Is one Cubs World Series championship enough for you?

In October 1908, if you had told a Cubs fan that the Cubs would not win another World Series for the rest of his lifetime (and I use “his” here because the overwhelming majority of baseball fans in 1908 were men), he would have laughed at you.

If you had then told him that the Cubs wouldn’t win again in his children’s lifetime, his grandchildren’s lifetime or perhaps even in some of his great-grandchildren’s lifetimes, he would have likely had you put “way out in left field,” as the hospital then just beyond the left-field wall at West Side Grounds in Chicago was called.

The Cubs were the dominant team in baseball in the first decade of the 20th Century. They won four pennants in five seasons and two World Series. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t continue to do this, with good ownership and solid fan support.

But as you know, that didn’t happen. And those of us who did live to see the Cubs win the World Series in 2016 waited our entire lifetimes for that. No matter your age, you waited a very long time to see your favorite team win it all.

I know I had this feeling, and maybe you did too, you’ve undoubtedly seen it on T-shirts: “JUST ONE BEFORE I DIE.”

So the question I raise here for you is this: Is one enough? If, at the end of your life, the 2016 championship is the only Cubs World Series title in your lifetime, would you feel fulfilled as a Cubs fan?

Or do you need more? Do you need to see the team validate the current run of great seasons with at least one more championship, to show that 2016 wasn’t some sort of cosmic fluke?

Or do you want the Cubs to become the Red Sox? Interestingly, Boston won four of the first 15 World Series. And now they have won four of the most recent 15... with none in between. Many of their fans, like ours, lived and died without ever seeing their team win it all. But now they seem a powerhouse in baseball again, as they were in the early 20th Century. Do you need that as a Cubs fan?

As for me? I’m good now. All I ever wanted was to see the Cubs win the World Series once. If they do it again? That would be great, and of course I’d like to see it. But do I need it?

I don’t believe so. 2016 validated all the years of losing, all the close calls, took away the pain of 1969, 1984, 2003. Sure, those are still memories, but they no longer matter, they don’t define the Cubs as a franchise as they did prior to November 2, 2016.

As I noted at the top of this post, this is mostly a thought exercise. Every one of us likely hopes the Cubs can come back and win another World Series, hopefully even in 2019. But I’d like to know how you feel after having all our dreams come true two years ago.