Getting Back Into the Postseason – After Winning It All. If It Was Easy, Everybody Would Do It.

With the Cubs only 7-7 after fourteen games, some people are already starting to worry.  Obviously, it is what Cubs fans do best.  However, people need to realize that repeating is hard.  Actually, even getting back to the postseason, let alone winning the World Series again, is hard.  Of the 16 teams that have won the World Series since 2000 (and since the Yankees repeated 1998-2000), only seven of them even made it into the postseason the next year.  In fact, losers do better in getting back into the postseason than winners.  Eleven of the sixteen World Series losers made it back to the postseason the next year.

In terms of getting back to the World Series, two World Series winners did it:  the 2000 Yankees got back in 2001 (and lost to the Diamondbacks), as did the 2008 Phillies (who lost to the Yankees in ’09).  The Rangers lost in both 2010 and 2011.  The Royals were the only team, since 2000, to win the World Series the year after losing it (winning in 2015 after losing in 2014).

In other words, it’s not easy.  But there is always hope.  Something Cubs fans know about.