Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs are members and champions of the Central Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. The club has played their home games at historic Wrigley Field since 1916. The Cubs are one of two Major League clubs in Chicago, the other being the Chicago White Sox, and are one of the only two remaining charter members left in the NL, the other being the Atlanta Braves.
The Cubs are often referred to by fans and media as The North Siders, since Wrigley is in Chicago's north side Lakeview community, or simply as The Cubbies.
The Cubs are currently managed by Lou Piniella and their general manager is Jim Hendry. In December, 2007, Sam Zell completed the purchase of the clubs parent company, Tribune Company, and intends to sell the team

2007: Worst to first
Main article: 2007 Chicago Cubs season
After a rough start in the first part of the 2007 season, the Cubs were able to overcome the Milwaukee Brewers (who had led the division for most of the season) through an inspired stretch of baseball in June and July. After a less-than-impressive August, the Cubs got over the hump in September, clinching the Central Division on September 28 in Cincinnati, insuring their first post-season campaign since the disastrous 2003 playoffs. The Cubs were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Division Series.
See also: Curse of the Billy Goat, Steve Bartman, Grant DePorter, Major League Baseball franchise post-season droughts, Lee Elia tirade.

Ownership
Many blame the ownership of the club for it's inability to win a title. William Wrigley Jr., a true baseball fan, owned the Chicago Cubs from 1925 until his death in 1932. At that point, his son, Philip K. Wrigley, inherited the team. However, P.K. was not particularly interested in baseball and did not invest in it the way he could have. For example, Wrigley failed to sign black players soon after integration in 1947 and he also failed to install lights at Wrigley Field. However, he refused to sell the team out of loyalty to his father. In addition, he attempted to run the team like a business, often trying new, innovative practices which often failed. Some of these include the College of Coaches and the hiring of a drill sergeant to condition players during spring training. When P.K. Wrigley died in 1977, he passed the team to his son, William Wrigley III, who sold the team to the Chicago Tribune for just over $20,000,000 to pay estate taxes. Under the Tribune, the Cubs made their first post-season appearance since 1945. In 1988 they added lights, but changes in upper team and also company management kept the Cubs from continued success. Critics may also argue that the team payroll was too low for a large-market team. Only in recent years has ownership begun signing players to large contracts while developing minor league talent. In 2007, the Chicago Tribune was sold to billionaire Sam Zell, who had no interest in owning the Cubs, already being a minor-partner with the White Sox. Zell had requested the newspaper giant to sell the ball club in the fourth quarter of 2007. Zell closed the complicated sale just prior to Christmas in 2007, replacing Dennis FitzSimons as CEO. Team President John McDounagh left the team to take over the Chicago Blackhawks after the death of Hawks owner Bill Wirtz. Despite the changes, Zell has stated in December that the club will in fact be sold prior to the 2008 season. "There are plenty of potential suitors...." said Zell. Among those interested is Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban., who filled out an application in July, and confirmed his interest after being eliminated from ABC's Dancing with the Stars on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Also in the running is Phoenix Suns CEO and native Chicagoian Jerry Colangelo. There are reports that former color commentator Steve Stone and Chicago Wolves owner Don Levin are also interested in joining one of the prospective ownership groups. A sale prior the the opener is now unlikely, and most analysts do not see the team selling until perhaps the fourth-quarter of 2008.

Wrigley Field
The venerable ballpark itself has to be considered a factor in the team's failures to go farther than they have. When the bleachers were extended into left field in 1937, it shortened the true power alley from a posted distance of 372 feet (113 m) to about 350 feet (110 m), which is too short for major league standards, especially for a left field. The Chicago Tribune predicted in 1937 that this short power alley would cause trouble for the home team. Most batters are right-handed, so their natural power alley is left-center. Thus most asymmetric ballparks have their short field in right. Not so with Wrigley. This allows more left-center field home runs than the average ballpark would. Pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, upon being traded to the Texas Rangers after a successful though home-run prone career with the Cubs, bitterly complained that "Wrigley Field is a bad ballpark!"
George Will remarked in his 1990 book, Men at Work, p.117, that both Wrigley Field and Fenway Park were (at that time) the most hitter-friendly (and pitcher-unfriendly) ballparks. "Question: When you hear the phrase 'hitters' park', which parks come to mind? Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. Which two teams have not won a World Series since 1908 and 1918, respectively? The Cubs and the Red Sox. Moral: It is bad to play in a park that is beastly to your pitchers."
The larger-than-average number of day games has also been pointed to for some years as wearing down the Cubs, since the summers in Chicago are very warm and humid, traditionally. The collapse of the 1969 team was attributed, in part, to having to play all 81 home games during the day in that era before Wrigley Field had lights. Even with the installation of lights in 1988, and with more night games in recent years, the Cubs still play more day games than any other team in Major League Baseball. Ownership has noted this issue and has attempted to gain more night contests, however the Lakeview community and Mayor Richard M. Daley (a devoted White Sox fan) have fought the team to keep the number as low as possible despite the effect on the players.

**WIKIPEDIA.ORG