The Cubs are champions, while the Indians wait ‘til next year

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The Cubs no longer have to deal with an ever-growing championship drought that spanned over a century: they are the 2016 World Series champions, and it’ll take decades before they can be considered losers again. That, of course, assumes the worst, that they don’t win again with this young core and put together a 2000s dynasty like the Red Sox, Giants, and Cardinals have already managed. You probably shouldn’t bet against that, as even if they don’t win another World Series for a bit, they aren’t going anywhere soon.

The Indians, on the other hand, now have the longest championship drought in baseball, at 68 years. They’re in odd company, as the aforementioned Red Sox and Cubs have ended their own droughts, as have the White Sox. The teams who can now most closely empathize with Cleveland are young, at least in baseball terms. The Rangers have never won, but they’ve existed for less time than the Indians’ drought. The last living player from the ‘48 Indians is 40 years older than the Astros are. The Mariners have real pain and are a long-suffering fan base, but they formed 29 years after the last Indians title.

Don’t read this as discounting the misery that comes with rooting for the Rangers, Astros, Mariners, Brewers, Padres, Nationals, and so on. It’s just that the Indians, as a franchise, don’t have as much in common with their oldest friends as they used to, and there’s something sad about all of that. They’re now guaranteed to be the last of the bunch to end their drought. The good news from all of this, though, is that this Cleveland team is young. This Cleveland team is talented. This Cleveland team is run by people who know what they’re doing, and very well might have been a fluke Carlos Carrasco broken hand away from being the ones we’re celebrating this morning. The Indians got so close that the pain of losing is unbearable this morning, but, just like the Cubs are good enough to be back here again sooner than later, so is Cleveland. And when that happens, they might even be able to bring their incredible rotation with them.