The baseball World Series that began last week is extra-noteworthy. It's a historic matchup between teams that went 174 years combined without a championship. The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians have the longest current title droughts in Major League Baseball -- 107 years for the Cubs and 67 years for the Indians. Until last week, the Cubs hadn't been in the World Series for 71 years. One player remains from the 1948 championship Indians, 95-year-old Eddie Robinson. No player is alive from the last championship Cubs or the last to make a Series appearance in 1945. The team had never played a World Series game on TV, at night or with an African-American on the roster.

A veteran sportswriter, former Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey, puts the impact in humorous perspective: "These are a couple of big-league organizations that throughout the years have taken a terrible ribbing. 'Hello, Tribe fans, welcome to Major League Baseball, sort of,' said fictional sportscaster Harry Doyle in "Major League," a 1989 comedy film. . . . As for the Cubs, well, let's just say the joke's long been on them. I have been known to make a few myself: 'The last time the Cubs won a World Series, the team picture was done by Leonardo da Vinci.' . . . I can't believe I'm saying this, but one of these teams is actually going to win the World Series! Don't laugh."

Player says: "The Cubs have a lot of history. We have a lot of history. To win a championship here after all of this time, that would be pretty cool." – Mike Napoli, Cleveland Indians designated hitter

Sportswriter says: "One team will give its fans a memory of a lifetime. . . . The other's anguish will last at least another year." – Bob Nightengale, USA Today

Hall of Famer says: "This erased a lot of failures that the teams have had." -- Ryne Sandberg, retired Cubs second baseman