How truly futile were the Chicago Cubs during those 108 years?

Chicago Cubs: Early in the 21st century, respectability finally returned

The 2003 Cubs behind Mark Prior and Kerry Wood did something the team had not done in 95 years, winning a postseason series. Despite the heartbreaking ending of that season in the NLCS, it was the first of four postseason appearances for the Cubs over the next 12 years. In less than 15 years the Cubs made the postseason more times than they did in the previous 56. By the end of 2015, they won two playoff series and a wild card round, to boot.

2007 and 2008 marked the first time since 1907 and 1908 that the Cubs made the postseason in back-to-back years. They also won 97 games twice – in 2008 and 2015. They had not won at least 97 games in a season since 1945. During those those 13 years, they had six winning seasons.

That is not to say there were not some rough seasons in this era. The 2006 Cubs lost 96 games and the Jim Hendry era fell apart in 2010-2011. When Theo Epstein came in to rebuild the franchise into a contender, the Cubs lost 101 games in 2012, followed by 96 losses in 2013. At least the rebuild years were part of a plan, while most of the losing done from 1946-2002 was just the teams not being good.

To sum this all up:

From 1909-2015, the Chicago Cubs have amassed seven pennants, 14 total postseason appearances and 46 winning seasons. Only 21 percent of those postseason appearances and 30 percent of those winning seasons took place during the span of 1946-2002. That span of a little over half a century was what truly defined the franchise’s futility.

Everything ended in 2016. The 1945 World Series was when the supposed “curse” started, and it lasted 71 years. It is easy to forget, it was really long ago to be fair, that the Cubs of the 1910s, 20s and 30s saw a lot of success and were still a highly regarded franchise despite that being the start of the drought.