Cubs' World Series win is the greatest story in baseball history

Jason Foster

Cubs' World Series win is the greatest story in baseball history image

When the Cubs won the World Series in Cleveland on Wednesday night, it not only capped the best story of this baseball season, it became the greatest story of any baseball season.

Said another way, the Cubs' win in Game 7 is the greatest story in baseball history. After 108 years, the Lovable Losers finally won — and there's never been a more compelling baseball tale. No, not even the 2004 Red Sox.

MORE: The 10 most memorable Game 7s in World Series history, ranked

Consider:

— The Cubs, those Lovable Losers from Chicago, put together a 103-win season for the ages.

— That 103-win team made it to the franchise's first World Series since 1945 in search of its first championship in 108 years.

— In that World Series, this 103-win team — the best in baseball in 2016 — fell behind three games to one against a dangerous Indians team.

— That dangerous Indians team was on a quest of its own, seeking to end its drought and win the World Series for the first time since 1948, in the same year that the city's basketball team ended Cleveland's overall drought by overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals.

— Despite being ahead 3-1, that dangerous Indians team slipped up and let the Cubs climb back into the series.

— The Cubs, given new hope, won Games 6 and 7 on the road to capture the championship and end that 108-year drought, while simultaneously crushing Cleveland's collective heart just as it was this close to ending its baseball drought after holding that 3-1 lead.

— So, Chicago's comeback and elation, given that 108-year drought, combined with Cleveland's fallback and deflation, given its 68-year drought, makes the Cubs' win the greatest story in baseball history.

Really, better than the 2004 Red Sox?

This is all subjective, but yes.

BENDER: Cubs complete a once-a-century story of triumph

The '04 Sox certainly had an amazing story: becoming the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series — against the arch-rival Yankees, no less — to punch their ticket to the World Series, where they finally ended that alleged Curse of the Bambino with a sweep of the Cardinals for the franchise's first championship since 1918. Sure, that was a big deal. But the suffering of the Cubs and Red Sox is/was not equal.

Think about it: 2004 was Boston's fifth attempt at a World Series title post-1918 among 11 overall postseason appearances during that stretch. The Cubs, on the other hand, were on their eighth attempt at a championship post-1908 among 15 overall postseason trips. In other words, the Cubs had more chances to produce postseason heartbreak — and produce it they did.

Though their heartbreak tended to come against much less-storied teams — the Padres (1984) and the Marlins (2003), for example — the Cubs' failure to win the big one wasn't any less wrenching for the franchise or its fans. Nor did time pass any faster for those in Chicago than it did for those in Boston.

Even in 2004, before the Sox won and when their drought was at 86 years, the Cubs' drought was still 10 years longer. All the talk about the generations of Red Sox fans who lived and died without a championship, while certainly a downer of a thought, actually came in second to the long-suffering Cubs fan base. That said, I'll grant that many of Boston's letdowns came in the television age, so they were experienced collectively by millions, creating a bond that only long-suffering sports fans understand.

Still, 108 years is 108 years and misery is misery.

Throughout their championship drought, the Red Sox always got the attention because of the Babe Ruth-Yankees connection, but the Cubs always had the better story.

That story finally got its happy ending Wednesday night in Cleveland.

Jason Foster

Jason Foster Photo

Jason Foster joined The Sporting News in 2015 after stops at various news outlets where he held a variety of reporting and editing roles and covered just about every topic imaginable. He is a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and a 1998 graduate of Appalachian State University.