Once the final outs of the National League Championship Series were secured, the first thing I did was call my grandpa. “The Cubs are going to the *voice cracks* World Series!” he proclaimed. That’s when the tears first started streaming down my rosy cheeks.

It’s been 108 years since the Cubs were crowned champions of baseball. Wrigley Field, the holiest cathedral in sports, wasn’t even around. Ford invented his Model T just weeks before the 1908 World Series. Some fans like to credit curses and jinxes with the inability to win it all, but this Cubs fan doesn’t believe in that nonsense.

As a Chicago fan who faintly remembers Jordan’s second three-peat with the Bulls, and who has been spoiled with the Blackhawks winning three Stanley Cups this decade, I’m ready for the Cubs to take their throne atop the baseball world.

But for the fans like my grandpa, those who have suffered for decades, all they have asked for is a trip to the fall classic. It’s been 71 years since the Cubbies even made an appearance there. My grandpa wasn’t even old enough to remember that. This World Series is the first Cubs World Series that will be televised—an event that has been shown on TV for over six decades now.

As a matter of fact, this is the first time the Cubs have been in the World Series since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. That’s right, they haven’t made it this far since white men were the only men able to step foot on a Major League field. Ironically, the first batter of the World Series this year, Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler, is a black man.

And so much has happened between now and then to solidify the Cubbies as the loveable losers. Harry Caray poetically rambled through many broadcasts, captivating fans across the nation on WGN. Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks smacked home runs just as frequently as he threw out speedy runners from the hole between second and third base.

Sammy Sosa teamed up with Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire in the magical summer of 1998. The two traded home runs all season, both breaking the record of 61 dingers in a year and according to many, saving baseball in the process.

Then there’s the heartbreak. In 1984, the Cubs found themselves up 2-0 on the league championship series, which was then a best-of-five series. Three different times, the Cubs were unable to win a game, blowing the series, and breaking hearts in the process.

In 2003, they were six outs away from clinching the pennant, before the wheels came off and they blew it. Again. A game away from a World Series, and there were the Cubs, unable to finish the job.

The scene of Chicago celebrating a championship this year seems so unrealistic that I can’t conjure it in my mind. Thousands of Chicagoans, Cubs fans or not, will line the streets in glory, that much is for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chicago fell victim to yet another Great Chicago Fire.

That famous green ivy that lines the unmistakable brick wall has seen a lot in its 102 years as home of the Cubs. But it has never seen the Cubs win a World Series.

Until this year.