I really didn’t want to write this article, I swear. The last thing I wanted to do was to turn this column into a forum for venting my deep despair. But last week, I was pushed over the edge.

Many of you probably read the two baseball columns written last week. One, by Wyndam Makowsky, detailed the pain felt by Yankees fans after the departure of one of the most revered Yankees ever, manager Joe Torre. The other, by Denis Griffin, was about the sad fact that, now that the Red Sox have won another World Series (this was before they actually won earlier this week), they might be nothing more than the Yankees-Lite.

Now I have no wish to challenge either of these articles. In fact, I liked them both a lot, and both are, indeed, a bit saddening. But after reading both of these articles, there was no way that I could pass up writing about the truest form of sadness for baseball fans: I am speaking, of course, of the immeasurable sadness of the Chicago Cubs fan.

It is easy just to start off with the bare facts — the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908. I’m no techie, but I’m pretty sure my subtraction is correct in labeling that as 99 years ago. Both of my grandfathers have lived in Chicago their entire lives but have seen more World Wars than Cubs World Series victories. In fact, one of my great-grandfathers was just seven years old in 1908. He must have thought he had a whole lifetime of championships to look forward to.

The baseball gods had other ideas.

The sheer improbability of this futility is tough to comprehend. With 30 teams now in the league, basic probability states that the Cubs should win the World Series once in every 30 years. But then you also have to add the fact the MLB has been constantly expanding — for example, in 1909 the league included only 16 teams. Throw in the fact that the Cubs have generally had a good-sized payroll (i.e., been able to afford top players) and the chance of having won zero championships in 99 years is something so low that it definitely does require a techie to calculate.

I should also mention that the Cubs haven’t even been to the World Series since 1945.

Actually, the likelihood of that might even be less than not winning a World Series since 1908, if that’s even possible.

On top of that, the Cubs’ history is littered with epic collapses that make the 99 title-less years even harder to bear. The most famous, at least to most of you reading this, was the 2003 National League Championship collapse, which can be summarized with one word: Bartman.

The Cubs led the series three games to one over the Florida Marlins, with games six and seven taking place in Chicago. And they managed to lose three in a row.

Of course, the indelible moment of the series was the Bartman incident in game six, an event that reaffirmed the ever-growing belief that the Cubs are, indeed, just plain old “cursed.”

I won’t further describe the Bartman incident or the 2003 series itself — I’m not sure that I could if I wanted to. Sure, I can joke about it, but I still don’t want to relive it. I’ve only watched the highlights (lowlights?) of that series once, about two years after the fact, and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I’m not even ashamed to admit that in writing — that’s how painful it was.

As if that collapse weren’t bad enough, just take a look at the teams who have won the Championship since then.

In 2003, after crushing Cubbie hearts, the Florida Marlins went on to win their second World Series in only TEN YEARS OF EXISTENCE. If that’s not “rubbing it in,” I don’t know what else is. In 2004, the Red Sox won their first title since 1918, leaving the Cubs in sole possession of the “most cursed franchise” tag. In 2005, the Chicago White Sox won their first championship since 1917, which was then the second-longest streak of futility in Major League Baseball. In 2006, the Cubs’ most hated rivals won the championship, namely the St. Louis Cardinals.

Finally, this past Sunday, the Red Sox were crowned champions again. And I’ll admit, I was a bit sad that there was nowhere near the atmosphere as when they made their first run in 2004. But come on, there is no sane member of the Red Sox Nation who would change places with a Cubs fan just for that momentary excitement of “This could be the year!” and the almost inevitable despair that follows.

Cubs fans will still cling to their optimism, though, and as we approach 100 years of championship-deprived baseball, we will shrug it all off with our wonderful catchphrase of “Hey, any team can have a bad century.”