by Tyler Foster

The Chicago Cubs have been losers for a long time. But how long you ask? Well, to answer that question, we have to travel back in time quite a ways. Think before the Great Depression, and just try to see if you can picture times before WWI.  In 1908, the Chicago Cubs were a young team, fresh off multiple championship wins, but then disaster struck.
The Cubs kept losing and could not find a win to win any pennants until the year 1945. In 1945, the Cubs finally got over the hump and played in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs were doing fine, until Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis, a fan of the Chicago Cubs who attended the game, was asked to leave the game due to the gruesome odor left by his goat, which he had brought into the game. In an outrage, he cursed the team and yelled that the Cubs wouldn’t win another world series. And to this day, he was right. The Cubs haven’t won.
Lets’ fast forward to the 2008 NLCS playoffs, where some of you Cubs fans may know a familiar name, Steve Bartman, a fan who was sitting along the left field foul line and interferred with what would be a key out for the Cubs. In all honesty, it isn’t his fault the team lost. He had no way of being a factor is every single aspect of the game. But still, the Cubs blew a 3-0 lead into the top of the eighth and not only ended up losing the game but also losing the series to the Florida Marlins (now known as Miami Marlins). Cubs fans needed someone to blame, a scapegoat, and that someone ended up being Bartman because he, in there eyes, was the reason they lost the series. The man was so wildly hated, Cubs fans everywhere were literally sending him death threats. He had to be escorted home that night, away from angry fans.
But that is all in the past. It’s something the Cubs must put behind them if they ever want to end their 106-year drought. Something that will certainly help is young talent. Talent is something the Cubs have not had for some time, or at least this much. They have an infield made up of entirely young, promising stars of the game with names like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Starlin Castro, and throw in a young Javier Baez into the mix, who possesses elite bat speed and raw power that reminds baseball fans of Gary Sheffield. Bryant, the likely National League Rookie of the Year award given. Rizzo who is very much in contention for the NL MVP award, and Jake Arrieta, the 29-year-old starting pitcher for the Cubs, put up ridiculous numbers in the second half and made himself the front-runner for the NL Cy Young award.
For these young Cubs, the sky is the limit. Meanwhile, many of us were so excited that this could be the year. Don’t be too disappointed if it isn’t, because not only have these Cubs showed us what it feels like to win, they have given fans something we haven’t felt in awhile: Hope.