Introduction

It's not every day a lifelong dream comes true, but it happened for me on November 2, 2016. It was actually November 3 in Cleveland, but still the 2nd for me watching in Seattle, when Cleveland's Mike Martinez hit a little bouncer to Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, who thew to first baseman Anthony Rizzo for the out. A routine play made thousands of times each season, this one was special. It was the last out of the bottom of the 10th inning in the 7th game of the 2016 World Series and it meant that the Chicago Cubs were champions for the first time since 1908. It ended the longest championship drought in the history of American professional sports.

No one lived to see the entire 108 year span between championships, but I was there for the last 40 years of it. In 1975, when I was eight, my mother brought me a pack of Topps baseball cards from the grocery store where we were living in Urbana, Illinois. Although I am sure I had shown interest before (I remember watching at least part of the 1974 All-Star Game with my father), this is the event I remember as beginning my love affair with baseball. At the time, the Cincinnati Reds, the Big Red Machine of Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, and Johnny Bench, were the dominant team in baseball, on their way to a championship in 1975 and another in 1976. I quickly declared myself a Reds fan and followed them from afar - WAY afar as it turned out, since my family moved to Thailand for the next two years and I had to get my baseball news from the Bangkok Post.

In 1977, we were preparing to return to Illinois. The Reds were off to a disappointing start and, with no real connection to them, I decided to switch to the home NL team, the Chicago Cubs. The fact that they played only only 130 or so miles away and that I was able to follow them in the local media and make occasional visits to Wrigley Field cemented my loyalty. After a couple of years, I couldn't have switched to another team even if I wanted to.

So, 2016 was my 40th year as a Cubs fan and the championship was a great way to celebrate. Along with baseball and the Cubs, I am also a huge fan of history and decided that a history of the Cubs during the years I have been a fan would be a perfect way to memorialize this period. I actually started this in the offseason after 2016, but am now putting it into a blog for the first time. Here it is, organized by year. I hope you have as much fun reading as I have had writing. GO CUBS!!!