108 was a magic number even before the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, ending the "longest championship drought in North American professional sports."
The win--in the 10th inning with 8 runs--came 108 years after their last pennant win in 1908.
The last time the Cubs won a World Series game was in 1945, on 10/8.
There are 108 doublestitches on a baseball.
In mathematics, 108 is related to the Golden Mean as well as the Fibbonacci sequence, which expresses in mathematical terms the spiral pattern that is evident in nature.
When the Fibonacci sequence is reduced by decimal parity, then its primary sequence, equals 108. (For example: decimal parity reduction of 12 would be 3 [1+2=3], decimal parity reduction of the number 36 would be 9 [3+6=9].
The inner angle in a regular pentagon is 108 degrees. Home plate is, of course, a pentagon, although not a regular one.
108 is a Harshad number, which is an integer divisible by the sum of its digits. Harshad is from Sanskrit, and means "great joy," which certainly pervaded Wrigley Field on the night of the Cub's historic win.
108 is a sacred number in the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist spiritual traditions, and the land that Wrigley Field stands on used to be the site of a church and a seminary.
So maybe it really is all about the Church of Baseball, as Susan Sarandon's character notes in Bull Durham.
On Sept. 22, 2016, Michael Sneed wrote in the Chicago News, "108 could be the Cubs' magic number this year," noting that the baseball was "designed by the Cubs first manager and ace pitcher A.G. Spalding, whose Chicago office was originally located at 108 W. Madison Street" and continues:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
