The Ex-Cub Factor is a seemingly spurious correlation that is essentially a corollary to the Curse of the Billy Goat. Widely published in 1990, the hypothesis asserts that since the last appearance by the Chicago Cubs in the 1945 World Series, any baseball team headed into the World Series with three or more former Cubs on its roster has "a critical mass of Cubness" and a strong likelihood of failure.
The theory was developed in 1981 by Ron Berle...
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The Ex-Cub Factor is a seemingly spurious correlation that is essentially a corollary to the Curse of the Billy Goat. Widely published in 1990, the hypothesis asserts that since the last appearance by the Chicago Cubs in the 1945 World Series, any baseball team headed into the World Series with three or more former Cubs on its roster has "a critical mass of Cubness" and a strong likelihood of failure.
The theory was developed in 1981 by Ron Berler, a freelance journalist and Cubs fan. His initial article describing the Ex-Cub Factor ran in 17 major newspapers prior to the 1981 World Series, and annually in numerous newspapers and magazines thereafter. Chicago Tribune columnist and fellow Cubs fan Mike Royko, interviewed him just prior to the 1990 World Series, and wrote (seemingly in jest) that the heavily-favored Oakland Athletics were "doomed" to lose the Series to the Cincinnati Reds. When that prediction came true in stunning fashion (the Reds won in a four game sweep), Royko...
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