We just witnessed history, as the Chicago Cubs put the Cleveland Indians away to win the World Series. Unless you’re a fan of the Indians, this was a pretty epic morning for nearly all Americans as it marks the first time in 108 years that the Cubs won the World Series. That means the last time the Cubs won it all was in 1908. To put that into perspective, let’s take a look at what the auto industry was like back then.
Remarkably, our favorite Bavarian automaker hadn’t even been founded yet when the Cubs last won the ‘Series. BMW was founded in 1916, meaning that it was a whole eight years after the Cubs last won. The fact that BMW, a century-old company, isn’t as old as the Cubs curse is pretty shocking.
The first gasoline-powered automobile is largely credited to Karl Benz, who invented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen back in 1886, so 22 years prior to the Cubs curse. In 1901, the very first ‘Mercedes’ branded car was developed, named after automotive entrepreneur, who worked with Daimler and Benz, Emil Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes. That car had 35 hp and was still seven years prior to the Cubs first winning.
We tend to think of the automobile as a very old invention, being that we’ve been around them our entire lives. Today, car’s in the ’70s are considered ancient, as technology and performance has advanced so rapidly since. However, when you really take a look at it, the gasoline-powered automobile is actually quite a young invention. It’s only just over 100 years old.
When there’s a sports team that has a winning drought older than nearly every single automotive company in the world, that proves how young the automobile is. While this isn’t breaking news, it’s an interesting look back at the history of the automobile, and companies like BMW, when a baseball team’s last World Series win is older than most of the companies in the industry, even some of the oldest. BMW recently celebrated its 100 year anniversary this year, something the Bavarian brand took very seriously, and it’s still not older than the curse of the Cubs. That’s crazy.
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