The Cubs have now officially ended the longest World Series drought of 71 years in the MLB after their 4-3 NLCS win over the Dodgers.

In their last World Series appearance in 1945, there were still no people of color in the league (Jackie Robinson joined in 1947), and World War II ended one month earlier (foxsports.com). In fact Hawaii and Alaska were not yet U.S states.

Jim Schlegel, a 97 year old WWII veteran and Purple Heart recipient, is one of a small group who attended the Cubs last world series. His granddaughter set up a go-fund me page so her grandfather could attend the game (wgntv.com).

They reached their goal of $10,000 in just one day, however CEO of Camping World, Marcus Lemonis, decided to donate his two first row tickets to Schlegel who plans on taking his son.

Now the family plans on donating the $12,941 they raised to the Purple Heart Foundation (gofundme.com).

He’s having a hard time containing his emotions, saying “The excitement won’t stop building up in me” (dailywire.com).  

This team is poised to make several more World Series appearances in the coming years, just 7 of the 25 players on their world series roster are over the age of 30.

Also, 5 of the 9 All Star team starters for the NL were members of the Cubs. They also had two more pitchers make the allstar team and 5 of their 7 total all stars were 30 or younger (si.com).

If they can manage to win the series it will be the first time they have done so in 107 years.

Since that time, in 1908, the United States has changed quite a bit. In those 107 years, women got the right to vote, both world wars occurred, we sent a man to the moon, four more states were added, and the population nearly quadrupled. (flocku.com)  
Now it’s time to see if the streak extends to 108 years or if they can finally break the curse.