Chicago Cubs World Series: Comparing Now To Last Time Chicago Was In The Fall Classic
A lot can change in 71 years. States get added to the country, 12 presidents get inaugurated and serve out their terms, people are born and die, all before the Chicago Cubs reach the World Series once again. Unless you live under a rock, though, you know the drought is finally over. In 2016, the Cubs will play in the World Series, taking on the Cleveland Indians.
So, let’s take a long trip down memory lane and see just how different life was the last time the Cubs were playing in the Fall Classic.
The Price of Gas
1945 – $0.15
2016 – $2.28
Boy, doesn’t 15 cents a gallon sound great right about now? Granted, gas prices have been dropping in recent years, but imagine how many more cross-country road trips you could afford to take.
If gas were this cheap now, maybe more of us could afford to actually go to a World Series game at Wrigley Field this season.
World Series Ticket Prices
1945 – $6.00 (lower grandstand)
2016 – $5,000 (lower grandstand)
Have you ever waited a really long time in line for something and wished you could just pay more to make the wait go away? The Cubs did that with their fans to a degree. Unfortunately, nobody could pay to make Leon Durham’s error or the Steve Bartman play go away, but those moments are in the rearview mirror now.
Waiting 71 years for a World Series appearance can make people a little antsy. Most people buying these tickets didn’t even wait that long, but the history of this series is what is making the demand historically high.
Oscar’s Best Picture Winner
1945 – Going My Way
2016 – Spotlight
[Image by Chris Pizzello/AP Images]
A movie starring Bing Crosby won the Oscar for Best Picture the year the Cubs last appeared in the World Series. He played a priest who moved into a bad neighborhood. Ironically, the 2016 Best Picture winner documented the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered corruption in child sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church.
Top Christmas Gifts
1945 – Slinky
2016 – Virtual-Reality Headset
Well, these are slightly different. One involves a child allowing a cheap, plastic toy to do its thing as it “slinks” around. Another involves being transported to an alternate universe via headset. Imagine telling someone in 1945, the last year the Cubs reached the World Series, about what a virtual-reality headset is.
Until Saturday night, using a virtual reality headset would have been just about the only way someone could watch the Cubs clinch the National League pennant and punch their tickets to the World Series.
President
1945 – Harry S. Truman
2016 – Barack Obama
Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April of 1945, so Truman was the president the last time the Cubs reached the World Series. Not unlike Cubs manager Joe Maddon, he took over during a crisis and led his nation out of it. He oversaw the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which essentially ended World War II, albeit not without giant controversy.
[Image by William J. Smith/AP Images]
For his efforts in taking over for a beloved president in a country entrenched in a war, Truman was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. Obama has yet to learn if he will follow in Truman’s footsteps as the award for 2016 hasn’t been given out yet.
States in the Country
1945 – 48
2016 – 50
“Fifty nifty United States” wouldn’t have been an applicable song back the last time the Cubs reached the World Series. Only the continental United States existed.
Hawaii and Alaska were both added to the country 14 years later in 1959 and there haven’t been any states added to the country since then. Maybe there’s a correlation with that and the Cubs playing in the Fall Classic? We’re looking at you Puerto Rico, 2030.
World Series Shares
1945 – $6,443.34
2016 -?
Jessie J once said, “It’s not about the money.” Sorry, Jess, but it usually is.
The World Series winner’s share in 2013, the latest year Baseball Almanac made this information available, was $307,322.68. With two teams not used to winning, face-value prices are likely even higher this year. That means higher winner and loser shares this season.
Last year, according to the Kansas City Star, the World Series champion Royals made about $370,000 a piece, meaning winners this year could potentially top the $400,000 mark given what is at stake.
That means players on the team that wins the World Series should earn far more than the $307,322.68 from 2013 and losers should make in the neighborhood of $300,000 given the fact the loser’s share in 2013 was $228,300.17.
The winner’s share for Cubs fans who have endured a lifetime of misery? You can’t put a price tag on that.
[Featured Image by AP Images]
