The Chicago Cubs are on the brink of making the divisional series, carrying a 4-0 lead into the eighth inning. Pretty good for a franchise widely known as exceptionally futile in the postseason. That’s what happens when you don’t win a World Series in more than 100 years.
More advanced statistics back up the idea that the Cubs are especially unsuccessful. There’s a strong correlation between a franchise’s lifetime win-loss percentage and its number of World Series wins. By that correlation, the Cubs register as a significant outlier, having compiled a .512 winning percentage (sixth-best in MLB history) in their 140-plus years of existence, but only a couple of World Series wins. Naively, we would have expected the Cubs to have won something like 20 championships, based on their strong win percentage.
