Everything in the world is different than it was in 2016 — sometimes I am paid to say the obvious. Ten years ago we saw multiple curses end, billy goats and black cats forever exorcised, as Kris Bryant threw to Anthony Rizzo and the Cubs had finally won it all. Bryant was the MVP of the National League that year, a seven and a half win season in his sophomore campaign. Anthony Rizzo was just 26 and finished fourth in that MVP race, Addison Russell was 22 manning shortstop and he also received votes for the league’s top individual honor.
That Cubs team is known for their collection of home grown bats, but the pitching staff was talented in its own right, albeit a little more mercenary. Jake Arrieta wasn’t quite the Cy Young winner he was the year before but the Cubs had four three-win starters in their rotation, and while Kyle Hendricks was the only one under the age of 30, the combination of a very good rotation, elite homegrown (read: cheap) position players, and a big market with the capacity to spend…surely the North Side would see more than one pennant from that group.
And well.
Ten years on the Cubs did make the playoffs five times, with two division titles, but that’s mostly it. Anthony Rizzo’s career effectively ended when Fernando Tatis Jr.‘s hip slammed into his head, Kris Bryant has become one of the great baseball tragedies of our era, and Russell abused his wife and is playing in the Mexican League. The Cubs are a playoff team again, and flags fly forever — especially ones tied to 108 year old poles — but you kind of have to think that proto-dynasty left something on the table.
A year later, the Yankees themselves seemed on the edge of a dynasty. Aaron Judge should have been MVP, Luis Severino was one of the three best pitchers in the AL, Greg Bird wasn’t just locking down first base, he was creating playoff memories, and Gary Sánchez seemed to be a foundational piece of a winning team for a decade to come. That decade’s nearly come and gone, Aaron Judge has lived up to that potential, but as for the rest of what seemed like an ascendant group…let’s put it this way, Sánchez might well win a World Series before Judge does.
The Yankees haven’t had a losing season in my lifetime. The seasons when they do miss the playoffs stand out like scars, for the entire time I’ve been aware of the concept of baseball, the team’s pretty much been in the so-called window of contention. They could have won the World Series this year, they could have last year, could have the year before, and on and on.
The Red Sox got their ring, like the Cubs, before doing the unthinkable and dealing away one of the best players in franchise history over money. They’ve remained a playoff team, even knocking the Yankees out of the postseason in the so-called Baby Bombers era.
The World Series starts tonight, with two teams built on the cheap, that came out of their respective leagues as the top seeds. The Brewers have been in the so-called championship window for two seasons now, the Rays seem to enter and swiftly exist theirs nearly year to year. The Cubs and Red Sox had to learn sometimes you only get one, no matter how sustainable things look. The Yankees haven’t even gotten one, and stare down an uncertain 2027 with an aging roster.
The window’s never as open as you think it is. Gotta climb through now.