. Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett shut out the Cubs in Game 5. Most fans thought this a blessing, as with Prior and Wood slated to start the next two games, victory seemed all but assured, and the team could "break the curse" at home. Game 6, held on October 14th, was a scene unlike anything since, as some estimated 200,000 screaming fans battled the chilly weather and packed the streets outside Wrigley Field, and thousands more packed into local bars around the park, in anticipation of witnessing a Cubs World Series berth. That night, the Cubs took a 3-0 lead into the 8th inning, when the now-infamous incident took place in which a fan, Steve Bartman , attempted to catch a foul ball that Moises Alou was attempting to catch to record an out. The play, coupled with an error by SS Alex S. Gonzalez rattled the team and opened the door to 8 Florida runs and a Marlin victory. The next night, the Cubs rebounded to gain a lead in Game 7, with Kerry Wood on the mound, but lost a close, back and forth game and were once again were left on the outside of the World Series looking in. In 2004, misfortune struck the Cubs again. The team welcomed back prodigal son Greg Maddux as to fill the fourth spot in the rotation behind Wood, Prior, and Carlos Zambrano , giving the Cubs what on paper was considered to be the strongest rotation in the league. In late July, GM Jim Hendry pulled a blockbuster trade with eventual champion Boston for Nomar Garciaparra , and the Cubs held the Wild Card lead by a game and a half on September 24 , but suffered a late inning comeback from the Mets, and then proceeded to drop 7 of their last 9 games and relinquished the lead to the Houston Astros . The final game of the season was a meaningless victory over the Braves, which Sosa requested to sit out, but was videotaped by security cameras as he left the ballpark early in the game. When asked about the event by the media, Sosa attempted to lie about it. Already a controversial figure in the clubhouse, Sammy alienated much of his fan base (and the few team members who still were on good terms with him) with this incident, leaving his place in Cubs' lore possibly tarnished for years to come. The disappointing season also led to the departure of popular commentator Steve Stone , who became increasingly critical of management and players toward season's end. At one point, reliever Kent Mercker phoned the booth during a game and told Stone and Chip Caray to "keep out of team business." Though Dusty Baker had led the team to 89 wins in 2004, a one game improvement over 2003's near World Series season, the expectations were loftier and the season was deemed a failure. This time, the fallout was decidedly unlovable, as the Cubs traded Sosa in the off-season to the Baltimore Orioles for Jerry Hairston Jr and Mike Fontenot . Months later, Sammy, along with many other players, was summoded to testify to the Grand Jury about steroids. Inconsistency struck the Cubs in 2005, as the team finished in fourth place in the NL Central and, at 79-83, under .500 for the first time since 2002. Many key players expected to contribute to the teams success missed extended time due to injury, including Ramirez, Prior, Wood, and Garciaparra. Though many felt Baker had done a great job leading the team to what was nearly a .500 season, most of the media and fan base started to call for Baker's head. Not all was negative however, as despite the injuries and the team's mediocre overall performance, the team witnessed a career year from newly acquired first baseman Derrek Lee (.335 batting average, 46 home runs, 107 RBIs) and the rise of a closer, Ryan Dempster (33 saves in 35 save opportunities). The Tribune gave Baker one last chance to turn things around, and Jim Hendry retooled the lineup for the 2006 campaign. During the offseason, the Cubs revamped the outfield, acquiring speedy center fielder Juan Pierre from the Florida Marlins for three young pitchers (including Sergio Mitre and Ricky Nolasco ). The Cubs also signed free agent outfielder Jacque Jones to a 3-year deal to fill a hole in right field. Veterans Bob Howry and Scott Eyre were both brought in to shore up the bullpen - each received a 3-year contract. Former blue-chip prospect Corey Patterson , who despite short flashes of brilliance never showed the ability to play well consistently at the big league level, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles . The Cubs came out of the gate hot in 2006, starting out at 14-9, but an injury to All-Star first baseman Derrek Lee sent the team into a tailspin of historic proportions. In early May, the team set a franchise record for offensive futility by scoring only 13 runs in 11 games. The Cubs finished the season 66-96; they have now decreased their win total each year by at least 10 each year beginning in 2004, and manager Dusty Baker was let go. 2007 See Also: 2007 Chicago Cubs season After letting Baker's contract expire, the Cubs hired veteran skipper Lou Piniella , after a managerial search that included hometown favorite Joe Girardi . Soon afterward, The Chicago Tribune was sold to Sam Zell , along with the Cubs. Zell, a minor partner with the White Sox, had no desire to own the team and demanded the Tribune sell before the start of the 2008 season. Some of those interested in the team include Mark Cuban , who filled out an application in July, as well as Jerry Colangelo . There are reports that Steve Stone may be interested in joining one of the ownership groups as well. The Tribune Company has decided to give it one last shot. Instead of waiting for Mark Prior to heal, they upped the payroll for Jim Hendry to sign pitchers Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis to complement Zambrano, and gave Alfonso Soriano the richest contract in team history to complement Lee and the newly re-signed Ramirez. Chicago started slowly and trailed the division leading Milwaukee Brewers by eight games in May. However, the Cubs won nineteen games in July, and tied the Brewers briefly for first place in early August, but fell behind again after losing five consecutive series. Despite the inconsistent play, the team is currently tied for first place in the National League Central . CURRENT ROSTER MINOR LEAGUE AFFILIATIONS
RADIO AND TELEVISION As Of 2007 , the Cubs' Flagship Radio Station was WGN , 720AM. With the recent end of the Pittsburgh Pirates ' run on KDKA , this may now be the longest team-to-station relationship in MLB. Pat Hughes is the Play-by-play announcer, along with Color Commentator Ron Santo and pre- and post-game host Cory Provus. Santo is by far the most popular, and his in game "meltdowns" when something goes wrong (Brant Brown's drop in 1998 being the most famous) and his jubuliant celebrations when something goes right are quickly becoming a Cub legend. Cubs telecasts are split three ways: WGN (both the Local Station and the Superstation ), WCIU (a local Independent Station ), and Comcast SportsNet . Len Kasper is the play-by-play announcer, and Bob Brenly , a former major league catcher and Arizona Diamondbacks manager, is the Color Commentator for the games. WGN also produces the games shown on WCIU; for those games, the score bug changes to "CubsNet." WGN and Comcast Sports Net each show an even number of Cubs and Sox games, while WCIU averages about 8 games per season per team. Occasionally, the Cubs are shown on the cable channel Comcast Sports Net+, when the usual CSN channel has a scheduling conflict. CSN+ is just the CSN game broadcast on a different cable channel from regular CSN, with the channel depending on the region. Harry and Jack in Chicago .]]Two broadcasters have made their mark on the team. Jack Brickhouse manned the Cubs radio and tv booth for parts of four decades, and his trademark call ''"Hey Hey!"'' usually followed a home run or other spectacular play. Harry Caray 's stamp on the team is even deeper than that of Brickhouse, though his tenure was half as long. Caray had the benefit of being in the booth during the NL East title run in 1984, when being a Cub fan became more popular to Chicagoans. His trademark call of ''"Holy Cow!"'' and his enthusiastic singing of "''Take me out to the ballgame''" during the 7th inning stretch made Caray a fan favorite both locally and, thanks to WGN's superstation status, on a national level as well. Even more entertaining was Caray's gawking at women in the stands, his mispronouncing of players names, (especially Hector Villanueva) spelling names backward (Harry once informed fans that Sosa spelled backward is "Asos") and his lively discussions with Steve Stone and producer Arnie Harris. Caray often playfully quarrelled with Stone over Stone's cigar, while Stone would counter with poking fun at Harry being "under the influence." Harry once did a commercial for Budweiser singing "I'm a Cub fan, I'm a Bud man," while dancing with models dressed as ballgirls. The Cubs still have a live singer, usually a celebrity, during the 7th inning stretch to this day. Caray is honored with a statue located at the corner of Sheffield and Addison streets, and during the 1998 season, a patch with Caray's caricature and Brickhouse's "Hey Hey" were worn on the players sleeves to honor the passing of both commentators within a span of a few months. Harry's popularity chefly led his grandson Chip Caray joining the broadcast team in winter of 1997. FUTILITY THEORIES Refusal to realign After the 1992 season, then-commissioner Fay Vincent thought the addition of the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies was the perfect time to realign the National League to make the Western and Eastern divisions more geographically accurate. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds were to move to the Eastern Division while the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were to go to the West. Many thought this plan would be beneficial to the league as a whole, especially by building a regional rivalry between the new franchise in Miami and the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs, however, opposed the move, suggesting that fans in the Central Time Zone would be forced to watch more games originating on the West Coast with later broadcast times (had the realignment included the use of a balanced schedule, the Cubs would have actually played more games against teams outside their division). Partially due to the complications of a two-division system, a three-division structure was born in 1994, Which placed the Cubs in the newly formed National League Central, along with Houston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and the newest NL team, Milwaukee, who moved from the American League. The NL Central is the biggest division in the MLB, with 6 teams. All other divisions have 5 teams, except the AL West, which has only 4. This was done to keep the number of teams even in both leagues, though many believe it hurts the NL Central teams, having more teams to compete with annually. Dry Spell The Cubs have the longest dry spell between championships in all of the four major U.S. sports leagues ( MLB , NFL , NHL , NBA ), having failed to win a World Series since 1908. The Cubs have not been to the World Series since 1945, and they finished in the Second Division , or bottom half, of the National League for 20 consecutive years beginning in 1947. The long history of the Cubs is a trichotomy. For their first 80 years, prior to and including 1945 , the Cubs were generally assumed to be contenders, playing well and winning the occasional pennant. For the next 38 years, the Cubs were the driest team in baseball, never making the playoffs once. Since 1984, the "baseball gods" have granted the Cubs just an occasional glimmer of hope. As with the Boston Red Sox (prior to their astonishing 2004 post-season triumph), the Cubs of recent generations have seemed to be a team that "bad things happen to." Although there is a tendency to compare the Cubs and the Red Sox, there is a stark difference. Since World War II, the Red Sox have been frequent contenders and frequent visitors to the post-season, including five trips to the World Series. They have had more of a reputation as "chokers" than as "losers", the tag that the Cubs bear. In fact, the Red Sox draw more sports comparisons to the Buffalo Bills than the Cubs, while the Cubs futility is often compared to that of the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Clippers . What may be the least known, but possibly the most telling, statistic of futility for the Cubs, though, is that their first back-to-back winning seasons since 1973 came in 2003 and 2004. Nonetheless, they remain one of the best-loved and best-attended teams in the league, with attendance figures consistently in the top 10, despite the 3rd smallest stadium in Major League Baseball. Despite their image as "Lovable Losers" during the post-World War II era, the club's longevity combined with their earlier successes add up to a major league record 9,756 victories (for a franchise in a single city) through the 2004 season. In other years the Cubs have shown they ''can'' win, or at least ''contend'', when their pitching is superior. Outstanding pitching has been a major factor in every one of their winning seasons since World War II. MISCELLANEOUS The Cubs have no official mascot, though a 'polar bear' looking mascot, which had no name, and was not popular with the fans, was used briefly in the early 1990's. Currently, however, the Cubs' un-official mascot is a formerly homeless man named Ronnie Wickers, who goes by the nickname of ", '' Chicago Sun-Times '', April 1 , 2005 . Wickers is not employed by the team, but is seen daily at games and outside the park, dressed in full uniform, usually with a hula hoop or jump rope. Wickers is the second fan to reach this status, the first being "Gary The Drunk" in the 1980's thru mid 90's. Wickers, however, is much more popular. He is known for his trademark yelling, for example "Mark.... Wooo! Grace.... Wooo!," and has been adopted by fans as a part of the culture at Wrigley Field. Wrigleyville is part of the Lakeview neighborhood, on Chicago's north side. Wrigley Field itself is located in between Sheffield Avenue, Waveland Avenue, Addison Street, and Clark Street s. Wrigleyville itself extends about 3 blocks each direction, though parking on the streets during the games sometimes fills an area far beyond that. Many residents rent out their yards and driveways during games to people looking for a parking spot. Though many Wrigleyville homeowners have seen their property values skyrocket since the 1984 season, most still oppose the teams quest to play more night games and stadium expansion[http://www.savefenwaypark.com/newscass_detail.cfm?ID=190&SORTBY=ID%20DESC]. The large amount of day games is a popular reason for the Cubs tendency to break down late in the season. Wrigley field is often called a "beergarden" and the fans "yuppies" or "partygoers". Some of these stereotypes of Cub fans are drawn off of the fact that the ballpark is located in an area which contains various nightclubs and bars, many of which are themed after the team. The Cubbie Bear, Murphy's Bleachers, Sluggers, Harry Caray's (High Tops will become Harry Carays in 2008 {Link without Title} ) and the Billy Goat Tavern, among others. Many fans also congregate on the rooftops across from the park, which have charged inflated admission and undergone large-scale expansions, especially since the Wild Card run and Sosa/McGwire home run chase in 1998. Cub fans are also known as some of the best "travelling fans" in sports, in that there are usually plenty of Cub fans attending the teams away games. This is especially true when the club visits Arizona , Milwaukee , Colorado , and St. Louis . Many players know Wrigley, especially the bleacher sections, one of ballparks where heckling is at its highest. Wrigley has had many famous hecklers over the years, the most notable was Mike Murphy, who now hosts a radio show on "The Score" 670 AM ( WSCR ) in Chicago. The heckling is known as "the crossfire." SEE ALSO
SEASON-BY-SEASON RESULTS See Also: Chicago Cubs seasons NO-HITTERS THROUGHOUT TEAM HISTORY
CY YOUNG AWARD WINNERS OPENING DAY STARTING PITCHERS
BASEBALL HALL OF FAMERS RETIRED NUMBERS
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