Jaffe: Cubs off to a strong start, but is there a championship hangover effect?
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated on April 25, 2017:
It wasn’t long after the champagne from their World Series title celebration dried that there started to be questions about whether the Cubs would experience a championship hangover in 2017. So far, as expected given the talent on hand, they’ve shown little sign of it, as they enter Tuesday in first place in the NL Central at 11-8. However, they are already three games off the blistering pace set by last year’s champions and they’re likely to fall further behind; Chicago would have to win its next 14 games to match the 2016 version’s 25-8 start.
In truth, recent history has been unkind to World Series winners. None has repeated as champions since the 1999 Yankees won again in 2000, and in that span, only two other winners—the 2000 Yankees and 2008 Phillies—even returned to the Fall Classic the following year. Just seven out of 16 made the playoffs at all. Particularly with a postseason that can now stretch into November, it seems natural to suggest, as many have, that there’s a championship hangover effect.
Read the full article here: https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/04/25/cubs-world-series-championship-hangover
Originally published: April 25, 2017. Last Updated: April 25, 2017.