A Cubs Primer: Everything You Need To Know About The Chicago Cubs Before The World Series Begins

If you’ve never been a Cubs fan but are now rooting form them – after all, they’re going to the World Series for the first time in 71 years, and they’ll be the talk of the sports world for the next week – this article is for you! Here’s everything you need to know to be a Cubs fan. At least, a temporary one.

The Beginnings

The Cubs were among the original franchises of Major League Baseball, back in 1876 when a handful of baseball clubs finally admitted that their players were getting paid and then organized themselves into a professional sports league. At the time, they were known as the Chicago White Stockings; by 1903, according to baseball historian Jack Bales, they started going by the name “Cubs,” after a Chicago Daily News article gave them that nickname and it stuck.

Cap Anson turned #Cubs heroics into owning an ice rink! #BenZobrist, your frosty future calls… https://t.co/A4FEv0Owos #cubsonthescore pic.twitter.com/mImBQOMjUd

— Illinois Press (@IllinoisPress) October 7, 2016

Wait A Minute: Isn’t There Another Chicago Team Named “The White Stockings” – Or Something Like It?

Yes. Once the Chicago National League Ball Club dropped the name “White Stockings” in favor of the Cubs, the old name was picked up by an upstart franchise, in the upstart American League, playing on Chicago’s South Side – The Chicago White Sox.

Loveable Losers? How About NO, Okay?

The Cubs have, for decades, carried the nickname “lovable losers” because, well, they’ve gone over a century without winning a World Series. But don’t let that nickname make you think they’ve been a consistently bad baseball team. In the early years, they were all but unbeatable; throughout their history, they’ve won 12 National League pennants. Like all baseball teams, they’ve had their ups and downs, including a stretch in the 1950s when they were baseball’s laughingstock.

But in a general sense, over their 140-year history, the Cubs have generally been a winning team. Sure, they’ve suffered a terrible drought when it comes to championships. But they’re not like, say, The St. Louis Browns, who were a consistently terrible baseball team from the beginning to the end of their (relatively) short time in baseball.

Wrigley Field

If baseball were a religion, Wrigley Field would be its Temple. Built in 1914 for a since-folded team in a since-folded league (the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, to be specific), the ancient stadium has become as much a part of Cubs lore as the franchise itself.

Other baseball stadiums are built downtown, or on waterfronts, or in urban renewal districts. Wrigley Field sits in a residential neighborhood – the only ballpark in baseball where a home run ball has a legitimate chance of crashing through someone’s living room window.

Other features of Major League ballparks got their start at Wrigley Field, possibly because of gimmicks by the teams owners that stuck. Wrigley Field was the first ballpark to have an organ, according to The Chicago Tribune; the famed outfield ivy was planted in 1937 by the team’s then-president Bill Veeck, according to the Cubs official website.

The Mystique

No other team in baseball has as deliberately cultivated its own mystique as the Chicago Cubs. The history of the franchise is woven with gimmicks, experiments both failed and successful, and colorful characters. Bad trades, billy goats, Bartman balls, and black cats are the bane of Cubs fans’ memories. Wrigley Field was the last MLB team to install lights – in 1988! – largely because of resistance from nearby homeowners. For decades, Cubs games were called by an alcoholic announcer – Harry Caray – who was usually so drunk by the end of the game as to be incoherent. One of the team’s biggest and most beloved fans is a homeless guy – Ronnie Woo Woo – who makes nickels and dimes washing windows of passing cars. The famed Bleacher Bums will throw an opposing team’s home run ball back onto the field.

In other words, the Cubs aren’t just a baseball team. They’re a family – a family of colorful characters, housed in a glorious home, whose fans are as much a part of the team as the players. Over 140 years, they’ve delighted and disappointed, but they’ve always remained true to their fans. They haven’t sold the naming rights to their stadium. They’ve never even considered moving to another city. They are, were, always have been, and always will be, The Cubbies.

And they’re in the World Series.

[Featured Image by Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock]