One of the beautiful things about this year's postseason is that it's going to end in an oasis.
Three teams whose fan bases have been wandering the baseball desert, parched and longing for that elusive World Series title, will be rewarded with a long, tall, cool drink of championship water that will last all winter.
• World Series Game 1: Tuesday 7:30 p.m. ET air time/8 p.m. game time on FOX
Cubs Nation might get the most ink because its local nine hasn't won it all since 1908, but the Indians haven't given Cleveland a World Series ring since '48 and the Dodgers haven't done it since '88. They're all long droughts, and one of them is going to end.
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But one of these three clubs could also clinch at home, which would break an even longer drought:
Dodgers: Last won World Series at home in 1963
Sandy Koufax earned a complete-game win in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, and on Oct. 6 at Dodger Stadium, he did it again, capping a tidy four-game sweep over New York to clinch World Series Most Valuable Player honors. Koufax finished the series with a 1.50 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 18 innings.
But Koufax wasn't the only Dodger who pitched well. The Yankees were completely shut down in the whitewashing to the tune of a team slash line of .171/.207/.240, and Mickey Mantle went 2-for-15 in that Fall Classic. The Dodgers celebrated a title on their home field in Chavez Ravine, which they haven't done since.
Indians: 1920
The Indians partied hard at Dunn Field in Cleveland on Oct. 12, 1920, for the last World Series championship won on home soil. It took the team seven games in the best-of-nine series to knock off the Brooklyn Robins, who would eventually become the Brooklyn and then Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 7 was won by the Indians' hero of the series, right-hander Stan Coveleski.
Coveleski went 3-0 in that year's Fall Classic, notching complete-game victories in Games 1, 4 and 7. Coveleski pitched to serious contact, too, striking out only eight batters in his 27 innings.
Cubs: Never
Would it be asking too much for Cubs fans to not only get their first World Series victory in 108 years but to also get it at Wrigley Field? Sure, there have been World Series won at Wrigley, but both were by opposing teams: in 1932 by the Yankees and in '45 by the Detroit Tigers.
If the Cubs are to take down those two droughts at once, they'll have to do it quickly. By virtue of the American League's victory in the 2016 All-Star Game, a Cubs team in the World Series would only get Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Friendly Confines, which means they'd have to take care of the Indians in either four or five games.