ESPN MLB

For a Cubs fan, what are the saddest of possible words?

A) Tinker to Evers to Chance,
B) Billy Goat to Black Cat to Bartman,
C) The World Champion Chicago White Sox,
D) 98 years and counting.

The answer, of course, is all of the above. Nearly a century has passed since the Cubs last won a World Series, and more than six decades have passed since they even reached it. Cubs fans have endured the College of Coaches, the infamous 1969 collapse, Steve Garvey and the 1984 playoffs, Bartman and the 2003 playoffs, and the salt-poured-directly-in-the-wound pain of the White Sox winning it all last fall.

It's been 98 years since the Cubs last won the World Series.

They've gone through 35 managers (Jim Riggleman?), switched ownership from gum producers to a media powerhouse, installed lights, added seats, tried ending the Billy Goat curse via chanting monks, fired announcers and even blew up the Bartman ball.

Nothing has worked. Until now, that is.

Now that the Red Sox ended their curse after 86 years and the White Sox ended their drought after 88 years, it's time for the Cubs to end theirs after 98 years. Now it's the Cubs' turn to join the Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros as World Series participants. Now, next year is finally this year.

Ummm, isn't it?

"From what I've seen so far, no," lifelong fan Russ Hibler said at a recent Cactus League game. "Our pitching is sadly ... " He searched for the right description.

"In need," suggested his wife, Donna Hibler.

"In need. That's a good way to phrase it -- though I would have used other words," Russ continued. "We've got two starters right now. I don't any know rookies who could start."

Hibler is 80 years old, and he says he's rooted for the Cubs nearly his entire life. That's a lot of disappointment. Even when the Cubs last reached the World Series in 1945, he couldn't enjoy it because he was serving his country in Europe at the end of World War II. After all that, does he think he'll at least live long enough to see the Cubs return to the World Series?

"Well, no, to be honest with you," he said. "I'd like to live long enough to see it, but I don't have the confidence. ... I'm still not going to give up being a Cubs fan. I'll cuss them all year."

Such is the life of a Cubs fans. Sometimes hopeful. Often painful. Ever loyal.

After Chicago came within five outs of the World Series in 2003, there was robust confidence at the ensuing spring training that the Cubs would go all the way in 2004. Two years later, that confidence is deflated. Mark Prior will begin the year on the disabled list for the third season in a row while the ever-fragile Kerry Wood will be on the DL for the 10th time in his pro career. That leaves the Cubs with Carlos Zambrano (14-6, 3.26), Greg Maddux (13-15, 4.24), Jerome Williams (6-10, 4.26) and a lot of pitching questions. Although catcher Michael Barrett tried to help by making a pitch to Roger Clemens to finish up his career in Wrigley Field.

"I told him, if you want to end your career on the best possible sports moment or event, it couldn't be any better than winning the World Series with the Chicago Cubs."

Wishful thinking? Clemens isn't likely to sign with Chicago, but a Cubs fan can always hope (what else is there to do?), and the Rocket was able to get the Houston Astros to their first World Series. So this year could be the year, couldn't it?

"It's not going to happen this year, not until 2008," said a longtime fan who identified herself only as Tidbit. "Hell, yeah. I pray that I'm alive to see it."

Tidbit knows the pain of rooting for the Cubs. Imagine not only losing three games in a row in 1984 -- including one on a game-ending home run and another on a ground ball through the first baseman's legs -- when the World Series is finally within your grasp, but then having to drive from San Diego back to the Midwest in a white 1963 Catalina convertible with "Cubs Suck!" spray-painted on the sides by ornery Padres fans.

Mercifully, Tidbit says she can't remember that drive -- "that was back in my drinking days" -- but she endured worse during the 2003 playoffs. While the Cubs were missing the World Series in epic fashion, Tidbit was undergoing a liver transplant in St. Louis.

"The doctor wrote on my chart: Do not talk Chicago Cubs with this patient," she said. "[If they had], I would have ripped those tubes out one way or another. No one would tell me about the Cubs. They would say, 'We're Cardinals fans. We don't know what's goin' on.'"

I've got good news and bad news. The transplant was a complete success and you're going to live. But the Cubs blew a 3-1 lead in the series and lost.

OK. So what's the good news?

Several other fans echoed that prediction of a 2008 anniversary World Series, but let's not lose sight of this year. It's not like these are the 1997 Cubs, who lost their first 13 games. There is talent on this roster.

First baseman Derrek Lee made a run at the Triple Crown last year. Aramis Ramirez is one of the game's top third basemen. Juan Pierre gives them the leadoff hitter they so desperately needed. Jacque Jones gives them another bat in the outfield. And who knows, Prior and Wood might get healthy and return to form, giving the Cubs one of the game's best rotations.

Furthermore, it's not like anyone was predicting the White Sox to win last spring.

Which brings up the biggest reason for optimism -- that all-important recent trend. With the end of an 86-year curse in 2004, the end of an 88-year curse in 2005 ... the end of the Cubs' 98-year curse has to be on the horizon. Doesn't it? If the Red Sox and the White Sox can end their decades of frustration, surely the fates have shifted in the Cubs' favor. Haven't they? After missing out on a World Series due to a world war, after enduring the pain of playoff heartache, liver transplants and -- perhaps worst of all -- in-your-face White Sox, these fans deserve a World Series. Don't they?

Well, that's how the Cubs fans look at it. And why not?

Whether this is their year, or whether it will be the 100th anniversary of the 1908 championship, or some season decades from now, those fans will be there at Wrigley, rooting on their favorite team, certain that they eventually will be rewarded for their patient support.

And if not? Well, as Jan Bohacek, third in what is now a five-generation Cubs family, put it, they'll just keep on cheering.

"What else is there than the Cubs?" she said. "You're always happy until at least August."

Jim Caple is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His first book, "The Devil Wears Pinstripes," was published by Plume. It can be ordered through his Web site, Jimcaple.com.