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By Tom Elia
July 22, 2004
The New Editor
This summer has once again led to disappointment both in Boston and on Chicago's North
Side as the cities' two beleaguered baseball franchises see only the backsides of their
arch-rivals New York and St. Louis, as both the Yankees and Cardinals slowly pull away and
slip from view in the division races.
So what else is new, Red Sox and Cub fans might ask? Besides mutual pity, all that fans of
these two organizations have left to discuss between themselves is, Who's had it worse over
time, the Red Sox or the Cubs?
By now we're all familiar with the futility of these two organizations, the Red Sox not having
won a world's championship since 1918, while the Cubs last one came in 1908.
But which team has crushed their fans' hopes more completely?
Red Sox fans will tell you that while the Red Sox won the World Series five times in their
first five appearances (in 1903, 1912, 1914, 1915, and 1918), since the Ruth trade the club
has been cursed like no other. They point not only to the dearth of American League
pennants since the Trade, but to the four straight Game Seven loses in the World Series
appearances the team did manage to make.
You know the drill:
In 1946 the Red Sox had a 3 games to 2 lead, eventually losing the World Series in Game
Seven when the Cardinals broke an eighth-inning tie to win the Series.
In 1967 the Red Sox lost Game Seven in Fenway Park to the Cardinals and Bob Gibson,
who went 3-0 for the Cards in that Series.
In 1975, the Red Sox lost another Game Seven in Fenway, this time to the Reds, after
Carlton Fisk's memorable 11th inning homer in Game Six tied the Series 3-3.
In 1986, the Red Sox won the first two games of the Series on the road in New York's Shea
Stadium, and then held a 3 games to 2 lead after Game Five, when, only one out away from
clinching the world championship, the catastrophic events of Game 6 let the Mets back into
the World Series, which they eventually won in Game Seven.
Brutal stuff to contemplate.
However, a Cubs fan will remind the Red Sox fan that not only has the Cubs' World Series
championship drought gone slightly longer, but that the last time the Red Sox actually won
the Series, they beat ... the Cubs.
And, since the Cubs' last championship in 1908, the team has come oh-so-close just as many
times. Just look at the record.
In 1910, after being outscored 25-9 while losing the first three games of the World Series to
the Philadelphia A's, they roared back to eventually lose the Series, 4 games to 1.
In 1918, down 3 games to 1 to the Red Sox, the Cubs managed to play .500 the rest of the
way, losing the World Series 4 games to 2.
In 1929 the Cubs blew an 8-0 lead in the 7th inning of Game Four against the Philadelphia
A's, giving up 10 seventh-inning runs in losing 10-8. Down 3 games to 1 in the Series, the
Cubs then gave up three runs in the ninth inning of Game Five to lose that contest 3-2,
seeing the Series slip away 4 games to 1.
In 1932 the Cubs fell behind the Yankees 3 games to 0, only to see their Series comeback
fall short, losing the World Series in four games. The Cubs were outscored in that Series
37-19, managing to hold the Yankees to just five runs in Game Two.
In 1935 the Cubs fell behind the Tigers 3 games to 1, fighting back again to play .500
baseball in losing the Series 4 games to 2.
In 1938 the Cubs again fell behind the Yankees 3 games to 0, clawing back to lose the Series
4 games to 0. Unlike 1932, the Cubs were only outscored 22-9 in the '38 Series.
In 1945 the Cubs lost again to the Tigers, this time 4 games to 3, going 1-3 at Wrigley Field.
(Interestingly, going 1-3 at home in the 1945 World Series actually INCREASED the Cubs
all-time home World Series winning percentage at Wrigley Field, bringing them to 2-9
all-time at Wrigley in Series play. In the five World Series that have been played at Wrigley,
the Cubs have gone 2-9, being outscored only 78-44. All-time at home in World Series play,
the Cubs are 7-17-1.)
Since the 1908 World Series championship, the Cubs are 9-28 in seven different World
Series. The team has only won TWO World Series games EVER at Wrigley Field.
So there you have it, Cub fans rest their case with this evidence. We report, you gag.
Back to the present, a friend of mine, a Red Sox fan, is so distraught about the team's 2004
performance so far this season that he predicts the club will finish behind Tampa Bay.
To that I say: If the Red Sox finish behind a team from Florida that plays its home games in
a dome, I will expect the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to secede from the Union ...
purely on principle.
Tom Elia is a contributing editor for The New Editor.
Paul Geary
David Rogers