Imrem: These Chicago Cubs are built to last
Just imagine if the Chicago Cubs go ahead and win the World Series: They could surpass in baseball what the 1980s Bears were in football and the 1990s Bulls were in basketball.
Maybe you have heard that a championship would be the Cubs' first in 108 years.
That alone would make this collection of Cubs iconic, but there's also the sense that fans find it easy to like them.
The Bears were a traveling circus during a raucous 1980s run that included a Super Bowl XX victory.
During the next few years the popularity of these Cubs might make those Bears seem mildly appealing.
The Bulls were characterized as the Beatles while winning six NBA titles during the 1990s.
The popularity of these Cubs might make those Bulls seem like a garage band.
The Cubs already had a massive following around the country even when they were lovable losers merely tweaking history.
Chicago transplants as far away as California, Florida and Arizona turned out to cheer the Cubs in their road uniforms.
Cubs fans here routinely drove from Chicago to St. Louis, Cincinnati and Milwaukee to fill ballparks there.
Think about it: We're talking about futile Cubs teams that hadn't won a National League pennant in more than seven decades or a World Series in nearly 11 decades.
Yet, next to the Yankees, the Cubs were the America's Team of baseball minus a few dozen championships.
So, what if the Cubs actually do win this season's World Series … and then another soon after … then another sometime …?
Cubs players will be coming into your family room on TV and selling you everything from soft drinks to underwear to luxury automobiles.
The Cubs supposedly are primed for sustained success that could extend into the middle of the 2020s.
For that to be the forecast, the Cubs must have a youthful core expected to stay in place for a while.
Fans already have gotten to know Cubs players and will get to know them even better, the way Bears fans knew Refrigerator Perry and Jim McMahon and Bulls fans knew Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Print and TV media will tell everyone everything they possibly could want to know about Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo.
Cubs fans will find out what the Kyles - Hendricks and Schwarber - eat for breakfast; where Javier Baez and Willson Contreras expend their boundless energy after leaving work; whether Joe Maddon can fix everything at home like he does at the ballpark.
Those questions will be answered not only locally but nationally and maybe even internationally.
Older Cubs fans scattered around America and the world will be joined by new ones here, there and everywhere.
Together they will elevate the Cubs to the same level as the '80s Bears and the '90s Bulls … and then above them.
When that Bears circus and those Bulls rock stars arrived in another town, fans waited for them at the team hotel, greeted the team bus and hoped for autographs or perhaps just a glimpse.
Ah, but that's getting ahead of ourselves, isn't it?
The Cubs still have to win a World Series to reach the widespread notoriety of those Bears and Bulls teams.
But it is interesting to ponder who the juggler in the Cubs' circus would be and who the drummer in their rock band would be.
mimrem@dailyherald.com