The city of Chicago hasn't dominated MLB like this in over 40 years
Entering the 2016 MLB season, everybody expected the Chicago Cubs to be good, so nobody is surprised to see them sitting at 15-5 through their first 20 games with a three-game lead in the NL Central.
What IS actually surprising is Chicago's other baseball team, as the White Sox lead MLB in wins at 16-6 and currently hold a 3.5-game lead over the Kansas City Royals.
Together, the city of Chicago is enjoying the most dominant start to a baseball season in more than 40 years.
That was the last year the Cubs and White Sox had the top two records in MLB this late in the season (all notes are courtesy of our friend Steve Owens on FS1's research team). Both clubs got to May 29 with the best record in their respective leagues and then, somehow, both completely fell off and finished fifth in their divisions.
Shoutout to Wilbur Wood, though. That dude slogged through 359 1/3 innings across 48 starts (49 total games) with a 3.46 ERA for a sub-.500 White Sox team. Hero.
That's how many years it's been since the Cubs have started a season this well. Yes, nearly a century plus a decade.
The 1907 Cubs -- or the "Tinker to Evers to Chance" Cubs -- went 16-4 through their first 20 games on their way to winning 107 in an era when people just didn't score runs (the Cubs had five starting pitchers with ERAs lower than 1.7 and a sixth with an ERA lower than 2.3). They also won the first World Series in franchise history before repeating again in 1908 (I'm sorry, Cubs fans, but if you whisper it then it's not a jinx).
It's been only 11 years since the White Sox started a season as well as this through 22 games, but that season ended with them celebrating the World Series. Two teams in franchise history won 17 games through their first 22, and one turned into a 78-76 team most known for debuting a sweet logo, and the other is responsible for maybe the most infamous scandal in baseball history. So, yeah.
Who knows how this season will turn out for these White Sox, or the Cubs for that matter, but in late April that's not really relevant. We can all just enjoy the city of Chicago out here slaying baseball for a little while.
