Cubs losing charm safe for at least one more year

It’s been over a week since the Chicago Cub’s early exit in the National League Divisional Series at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Northsiders’ rally towels turned into crying rags Oct. 4 meaning Major League Baseball’s lovable losers will for the 101st time since its last World Series crown ‘wait til next year.’

The loss also insures billy goats in the greater Chicago area at least one more year on the endangered species list, and another year spent in hiding for Steve Bartman.

For the diehard fan, the Cubbies’ most recent collapse is just another bad memory to suppress with the help of Old Style, but for the rest of us baseball fans, we all should be breathing a sigh of relief.

If the Cubs would have won it all, there would be no safety valve remaining for the rest of baseball fandom.

For as bad as the Royals have been the past decade, at least K.C. fans can be proud of the fact its only been 23 years since its last World Series championship.

The Minnesota Twins won World Series trophies in 1987 and 1991, but were absolutely awful from 1993 to 2000.

Being a Twins fan during those lean years, I always took comfort in the fact that it always could have been worse.

I could have been born a Cubs fan.

Now I admire any Cubs fan who has stuck it out heartache after heartache, but when I saw the Dodgers seal the series sweep last weekend I couldn’t help but shake my head and grin.

I bet Bud Selig wasn’t too upset either.

The MLB has been making handsome profits on both the rise and especially the fall of the Cubbies for some time now.

They’re the perfect franchise, because whether they’re winning or losing, the Cubs are making money.

2008’s letdown will be remembered as a mere aftershock in an otherwise earthquake-ridden history of failure to win when it counts the most.

But at the end of the day, Cubs collapses are as much a part of baseball as the Yankees’ 26 World Series championships. The century worth of bad luck has become somewhat of a legend and a distinct chapter in baseball folklore.

What’s even greater is everyone seems to love them for it.

The friendly confines of Wrigley Field is just the national headquarters of the team that is one of few MLB teams that boast a national following.

A Cubs World Series win may sound great to even the casual fan, but it would change things.

Just ask the Boston Red Sox, who reversed the curse of the Bambino in 2004 to end an 86-year championship drought.

Red Sox Nation celebrated another championship in 2007, and as a result, lost its novelty of being the cursed franchise that every one, including myself, fell in love with in 2004.

Today, they’re like the toy no one wants to play with anymore.

The same fate would likely destroy the lovable loser charm of the Cubs if they were to win a World Series.

It would be like Charlie Brown finally becoming the popular kid of the Peanuts game. Just like good old Charlie Brown, the Cubs make a better pushover than a winner.

But that’s O.K. because there’s always next year.

Here’s to the next chapter of the Cubs somber saga. Hopefully, it never ends.

Tom Mix is the sports editor for The Columbus Telegram. Contact him at tmix@columbustelegram. com with questions, comments and story ideas.