As we get closer to the start of the baseball season, I’ve found myself wondering why I am hopeful, and yet I worry about, the 2017 Cubs season. I am old enough to remember most Cubs seasons of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Each preseason, I felt the excitement of the unknown, like a blackjack player […]
Tag: Luck
The Cubs’ Luck So Far This Season: It’s Complicated
At the end of the 2015 season, I decided to take a crack at quantifying how lucky the 2015 Cubs had been. The season had been a pleasantly unexpected surprise, and I had a hunch that luck had played a role. After all, the team had so many close, thrilling games that ended in their […]
How Lucky Were the 2015 Cubs?
On Monday, July 21st, the Cubs were facing off against the Cincinnati Reds at the Great American Ballpark. They were 49-42 and only a game ahead of the San Francisco Giants for the second NL wild card spot. Down by two runs in the top of the ninth with a man on, rookie Kyle Schwarber […]
That’s Just Some Cub Luck: How Chance Has Affected the 2015 Cubs
Cubs fans tend to have a certain fatalism about them. When things are going well, we’re constantly searching for where and when things can and will go wrong. When things are going poorly, we lose our minds and declare all hope lost. This is understandable, given the context of the Cubs’ existence. Going 107 years […]