Over the past week, Chicago Cubs fans finally have a reason to celebrate. For the first time since 1908, Wrigley Field can proudly show the world that it is home to a team of World Series Champions. After a century and nearly a decade of claiming to be cursed (Billy Goat, Steve Bartman), through missed opportunities at winning the World Series even with having successful players, such as Ernie Banks and Mark Pryor, it is finally over for the long-suffering fans. This past year, the Chicago Cubs were the best team in the MLB with 103 wins(MSN) and World series after being down in a two game deficit to the Cleveland Indians.

Once the game was over, I had I had a truly amazing experience of watching several faithful Cubs fan at the University of St. Thomas, celebrating and cheering in the middle of the north campus quad that lies in the middle of several dormitories. While I personally am not a Cubs fan, I know the feeling of watching the Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley field, one of the oldest ballparks in Major League Baseball history. I am however, a lover of history, and man who understands just how historic a Cub’s victory in Game Seven of the 2016 World Series can be. To cap off a historic occasion, I thought I’d write about the five things that the Chicago Cubs did right this year. Since the Chicago Cubs have had notoriously good regular season teams, that couldn’t finish it in the postseason, I thought it would be time to talk about what easily could be claimed as the most successful Cubs baseball team, in the history of its franchise. While it seemed improbable about two years ago that the Cubs would win a World Series, and be in contention for one the year before, here is a list of the top five reasons how the Chicago baseball team, became the best team in Major League Baseball.

1.Team management is solid from bottom to top.

If there is one person who from a management perspective, had gotten the Cubs to the World Series, it would be Theo Esptein. Since coming to the Chicago Cubs back in 2011, he has led a team who was a struggling franchise to be championship contenders for two straight years. Before he became the president of baseball operations in Chicago, Esptein was one of the youngest GMs in Boston Red Sox history. During his time in Boston, Esptein was responsible for the acquisition of David Ortiz and several other key players that helped Boston lift its “cursed” franchise to victory, in 2004. He also played a key role in the Red Sox’s World Series title in 2008. Since he took the helm as president of baseball operations for the Cubs, Esptein was responsible for the acquisitions of Jake Arrieta and Anthony Rizzo(Yahoo Sports Jeff Pasan), and several other Cubs players that would make up the 2016 World Series Championship team. Esptein also improved the management of the team with the hiring of Joe Madden as the general manager of the Cubs. Epstein and his management staff have improved the Chicago Cub’s reputation as an organization and have given the fans an organizational structure that produces results both on the field and off the field.

2.Farm Systems that develop young talent.

When you’re a team that was struggling as much as the Cubs were three to four years, developing a farm system becomes an important part of trying to improve future perspectives of the team. When Theo Epstein came to Cubs, one of the big draft picks who was expected to help lead the Cub’s revival was Javier Baez, who was drafted in 2013 by the Chicago Cubs in the early rounds of the draft (Espn.go). Fast forward three years later, and Baez is a starter on Cub’s roster’s whose two-run home run shot played a key role in the Cub’s victory, and will easily be in the starting roster for the Cub’s fan. If there is one thing to describe the Cub’s farm system in that situation, it’s that they can back their talk with actions.While Theo Esptein played a key role in developing the farm system to produce actual results from their prospects, theCubs have also been very smart about making sure that their draft picks perform will under pressure and match the values that the organization wants to promote, which has lead the team to become more successful.

3.All-Around solid playing from fielding to hitting

The Cubs were the best ball team in the MLB for a reason. Several young players such as Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, and Jake Arietta all had All-Star caliber season and the team itself was ranked in the top ten in Major League Baseball for runs, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage(Espn.com).Pitching was also a fundamental strength of the Cubs as the Cubs were also 1^st in Earned Run average and WHIP(Espn.com) . While watching the World Series, I was amazed by how complete of a game that the Cubs played. Their fielding, pitching, and batting wasn’t always perfect, but was consistent at times dominate against the Indians, and really made it difficult for the World Series runner-up to play consistent.

4.Young athletes stepping up in high pressure situations

This is one of the biggest reasons why the Cubs could win the World Series despite being two games down to Indians. Whether it was Kyle Schwarber stepping up in Game 2 and Game 7 with five hits between the contest all the way to Mike Montgomery getting the first save of his career by preventing the Indians from getting two runs in the bottom of the 10^th, the Cubs proved to be nothing less than clutch in the World Series. Anthony Rizzo, an already established all-star that has been with the Cubs since 2012(Wikipedia), also played incredibly well in the World Series and in Game 7 of the NCLS, where he broke his slump at home to hit a homerun that helped send the Cubs to the World Series. The fact that Chicago has young players who know how to perform well under pressure shows just how much depth the team has at each position, and gives the Cubs faithful a lot of hope for future seasons.

5.Incredibly Loyal Fan base

Admit it, a hundred and eight years is an incredibly long time to not win a World Series. The Boston Red Sox didn’t win a world series from 1918 until 2004, and the Cleveland Indians will remain without a World Series win since 1947. Despite what the fans from both of those franchises had to endure in their team’s failure’s, there was not a single fan base more determined to break their drought this year than the Cubs fans. They made their presence felt throughout the entire World Series every time a game was at Wrigley, and explains why the Cubs had an incredibly successful home record this year. Having visited Wrigley field to watch the Cubs back when I was in 8^th grade, it was easy to see how passionate Cubs fans are about their team and how determined they were to see them win. It was almost surreal to see the elder Cubs fan watch their teams their World Series, as it was a moment that they have been waiting to see for their entire lives. It was the fans, the players, and the franchises that made the 2016 World Series arguably one of the best World Series in the history of baseball, and the Cub’s loyalty as fan base served as strong motivation for the players to win a World Series.

Despite being a Minnesota Twins fan at heart, the Chicago Cubs World Series victory was nothing short of magical. The fact that after one hundred and eight years, after all the talented athletes that have graced the Chicago Cubs locker room, a team of young, talented players who know how the thrive under pressure, were able to give the Cub’s fans the perfect ending to a larger than life drought that has swept the entire culture of the Cub’s throughout its history. As a history geek, the experience was legendary by any comparison, and credit is deserved where it due. As a final message to Cubs fans, all I must say is this. The curse is over. You deserve it. Congraulations!