According to recently discovered cave etchings, the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series. This was most notable, of course, because it broke a championship drought for the North Siders that spanned more than a century.

What’s also worth mentioning is that the Cubs, as a consequence of winning both belt and title last year, have a shot in 2017 to do what vanishingly few National League squadrons have done before: repeat as World Series champions. 

As it turns out, a number of American League teams have won consecutive titles -- 18 times an AL team has won back-to-back World Series (championship streaks of more than two count as multiple back-to-backs). But in the NL? Just three teams have pulled it off.

This came as a surprise to me, but, yes, it’s true. Just three NL teams have won back-to-back World Series, and no club from the senior circuit has ever won three in a row. As for the NL teams to win back-to-back Fall Classics, they are ... 

  • The 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds
  • The 1921-22 New York Giants 
  • The 1907-08 Chicago Cubs

That’s it. No other NL pennant winners have won back-to-back World Series. 

Part of it is that the AL has won more World Series and has thus had more opportunities to repeat. To date, the AL has won 64 World Series to the NL’s 48. That, however, doesn’t explain three repeats versus 18 repeats. Stated another way, the NL in the World Series with a chance to repeat (i.e., the NL team that wins the World Series returns to the World Series in the following season) is just 3-8 in such opportunities. The AL is 18-8 under those circumstances. Probably chalk this up to being “just one of those baseball things.”

As for the 2017 Cubs, they project as the best team in baseball, which is certainly an edge when it comes to a bid to repeat. On the other hand, even playoff teams that dodge the wild card game must make it through three rounds of postseason in order to hoist the trophy. That’s a major impediment to repeating, even for the best teams. 

Of course, if the Cubs can snap the 108-year forces of history, then they can do this. Developing, people. Developing.