1993 High School Yearbook Quote Predicted Cubs World Series Win for 2016
"You heard it here first," reads part of the quote from a Southern California yearbook
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There have been a lot of signs pointing to 2016 being the Cubs’ year, but this may be the wildest yet.
Back in 1993, one Chicago Cubs fan predicted in his high school yearbook that the team would win the World Series 23 years later.
"Chicago Cubs, 2016 World Champions. You heard it here first," the quote under Michael Lee's name reads.
Marcos Meza shows his 1993 yearbook from Mission Viejo High School, featuring a quote predicting the Cubs will win the World Series in 2016.
Fast forward to 2016, and the Cubs are headed to their first World Series in 71 years.
“In high school we graduated and I saw that quote and I thought it was a funny quote,” said Mission Viejo High School alum Marcos Meza, who said he has known Lee since seventh grade.
Lee was from Chicago but raised in California, Meza said, and always maintained his allegiance to the Windy City. The two friends had lost contact after high school, but connected on social media in 2009, when they first reminisced about the yearbook prediction that was just seven years away.
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The Chicago Cubs are just one win away from their first World Series trip in 71 years, and it's been 108 years since they last won a title in 1908. To get you ready for the final games (or game) of the NLCS, we've come up with a list of factoids and interesting coincidences as the team prepares for what's ahead.
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19:08 The first five games of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers are all slated to start at 7:08 p.m., which in military time is 19:08. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
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108 MLB pitchers are very particular about the baseballs that they use, and Jon Lester is likely no exception. We would strongly doubt however that he spends much time thinking about how many stitches there are in an official MLB ball: you guessed it. 108.
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108 In order to reach the World Series, the Cubs would have to win four games. In order to win four games, the team would have to make a minimum of 108 defensive outs.
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108 Cubs slugger Kris Bryant had 102 RBI this season, which is pretty impressive. Just for fun, if you add in the six RBI that noted not-slugger Jon Lester had this season, you get 108 runs batted in.
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108 Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez are both very important pieces to the puzzle for the Cubs' offense, but they do their fair share of striking out. In fact, both players struck out 108 times apiece this season.
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108 Baseball purists are always quick to bemoan the fact that pitchers rarely throw complete games any more (the Cubs as a team only had five this season, which was second best in the National League). The 1908 Cubs, led by Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, were much more prolific in that category, throwing 108 complete games as a staff for the eventual world champions.
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71nIt's been 71 years since the Cubs reached the World Series, and two of the most important Cubs to potentially ending that drought, Bryant and Rizzo, combined to hit 71 regular season home runs. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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71 Look excited Kris, because you get to finish off our gallery. Out of your 102 RBI, 71 of them came against right-handed pitchers this season. Celebrate appropriately.
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A little extra credit fact: In Game 5 against the Dodgers, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester pitched a grand total of 108 pitches, leading the team to a pivotal victory.
“I told Mike, ‘Dude you had the coolest yearbook quote,’” Meza said.
Michael Lee could not immediately be reached for comment on the story.
Meza, a Dodgers fan, said he didn’t think the prediction would come true — until the Cubs beat the Dodgers in the NLCS.
“I kept quiet on it because I’m a Dodgers guy,” he said. “But once the Dodgers lost I was like, ‘Man I’ve got to get this out there.'”
After he shared the image, other photos of the yearbook began popping up on Twitter and Reddit.
*mom walks into my room* -look at my yearbook from '93 #... This dude called the cubs winning the series in 2016 for his senior quote. pic.twitter.com/Dq4kWFIziy
Meza said as the photo gained traction on social media, many people questioned if it was photoshopped, so he took videos of his yearbook to verify them.
He said he knows Cubs fans are superstitious but he believes the 23-year-old prediction isn’t a jinx, but fate.
“It’s not like Bartman interfering with the ball but I think the Cubs are there,” he said. “Those words went from [Lee’s] lips to God’s ear. And if I was a Cubs fan I'd be mad he didn’t predict it in 1999.”
