Top five Cubs blunders according to We Believe filmmaker John Scheinfeld

Highland Park-born filmmaker John Scheinfeld's (The U.S. Vs. John Lennon) new movie, the Cubs documentary We Believe, is billed as a love letter to Chicago's fanaticism with a team that hasn't made it to the World Series in over a century. Endorsed by both Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, the film features a slew of commiserating famous Cubs fans like Billy Corgan, Dennis Franz, Jeff Garlin, Hugh Hefner, and even Francis Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago.

A life-long Cubs fan, Scheinfeld says there's no escaping the turbulent seasons that have defined the team. “Those kinds of seasons are part of the Cubs history,” he says. “Everyone knows about them. We’ve all grown up with them.” To fully exorcise some demons before the June 12th première of We Believe at the Chicago Theatre, The A.V. Club asked Scheinfeld for his picks of the top five most disappointing Cubs seasons on record. Let the cleansing begin.

1. 1945: The Curse Begins

John Scheinfeld: The Cubs were up in the World Series, and ostensibly that’s where the curse began. For the record, I don’t believe in the curse. However, it exists all the same.

The story goes that it was game four of the World Series. The Cubs were up two games to one, playing the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. The owner of the Billy Goat Tavern wanted to bring his goat to the game and the team wouldn’t let him in. They claimed the goat smelled. The guy went back to the tavern and allegedly placed the curse. Detroit came roaring back and ended up winning the series. Ever since then, people have pointed back to that as the curse.

The humorous punctuation was that the goat wasn’t let in because it smelled, supposedly, and after the Cubs lost the series, the [Billy Goat's] owner allegedly wrote a letter to the owner of the Cubs saying, “Who stinks now?”

2. 1984: Durham muffs a grounder

JS: '84 was the first time they were in the post-season since 1945. They had a really good team, and everyone was pulling for them to do it that year. However, a couple of bad plays in the National League Championship Series against the San Diego Padres, and that was that. The famous play was where Leon Durham was playing first base, and a ground ball goes right between his legs. They air it on TV all the time. You’ve seen it. That turned that series around.

These things have come to be called “Cubbie occurrences.” Basically, unusual events on which a season turns. There have been a number in Cubs history. It’s a little overblown, though. You see in the film that in 1908, the last year the Cubs won the World Series, there was a Cubbie occurrence, but it was the flipside. A member of the New York Giants made a bonehead play and it went the other way.

The point is that for all these years, those plays haven’t diminished the love people have for the team. Players change, managers change, the world changes, and the love for the team is always there.

3. 2003: The Bartman play

JS: Again, really good team. They did very well, were up, and that was the year of what’s been called the Bartman play. If you don’t know what it was, basically, it was game six of the NLCS against the Florida Marlins. A ball curved foul into the left-field stands. Several fans reached for the foul ball, and one of them, Steve Bartman, got his hand in the way, and the ball bounced into his hands, preventing the Cubs fielder from making the play.

It’s really unfortunate, in my view. I don’t think he did anything that several other fans around him weren’t doing and that any fan would have done. As a fan in the stands, you’re looking at the ball, not at whatever action’s happening on the field. In talking to the players and management for the movie, I don’t think anyone blames him. There were a couple more innings and more chances to win, and they just didn’t pull it out. The media loves to focus on one thing, though, because that makes for a better story.

4. 1929: Close, but no cigar

JS: The 1929 Cubs were a really, really good team, and they just couldn’t quite pull it out against Philadelphia in the Series. There weren’t strange plays, but it was an interesting run. At the time, the team had a fairly new owner in William Wrigley, and he put together a great team, a great general manager, and a great front office. In 1929, the Cubs came really close against the Philadelphia Athletics, losing in the last game. In 1932, they were up against the New York Yankees, arguably the best team of the '30s, with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Basically, from ’29 to ’38, the Cubs had good players, great seasons, and nothing to be ashamed of. Someone had to win and someone had to lose.

5. 2008: We Believe in disappointment

JS: We were following the team last year for the movie. It was a great team, a great bunch of guys, and I was just disappointed for them that the team didn’t go further into the post-season. One of the things that became clear to me as I spent time with and watching last year’s team is that there’s really been a corporate-culture change within the organization within the last six or seven years. They really approach things differently now. Everyone’s heard the Cubs are lovable losers, and that was certainly true for the '60s, '70s, and early '80s. Someone wasn’t minding the store. They had a lot of bad teams.

Now, they’ve won the division three of the last five years, had great records, and have a bunch of high character guys on this team. They’re doing things the right way. Where that will take them, we’ll see.

Part of being a baseball fan of certain teams is the highs and lows. Between the people of Chicago and the Cubs, it’s very much like a relationship, really. Every relationship has highs and lows. Those moments of heartbreak don’t mean you don’t love the other person, even when they do something wrong and disappoint you. The love is so strong. That’s the pattern between the city of Chicago and the Cubs for 101 years now. It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about the journey.