Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs have been Major League Baseball's most successful franchise with 26 World Series championships and 39 American League Pennants. They have also won the most titles of any franchise in professional sports history, passing the Montreal Canadiens' 24 in 1999. Buy your Chicago Cubs Tickets now at ShortPorch.com.

The Chicago Cubs belong to the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The club has played its home games at Wrigley Field since 1916. The Cubs are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago, the other being the Chicago White Sox. They are also one of the only two remaining charter members left in the National League, the other being the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs have a strong, ongoing rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals. The franchise, counting from its National League inaugural season in 1876, won its 10,000th game on April 23, 2008, a Majow League Baseball record for a team in a single city.

The Cubs are often referred to by fans and media as The North Siders, since Wrigley Field is in Chicago's north side Lakeview community. They are also referred to as The Loveable Losers, referencing their significant fan following despite their championship futility. They are also simply known as The Cubbies.

Wrigley Field

The Cubs have played their home games at Wrigley Field, also known as "The Friendly Confines" since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Whales, a Federal League baseball team. The Cubs also shared the park with the Chicago Bears of the NFL for 50 years. The ballpark includes a manual scoreboard, ivy-covered brick walls, and relatively small dimensions. Located in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, Wrigley Field sits on an irregular block bounded by Clark and Addison Streets and Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. The area surrounding the ballpark is typically referred to as Wrigleyville. There is a dense collection of bars and nightclubs in the area, most with baseball inspired themes, including Harry Caray's, Murphy's Bleachers, and Sluggers. Average attendance at games has skyrocketed, as annual ticket sales have more than doubled, with attendance rising from 1.4 million in 1983 to nearly 3.2 million in 2004.

White flag time at Wrigley!

The term "White flag time at Wrigley!" means the Cubs have won. Beginning in the days of P.K. Wrigley and the 1937 bleacher/scoreboard reconstruction, and prior to modern media saturation, a flag with either a "W" or an "L" has flown from atop the scoreboard masthead, indicating the day's result(s) when baseball was played at Wrigley. In case of a doubleheader that results in a split, both the "win" and "loss" flags are flown. Past Cubs media guides show that originally the flags were blue with a white "W" and white with a blue "L", the latter coincidentally suggesting "surrender". In 1978, consistent with the dominant colors of the flags, blue and white lights were mounted atop the scoreboard, denoting "win" and "loss" respectively for the benefit of nighttime passers-by. The flags were replaced by 1990, the first year in which the Cubs media guide reports the switch to the now familiar colors of the flags: White with blue "W" and blue with white "L". In addition to needing to replace the worn-out flags, by then the retired numbers of Banks and Williams were flying on the foul poles, as white with blue numbers; so the "good" flag was switched to match that scheme. This long-established tradition has evolved to fans carrying the white-with-blue-W flags to both home and away games, and displaying them after a Cub win. The flags have become more and more popular each season since 1998, and are now even sold at the ballpark.