The Hardball Times  Cubdom’s great lost opportunity  by Chris
Jaffe April 14, 2008  About a dozen years ago I came across a
T-shirt in a Wrigleyville store proclaiming the Cubs the 1908
World Champions. I thought it was cute, a way to show support
for the team I've always rooted for while also mocking it for
its all-too-well-known ineptitude. A few years later a website
sold another shirt, this one proclaiming: "Any team can have a
bad century."  Well, now here we are—100 years since the last
Cubs championship. Suddenly, these jokes ain't so funny anymore.
I know there's no logical reason to be considerably more annoyed
at 100 years instead of 99. Damn base-10 numeric system—on
Planet Alfonseca I'd have another 44 years before I would get
annoyed.  How in Hades could a squad go 100 years without
winning it all? What were their best, lost hopes? These
questions are hardly original, but they keep filling my mind
this year. But I want to look back at some of their wrong turns.
At first, I intended to write a co