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This could be it. This could be the year the Chicago Cubs finally break their curse.

It's been 108 years since the Cubs won the World Series, but they clearly don't want the counter to reach 109. They rode the culmination of their youth movement to a 97-win campaign in 2015 and owned the winter by signing Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, John Lackey and Dexter Fowler.

It's obvious the Cubs are loaded. And according to their manager, they're cool with people noting as much.

"I'm really a big believer in running towards the fire instead of away from it," Joe Maddon said in February, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com. "I want our guys to get comfortable with the concept of everyone speaking so glowingly of us."

If all goes well, we'll be speaking glowingly about the 2016 Cubs well beyond this season. A few short months from now, everyone could earn the right to one day tell their grandkids that they were there when the Cubbies finally won it all.



Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.