What the world was like when Cubs last won the World Series

It's been a long, long time.

On Oct. 14, 1908, the Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 in front of just 6,210 spectators at Detroit's Bennett Park to win their second World Series.

Orval Overall tossed a complete-game three-hitter and struck out 10. The winning run scored in the first inning, when first baseman/manager and future Hall of Famer Frank Chance drove in fellow future inductee Johnny Evers with an RBI single off "Wild" Bill Donovan.

It only took the Cubs another 108 years - 39,466 days to be exact - plus one extra inning to do it again, on Nov. 2, 2016 at Cleveland's Progressive Field. Since it's been so bloody long, let's get in our time machine and recall life in 1908

Baseball

• There was no commissioner of baseball. The AL and NL had separate league presidents, and were overseen by the "National Commission."

• Teams did not have minor-league affiliates, and the first affiliation agreement wouldn't happen until 1919.

• No annual awards existed in 1908. The "Chalmers Award," a forerunner to the modern-day MVP, wouldn't be handed out until 1911.

• "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" - a song that's become synonymous with the Cubs - was written by Jack Norworth in 1908. The first recorded version - by Billy Murray and the Haydn Quintet - was released that September; Eddie Meeker's version was the first to chart, three days after the Cubs won the World Series.

• Honus Wagner led the majors in virtually every category and finished two homers shy of the NL Triple Crown. Ty Cobb did the same in the AL. At the height of the dead-ball era, Brooklyn first baseman Tim Jordan led the majors in home runs - with 12.

• According to SABR, Cleveland's Nap Lajoie was the highest-paid player in baseball. He made $8,500.

• Baseball saw its most recent and probably its last 40-game winner in 1908, when White Sox pitcher and future Hall of Famer Ed Walsh went 40-15 over 66 games and 464 innings. Walsh completed 42 of his 49 starts. Cleveland's Addie Joss, who died tragically in 1910, posted a league-low 1.16 ERA.

• All 16 big-league teams played in wooden ballparks. The Philadelphia Athletics debuted the first steel-and-concrete stadium, Shibe Park, on Opening Day 1909. The Cubs played in the wooden West Side Park, their home from 1885-1915.

• None of the NHL, NBA, or NFL existed. The Stanley Cup was still played in a challenge format, and solely in Canada; it was defended successfully five times by the Montreal Wanderers. Penn won the national championship in college football, and Jack Johnson became heavyweight champion in December 1908. Stone Street won the Kentucky Derby.

Science and technology

• Henry Ford's Model T was released off his original assembly line on Sept. 27, 1908 - 17 days before the Cubs won. The car's initial selling price was $825.

• The dwarf planet Pluto was still 22 years from discovery by scientists.

• New York's subway system was four years old.

• Movies were still in their infancy. Famed director D.W. Griffith completed his first short film, "The Adventures of Dollie," in July 1908.

• Wanted a slice of bread? Good luck. A patent for the first bread-slicing machine was still 20 years away.

• Ship-builders in England began construction on the RMS Titanic six months after the Cubs won the World Series.

• Only eight percent of houses in the United States owned a telephone, which was still in its relative infancy.

Around the world

• The population of the United States was 88,710,000. Life expectancy was higher for women (52.8 years) than men (49.5). The average worker was paid 22 cents an hour.

• The contiguous United States was not yet a thing - only 46 states were in the Union, while New Mexico and Arizona would not join until 1912. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador was still its own Dominion, separate from the Dominion of Canada.

• Women did not have the right to vote in the 1908 United States election. They wouldn't be granted that right until 1920.

• When the Cubs won, Theodore Roosevelt was completing his second and final term as President of the United States; William Howard Taft would win the November election. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was Prime Minister of Canada, while Edward VII was king of Great Britain.

• Las Vegas - now the 29th-largest city in the United States by population - was a little over three years old in October 1908, and had a population of 30.

• Chicago's tallest building was the Tower Building, at 6 North Michigan Avenue. It stood 19 stories and 394 feet tall. Today, the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) stands 110 stories and 1,450 feet above the Windy City.

• Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire ruled much of Europe. The Russian Empire still controlled much of Poland and all of Finland.

• Bulgaria declared independence from the Ottoman Empire on Oct. 5, one day before Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina to start the Bosnian Crisis.

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were still alive. They'd be killed three weeks later.

• Legendary writer Mark Twain was still alive, as was noted inventor Thomas Edison. Al Capone was nine years old.

• Grover Cleveland, the only president to live in the White House on two non-consecutive occasions, died in June 1908; Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president, was born in August 1908.