If the Chicago Cubs end up playing the Boston Red Sox in the 2017 World Series, it will be a rematch only 99 years in the making. That was the matchup back in 1918, in a Fall Classic played right after Labor Day because of a season shortened by America's focus on World War I.
Back then, Boston was trying to perpetuate its dynastic ways. The Cubs were trying to end a championship drought that threatened to stretch to 10 long years.
The first three games of the series were played in Chicago, at the original Comiskey Park, which had a larger seating capacity than the stadium we now know as Wrigley Field. Despite starting on the road, the Red Sox edged the Cubs in six games, with no team scoring more than three runs in any of the close, terse affairs. Boston got two victories each from star pitchers Carl Mays and Babe Ruth to win its fourth title in six years ... but its last for another 86 years. The Cubs, as we know, finally snapped their title drought six months ago after 108 years.
If the Cubs and Red Sox do end up winning their respective pennants this year, it will make for the most historic World Series ever played, if only because of the ages of the venues, both of which opened more than a century ago. Maybe that's why the possibility captures the imagination of so many people: A Fall Classic played entirely at Fenway and Wrigley, which has never happened. If only we could get daytime starts to complete the retro effect.
We've flirted with this before, a few times, in fact. The Cubs and Red Sox both made the postseason in 1998, 2003, 2007, 2008 and again last season, but both have never emerged to create the very first Fenway-Wrigley World Series. Before this season, both clubs were among the consensus top-five MLB teams. While the Cubs were clear favorites in the NL, according to the oddsmakers, the race for AL favorite was murky, with Boston, Cleveland and Houston vying for the honor. A month into the season, not much has changed. The Cubs are still favored in the NL, though the Washington Nationals have emerged as a powerful contender. In the AL, the Red Sox are in the mix, but the Astros have been the most impressive club so far.