In the Giants' clubhouse last week, following the playoff-game victory over the Cardinals that vaulted them into the World Series, team members witnessed one of the most disturbing sights in recent baseball memory.

Shawon Dunston, the team's antediluvian outfielder/shortstop grabbed assistant general manager Ned Colletti by the arms and the two began jumping up and down, as if on a trampoline. "We're Cubs! We're in the World Series!" they shrieked at each other, deliriously.

It is never pretty, watching others celebrate impending defeat. Earlier in their baseball careers, both Dunston and Colletti toiled for the Cubs. The Ex-Cub Factor decrees that any team burdened by three or more ex-Chicago Cubs is doomed to World Series failure. Colletti, a non-player, doesn't count. But Dunston certainly does -- as do his fellow ex-Cubbies Benito Santiago and Tim Worrell. The Angels, on the other hand, are absolutely Cub-free. The Series may be tied 2-2 today, but Anaheim can't lose.

Just how accurate is the Factor? Since the last time the Cubs reached the World Series in 1945 -- 11 presidents, 34 managers and more than 1,000 players ago -- 16 teams have entered the Series with three or more ex-Cubs. Fourteen of them have lost. Most notable among these were the 1981 Yankees, who entered that Series with five ex-Cubs (Rick Reuschel, Bobby Murcer, Barry Foote, Oscar Gamble, Dave LaRoche) in a display of hubris that remains unmatched. After winning the first two games against the Dodgers, they suffered a humiliating four straight defeats. Afterward, Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner harrumphed, "Had I believed for one minute that my Cubs had done me in, I can assure you I would have gotten rid of them immediately. And the next time we get to the World Series, I will get rid of them." It is edifying to note that the Yankees haven't been poisoned by Cubness in the postseason since.

As baseball cognoscenti are aware, the 1960 Pirates (ex-Cubs Smokey Burgess, Gene Baker, Don Hoak) and last year's champion Diamondbacks (Mike Morgan, Luis Gonzalez, Miguel Batista, Mark Grace) are the only teams to beat the hex. The Pirates' victory seemed inexplicable until ex-Cub Jim Brosnan, a former teammate of Hoak who later helped doom the 1961 Reds to defeat, shed light on the situation.

"Don Hoak played for the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, a very good team, before he was traded to the Cubs, a very bad one," said Brosnan, who confessed that he underwent psychoanalysis to help deal with his own Cubness. "While there, he refused to accept that he was a Cub. He had nothing but obscene words for the Cubs and their organization. Hoak is quite possibly the only man who ever conquered his Cubness."

Grace, whose first words on network TV following Arizona's victory over the Yankees were, "The Ex-Cub Factor is dead!" is similarly self-assured, almost arrogant in his confidence.

But these are not qualities generally associated with the Giants' Benito Santiago, Tim Worrell or Shawon "We're Cubs! We're in the World Series!" Dunston. Caveat ex-Cubs: Let the bearer beware.

Ron Berler discovered the Ex-Cub Factor in 1981. He is currently working on a screenplay (but not about that).