CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs dress, eat, train and party in a subterranean fortress of attitude. The old home clubhouse at Wrigley Field never hosted a championship celebration. Within the new complex — 20 feet below ground and more than twice the size of its predecessor — is a room devoted to joy, apart from the locker room, where players congregate to bask in their victories.

“It exists, oh yeah,” Manager Joe Maddon said, though he would not disclose many details. “Well, really, that’s sensitive and classified information, what we do in there. But it’s a fun thing. It includes laser lights and disco balls. I’ll give that much.”

Welcome to the bold new era of baseball’s best team, which does not care that it is also the most historically tortured. The Cubs, as their T-shirts say, embrace the target.

They won 97 games last season and vanquished the rival St. Louis Cardinals in the National League playoffs. Losing the league championship series to the Mets was almost immaterial. The Cubs made tangible progress toward their first World Series title since 1908.