5) The White Sox - Cubs fans try to downplay the White Sox as much as possible. We say they're the less popular baseball team in Chicago (which is true), their ball park isn't as historic and Chicago neighborhood is shittier (also true), and we only worry about our own team, while they worry about ours (not true.)
As much as Cubs fans try to deflect attention away from the White Sox 2005 championship, we can't. Any rational fan can tell you that their performance in the 2005 playoffs was one of the best, if not the best in baseball playoff history. They plowed through the Red Sox, Angels, and Astros en route to a 12-1 playoff record, and some of the best starting pitching you will ever see.
Here's the worst part. It's been said a million times that the Cubs only have one World Series victory since 1908. Do you know how many the White Sox have? Two. It just so happens that one of those has come in the last five years, erasing almost 90 years of failure.
4) Payroll - As I've said many times before, baseball isn't fair. There's no salary cap, so its essentially designed to keep the big market, high payroll teams in contention every year, while a small market here and there makes a splash. It would be one thing to consistently lose if they were the Pirates (30th in payroll), Diamondbacks (25th), Indians (24th), or Nationals (23rd). It's quite another when the Cubs have the 3rd highest payroll in the league, just under 147 million.
Compare that to some other teams that will make the playoffs: Padres (38 million, 29th), Rangers (55 million, 27th), and Rays (71 million, 21st).
Now let's compare the Cubs to the other teams in the top 10 in payroll. 8 of the 10 teams are over .500, the Cubs and Mariners (9th) being the only two left out. 4 teams ((Yankees (1st), Phillies (4th), White Sox (7th), and Giants (10th)), all have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.
So while being a top 10 payroll doesn't guarantee playoff entry, it almost always guarantees a competitive season, and the Cubs can't even produce that this year.
3) Ticket Prices - According to Team Marketing Report, the Cubs had the third most expensive average ticket in 2009, coming in at just under 48 dollars. Not surprisingly, the Yankees and Red Sox are 1 and 2, coinciding with their payroll rank.
I know, it's Chicago, it's a big market, and Wrigley Field is a tourist attraction, so they can price the tickets as high as they want, and people will still come. It's a shame because this results in richer, less knowledgeable fans, who are there for the atmosphere and not the game. Once again, the real fans lose because they're priced out.
In college, I roomed with a Twins fan from Minnesota. He said on Wednesdays, or some other random day, you could get tickets for a dollar. A dollar! You can't even get a pack of gum for a dollar in Wrigleyville. Cubs ticket prices will always be ridiculous, but they would be a little more bearable if, like the Yankees and Red Sox, they put a winning team on the field every year.
The front office constructed the 2003 team around winning a title for that year. It was a make or break year and was still the best chance the Cubs have had in my lifetime to win a World Series. Top to bottom, the 2008 team was better, but the 2003 was better constructed for the playoffs for two reasons.
1. Veteran Starting Lineup - The Cubs brought in Randall Simon and Kenny Lofton at the trade deadline to make an already old team even older. The average age of their starting lineup was 33. 33! Just think about how old that is for a playoff team. However, they could all play. They still had Sosa and Alou in the middle of the lineup, who were both declining, but still huge threats. Add in a young Aramis Ramirez, who took the middle of the lineup to another level. Lofton and Grudzielanek were both smart top of the order hitters with high on base percentages.
2. Starting Pitching -You're not going to win in the playoffs without great starting pitching and the Cubs had it. This would mark the only time that Mark Prior and Kerry Wood were healthy and on top of their game at the same time. Carlos Zambrano and Matt Clement were also also capable of shutting any lineup down. Just look at these strikeout numbers: Wood (266), Prior (245), Clement (171), and Zambrano (168). It's mind boggling that a team with 4 starting pitchers in the neighborhood of 200 strikeouts could not win a World Series.
I remember it like it was yesterday, Cubs had a 3-2 Series lead, Mark Prior was scheduled for Game 6, and Wood for Game 7. There was not one Cubs fan I knew that thought Prior and Wood would lose back to back games. Well, that's what happened, and that's why 2003 is so high on this list.
1) 101 Going on 102 Year World Series Drought - I might as well have put this one at the top, you all knew it was coming. Everyone talks about baseball records that will never be beaten. The two most common that come up are Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hit streak and Cy Young's 511 career wins. Cy Young's will never be broken, DiMaggio's maybe someday. But will the Cubs World Series drought ever be broken? It seems like a legit question because even random small market teams are competitive once in a while. Of course, this streak is still going, so we can't even place a number on it yet.
To illustrate how depressing it is to be a Cubs fan, let me say this. Everyone knows someone, or is related to someone that lived a long productive life and didn't get to see the Cubs win a World Series. My grandpa, a life long Cubs fan was born in 1918, and lived to be 87 years old. He died in late November of 2005. He hung around just long enough to see the White Sox win a World Series. If that's not depressing, I don't know what is.
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