FanNation - The Republic of Sport

So, Arash Markazi lists a few teams that have suffered as much futility as the Chicago Cubs, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Dolphins, New York Knicks and Notre Dame football. 

On Saturday night, the Cubs extended its so-called "Curse of the Billy Goat" to a clean, crisp 100 years. There are so few people alive today who lived in a day when the Cubs were on top of the baseball world. With the oldest person in the world currently at 114 years, it's doubtful anyone actually remembers a Cubs championship.

The total number of people who remember the 1908 World Series is probably equal to the number of playoff games the Tampa Bay Rays won through Sunday afternoon (at the time of writing this, that number is 2).

Since the Cubs last won the World Series, America has: elected 18 presidents; admitted 4 states into the Union; invented (and upgraded) just about everything we hold dear in our daily lives; expand from about 100 million people to nearly 300 million; fought in two world wars; and, celebrated its bicentennial, among countless other things.

Just for kicks, I was curious about what was going on in 1908. Here are a few factoids of how life was like the last time we called the Cubbies kings of Major League Baseball:

- Theodore Roosevelt was president;

- The New Year's ball dropped for the first time ever in Times Square

- A long-distance radio message was sent for the first time from the Eiffel Tower

- Harvard Business School establishes itself

- Mother's Day observed for the first time

- Henry Ford produces first Model T

- Home states to three candidates on this year's presidential ticket were not even admitted into the union yet -- Arizona (McCain), Alaska (McCain), Hawaii (Obama) and New Mexico.

- Women could not vote.

Here are a few things that came into existence AFTER 1908:

- Instant coffee (1909)

- Talking motion pictures (1910)

- Life Savers Candy (1912)

- Crossword Puzzles (1913)

- Bras (1913)

- The Zipper (1913 -- modern zipper invented in 1916)

- Stainless Steel (1916)

- Band-Aid (1920)

- The first robot (1921)

- Traffic Signal (1923)

- Bubble gum (1928)

- Monopoly (1934)

- Colt revolver (1936)

- Cake Mix (1949)

- Credit Cards (1950)

- Super Glue (1951)

- Barcodes (1952)

- Diet Soda (1952)

- McDonald's (1954)

- Astroturf (1965)

- ATM (1969)

- Barcode Scanner (1969)

- First Video Game (1972)

- Lyposuction (1974)

- Cell Phones (1979)

- World Wide Web protocol/language (1990)

- DVDs (1995)

- Viagra (1998)

- Boston Red Sox Championships (latest, 2007) 

All interesting (to me), yet clearly useless info. Of course, the last 100 years have been just as useless for Cubs fans. Hey, there is always 2108!