CHICAGO -- Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins. Ron Santo and Ryne Sandberg, too. Hall of Famers for the Chicago Cubs, but no championship rings.
They all tried. Some got closer than others, but the famed drought got the best of them all. And decades of empty Octobers eventually took on a life of their own.
Now, as a new group of Cubs prepares to take aim at a lifetime of free drinks on the North Side, Sandberg, for one, believes this team might be uniquely positioned to succeed where so many others failed.
"I think when it's talked about in that regard and you don't have a game plan for that, you know, that that can be talked about on a daily basis," Sandberg said, addressing the elephant in the room - the 108 years since the Cubs last won the World Series.