Addicted to losing: Some Cubs fans want their team to lose World Series, survey shows

America overwhelmingly wants the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series. But do Cubs fans?

By a more than 4-to-1 ratio, America is rooting for the Cubs to defeat the Cleveland Indians, according to a Yahoo Sports/YouGov poll. At the same, 1 in 4 diehard Cubs fans say that if their team finally wins the World Series for the first time since 1908, they will actually miss rooting for a team that’s identity is rooted in losing.

In other words, more than 10,000 of the 42,000 or so fans who will be screaming their heads off this weekend at Wrigley Field will actually miss a 108-year losing streak should the Cubs finally win.

Make sense? Well, it does for Cubs fans who, according to the same poll, say losing brings them together. In fact, 86 percent say there is a camaraderie amongst Cubs fans that is rooted in a pride associated with rooting for a perennial loser.

And while most do want to see the Cubs win in their lifetime, three percent of diehard Cubs fans polled said they actually don’t.

As Harry Caray would say, “Holy cow!”

(Yahoo Sports)
(Yahoo Sports)

About this survey: YouGov surveyed 1,411 Americans, of which 745 identified as Major League Baseball fans and 209 identified as a “diehard Cubs fan.”