CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs introduced Theo Epstein as their president of baseball operations on Tuesday, hoping he can end a championship drought the way he did for the Boston Red Sox.

"To me, baseball is better with tradition, baseball is better with history, baseball is better with fans who care, baseball is better in ballparks like this, baseball is better during the day. And baseball is, best of all, when you win," Epstein said during a packed Wrigley Field news conference.

"I firmly believe that we can preserve the things that make the Cubs so special and over time build a consistent winner, a team that will be playing baseball in October consistently and a team that will ultimately win the World Series."

"I've waited a few weeks to say this, but it truly feels great to be a Cub today," Epstein said, who agreed to a five-year deal for a reported $18.5 million.

The Cubs haven't won a title in 103 years and haven't been to the World Series since 1945. The Red Sox endured an 86-year stretch without a title, but Epstein built a team that won it all in 2004 and again in 2007.

"I don't believe in curses, (and) I guess I played a small part in proving they don't exist, from a baseball standpoint," Epstein said. "I do think we can be honest and upfront that certain organizations haven't gotten the job done. That's the approach we took in Boston. We identified certain things that we hadn't been doing well, that might have gotten in the way of a World Series, and eradicated them. That's what we'll do here."

Why does he think he can do what no one else has been able to in Chicago?

"When I got to Boston they hadn't won in 86 years. We didn't run from that challenge. We embraced it," Epstein said. "We decided the way to attack it was to build the best baseball operation that we could, to try to establish a winning culture, to work as hard as possible and to bring in players who care more about each other and more about winning than the people around them thought or the external expectations, the external mindset. That's something that is going to be important to us here as well.