Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Mordecai Brown

Page 114

Whatever misfortunes have plagued the Cubs over the last one hundred years, whatever curse devoted Cubs fans may believe has stricken their team because they have not won a World Series since 1908 and not even been to one since 1945, from 1906 to 1910 the Chicago Cubs had the best team in National League history. The Cubs were so dominant in all aspects of the game that no other NL team in the modern era over any five year period is even close to the percentage by which they outscored their opponents. The team that comes closest; the 1942–46 Cardinals of Musial, did so during World War II years that stripped the major leagues of both established veterans and promising young players, and only two other teams even approached outscoring their opponents by 30 percent.

Finally, though this was the dead ball era and the dregs of the league were probably as bad as they ever were, the 1906–10 Cubs played a much higher percentage of their games against teams with at least 90 victories than the other teams considered, and were very successful in those games. They have by far the best combined total of percentage of games played against 90 win teams and winning percentage against them.

Are the 1906–10 Cubs the best team in major league history? Well, there is the matter of the New York Yankees, and given