A Look At The Last Cubs World Series Winner

You would have to use a good bit of plutonium in the DeLorean to travel back far enough to find the most recent World Series winner for the Chicago Cubs.  You would have to travel back to a time when radios were not yet in homes and cars were not on streets.  Theodore Roosevelt was the President of the United States.  Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx was just one year old.  The Cubs were coming off of a championship in 1907 and became the first team to win back to back.

The 1908 Cubs finished the regular season with a 99-55 record, they moved on to the World Series by winning a makeup game that was necessitated by the infamous "Merkle's Boner" game.  The Cubs took on Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers in a rematch from the previous year's World Series.  The Cubs won the series 4-1.

That 1908 Cubs offense was led by Joe Tinker who hit .266 with 6 homers, 14 triples and 68 RBI.  Their pitching was paced by Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown who went 29-9 with 1.47 ERA.  Brown was accompanied by Ed Reulbach who went 24-7 with a 2.03 ERA and Orval Overall who went 15-11 and 1.92.

The 1908 Cubs also featured infielders Tinker, Evers and Chance, immortalized by the famous poem.

Hall of Famers from that team are Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance and Three Finger Brown.
Obviously, there are no living players from the 1908 Cubs team.

The Cubs would go one to seven more World Series (1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938 and 1945), and lose them all.  Their most recent World Series loss was to the 1945 Tigers, a team that I have discussed in detail, since it had the one and only Virgil Trucks.

The Cubs World Series record is 2-7.  They have faced the Tigers in more of the Cubs' World Series than any other team with 4.  They faced the A's and Yankees in 2 and the Red Sox in one  Will they ever win another one?

Ebay Pickup - 1911 T-205 Orval Overall

Very rarely do I post a card that I know will not be headed to my PC.  I purchased this 1911 T-205 Orval Overall card as a gift for my good friend and Cubs fan, Max.  I saw the card and price it had been set at, and picked it up for him.  He had told me that his oldest card was a 1933 Goudey and I wanted to see if I could do better.  I feel like I did.

As it turned out, Max wouldn't let me send him this card for free.  He offered up an awesome trade piece, which I should be receiving very soon.  I really enjoy sending random cards to my friends, and I had a lot of fun finding this one for him.  I know he will enjoy it.

Overall (b. 1881 - d. 1947) played in the majors from 1905 to 1910 and 1913 for the Reds and Cubs.  His overall (see what I did there?) career record was 108-71 with 935 strikeouts and a career ERA of 2.23.  He was a very good pitcher for his brief career, winning 20 or more games in a season twice and finishing with an ERA below 2.00 3 times.  His career was too short for him to be included in consideration for the Hall of Fame, however, an argument may be made for him.

Something else that I think Max will enjoy is that he will now own a baseball card that was printed during a player's career who actually won a World Series with the Cubs!  Overall won twice with the Cubs, in 1907 and 1908.  I thought that was really cool.  I hope he does as well.

By the way, the card is a Sweet Caporal back.