Take me out to the ballgame! Fans in Chicago gathered on Friday, November 4, 2016, to celebrate the victory of the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series. While fans are always happy when their hometown team wins a championship, this victory was especially exciting for Chicago fans. So special, in fact, that the celebration parade in Chicago now holds a record for the 7th largest human gathering in the history of the world. With around 5 million people showing up, they sang, laughed, cheered, and celebrated. But what makes this victory so special?

Looking into baseball history, the Chicago Cubs have always been labeled as a bad team. Since 1876, the Cubs have only won 3 World Series titles: 1907, 1908, and now 2016. Before this year, there was a 108-year drought for the Cubs. To put that into perspective, their last championship was closer to the American Civil War than the present day. They also hold the record for the longest time without a World Series title. While championships do not describe the performance of a team, the Cubs have never been known to be a good team. While they have been to a few World Series in the past after their championship, their efforts provided them nothing.

People can point fingers as to why the Cubs were so bad, however, their drought was caused by a number of reasons. One of the most crippling factors to the Cubs poor performance in the past was poor ownership and management. The Tribune Company, a former owner of the Cubs franchise, has been accused of running the Cubs like a business instead of a team. They put little effort into making the Cubs good and gave them little resources to build upon. With little to no money, the Cubs were never able to afford good players or coaches. As a result, the stereotype that we all love to use in order to prop up our own baseball teams was created. However, after this year, due to the hard work of the players, coaches, and staff of the Cubs, they have voided that label and have grown to be a respectable team.

While the Cubs franchise is celebrating their victory, many are asking themselves: now what? According to many, the Cubs are only going to get better. This seems to be the case as their World Series merchandise is selling at record rates. The franchise also expects to see a 15% increase in overall revenue. However, money isn’t everything. Cubs left fielder, Dexter Fowler, has announced that he will become a free agent. Fowler, a recent all-star, says that he was happy with his time in Chicago, but he is looking for other options. Unfortunately, Fowler is not alone. He will be joined in the free agency by Trevor Cahill, Aroldis Chapman, Joe Smith, Travis Wood, Chris Coghlan, Tommy La Stella, David Ross, and Jorge Soler. Despite the departure of these players, fans are looking forward to a 2017 World Series title.