1997 - Starting Off On the Wrong Foot

 The Cubs had a few new faces in 1997. The most prominent was Mel Rojas, a righthanded pitcher from the Domincan Republic who had been an excellent setup man for John Wetteland in Montreal. When Wetteland signed with the Yankees in 1994, Rojas inherited the closer's role and had seasons of 30 and 36 saves. The Cubs signed him as a free agent, hoping he could fortify the back end of the bullpen. 

The club also signed a pair of veteran starters, righty Kevin Tapani from the White Sox and lefty Terry Mulholland from the Mariners. Both had been frontline starters for pennant winning clubs, Tapani for the 1991 Twins and Mulholland for the 1993 Phillies. Both had started and won games in the World Series. The signings were necessary because Jaimie Navarro had moved on, signing as a free agent with the White Sox after two solid seasons on the north side. Cubs fans were sad to see him go, but the Cubs' decision not to re-sign him turned out to be an excellent one. Navarro was awful for the Sox, finishing his time on the south side with a 25-43 record and a 6.06 ERA in three seasons as a full-time starter. 

In the only significant acquisition of a position player, the Cubs welcomed a familiar face back into the fold. Shawon Dunston was signed as a free agent after a one-year hiatus in San Francisco and resumed his longtime position as the starting shortstop. A pair of rookies, outfielder Doug Glanville and third baseman Kevin Orie, would also see significant playing time.

Opening Day Lineup

McRae, cf

Brown, lf

Grace, 1b

Sosa, rf

Sandberg, 2b

Dunston, ss

Orie, 3b

Servais, c

Mulholland, p

The Cubs started out 1997 very much as they ended 1996, losing 4-2 in Miami. They went into the ninth with only one hit, a 5th inning single by Orie, off Marlins starter Kevin Brown and reliever Mark Hutton. Chicago rallied for two runs on two hits in the ninth, but came up short, with Mulholland taking the loss. The next game was similar, with the Cubs falling behind 4-0 and eventually losing 4-3. They also lost their third game, then proceeded to lose three straight games in Atlanta. Next, the Cubs lost their home opener, also to the Marlins. The following day, April 10, Alex Fernandez started for the Marlins against Frank Castillo for the Cubs. Castillo pitched well, allowing only one run on seven hits through seven innings. However, Fernandez took a no-hitter into the ninth, threatening to become the first pitcher to no-hit the Cubs since Sandy Koufax in 1965. With one out, backup third basemen Dave Hansen beat out an infield single for the Cubs' only hit, but the Northsiders still took the loss, 1-0, to go to 0-8.

Two more losses to the Braves, two to the Rockies, and one to the Mets resulted in a 0-13 record. Fans and sportswriters began to speculate about whether the Cubs could challenge the record of the 1988 Orioles, who had started the season 0-21. On April 20, the Cubs were beaten 8-2 in the first game of a doubleheader in New York. In the second game, the Cubs trailed 1-0 going into the 6th, but scored 2 in the 6th and 2 in the 7th to take a late lead. In the bottom of the 9th, Turk Wendell allowed a single, a walk, and a two-out double that shaved the lead to one run. However, he got the last out and the Cubs finally had a victory. It was cause for celebration, but with a 1-14 record their season was practically over before it had really begun. They were in last place, 8.5 games out of the lead.

Combined with their 2-14 finish to the 1996 season, the Cubs had a 31-game stretch in which they went 3-28. They played better afterward, going 36-36 from April 21 until the beginning of the All-Star break on July 7, but remained in last place, 6.5 games out. On August 8, the Cubs pulled the trigger on a major trade, sending Rojas, Wendell, and Brian McRae to the Mets for centerfielder Lance Johnson, and getting infielder Manny Alexander and starting pitcher Mark Clark. Rojas was a disappointment in his short tenure with the Cubs, saving 13 games in 19 chances with a 4.42 ERA.

Six days earlier, on August 2, Ryne Sandberg announced that he had decided to retire at the end of the season. He left as definitely the greatest second basemen and one of the greatest players in team history. In 15 seasons and 2151 games with the club, he slashed .285/.344/.452 with 1316 runs scores, 282 home runs, and 344 stolen bases. Among the honors he received were 10 All-Star selections, 9 Gold Glove Awards, 7 Silver Slugger awards, and the 1984 National League MVP. In 39 postseason at-bats, in the 1984 and 1989 NLCSs, he hit .385.

The 1997 season also turned out to be the end of the road for another longtime Cub. On August 31, Dunston was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, ending his tenure with the Cubs. The first pick in the June 1982 draft, Dunston never became the superstar that the Cubs hoped he would be. He never really gained control of the strike zone, striking out 770 times in 4842 plate appearances with the Cubs, but walking just 171 times. However, he spent nine seasons as the club's primary shortstop and showed some speed, a bit of power, and the strongest infield arm of his generation, leading to several spectacular highlight-reel plays. The Shawon-o-Meter was one of things that made the 1989 season memorable as Dunston recovered from a terrible start to have what advanced metrics see as his best season.

The only real highlight of the season for the team came on June 16. That date marked the Cubs' first non-exhibition games against the White Sox since the 1906 World Series. Interleague play began in 1997, and the Cubs beat the Sox 8-3 in the first game between the two teams that counted in 91 years. The loser was ex-Cub Jaimie Navarro and McRae and Sandberg had three hits apiece. The Cubs lost the other two games of the series, but did go 9-6 in their first round of interleague play.

The Cubs were 13-12 in September, a slight glimmer of hope. It was their only winning month other than May, but the overall results of the season were dismal. The Cubs finished 12th out of 14 teams in runs scored and 11th in ERA. Mark Grace hit .319 with 13 homers, second-most on the team. Glanville had a good rookie season, finishing at .300, although with only 31 extra-base hits, Orie hit .275 with 8 round-trippers. Sandberg finished at .264 with 12 homers.

On the pitching side, the Cubs had four pitchers who threw 98 or more innings and none of them had an ERA better than Mulholland's 4.07. Mulholland finished at 6-12, while the Cubs' other new starter, Tapani, was 9-3, but was limited to just 85 innings due to injuries. Terry Adams, a 24 year-old righthander, took over from Rojas as the closer and did save 18 games, but with a dismal 4.62 ERA.

Sammy Sosa seemed to be having one of his best seasons in 1996 before the broken hand ended it prematurely. However, he failed to build on that in 1997. His 36 homers and 119 RBI's led the Cubs in those categories by far, but his .251/.300/.480 slash line was mediocre. Fans and sportswriters were becoming more aware of advanced statistics that supposedly gave a better analysis of a player's true worth than the traditional home run/RBI/batting average combo and Sosa's stats did not look good when examined through this lens. More attention was given to Sosa's dismal 174-45 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and the fact that 25 of his round-trippers came at hitter-friendly Wrigley Field. Some followers of the game began referring to him as "Sammy So-So."

1997 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Sammy Sosa, 90; H - Mark Grace, 177; HR - Sosa, 36; RBI - Sosa, 119; BA - Grace, .319; OBP - Grace, .409; SP - Sosa, .480

1997 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Bob Patterson, 76; IP - Steve Trachsel, 201; W - Geremi Gonzalez, 11; SO - Trachsel, 160; ERA - Trachsel, 4.51*; SV - Terry Adams, 18

*Trachsel was the only pitcher on the staff who had enough innings to qualify for the league ERA title; he finished 36th in ERA out of 41 qualifying pitchers in the NL.

1996 - The Big Hurt

There was little movement in the 1995-96 offseason for the Cubs, but one development in December 1995 came as a pleasant shock to Cubs fans. Ryno was coming back.

Ryne Sandberg's abrupt retirement in 1994 had come about because of a combination of personal problems and disaffection with the front office. With his family life sorted out and Larry Himes, the general manager who had allowed Greg Maddux to get away, gone, Sandberg made the decision to unretire. Although he had forfeited his record $7 million per year contract, signed before the 1993 season, Sandberg signed a one-year contract that eventually paid $2.3 million. No one knew how the layoff would affect his play, but Cubs fans were thrilled to have their brightest star since the Banks/Williams/Santo/Jenkins days back in the fold.

Another longtime Cub left the fold during the offseason. Shawon Dunston had been with the team for fifteen years, missing most of the '92 and '93 seasons due to injury; he signed with the Giants as a free agent.

The only other major change came in the bullpen. After three seasons of high save totals, but less than dominant ERAs, Randy Myers was allowed to depart as a free agent. In his place the Cubs signed veteran reliever Doug Jones. Jones was an atypical closer in that he relied on changing speeds, rather than a blazing fastball, to get outs. He also had an atypical path to the big leagues. After a cup of coffee with the pennant-winning 1982 Brewers, he had not emerged again until surfacing with the Indians at age 29 in 1986. Since then, playing for several teams, he had had years of 43, 37, 36, and 32 saves with ERAs as low as 1.85. He was wildly inconsistent from year to year: from 1992 through 1995 his final ERAs were 1.85, 4.54, 2.17, and 5.01. The Cubs were taking a gamble that they could catch him in a good year and that he still had something left at age 39.

1996 Opening Day Lineup
McRae, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Grace, 1b
Sosa, rf
Gonzalez, lf
Servais, c
Hernandez, 3b
Sanchez, ss
Navarro, p

The Cubs beat the Padres on opening day in Chicago, 5-4. The news was not all good. In his first appearance as a Cub, Jones came in to the game in the ninth to protect a 4-3 lead. After retiring Tony Gwynn, he promptly gave up a single to Ken Caminiti (on his way to a surprise MVP season) and a double to Wally Joyner to blow the save. Mark Grace singled in shortstop Rey Sanchez to win it in the 10th. Sanberg went 0-3 in his return, but did walk twice.

Two days later, Sandberg got his first hit since 1994, a two-run homer that began a comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 9-4 victory over the Dodgers. On April 7, Grace won the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth and on April 17, Sosa's two-run homer in the tenth beat the Reds. After beating the Giants on April 19 by a 10-6 score, thanks to two Sandberg homers, the Cubs' season record also stood at 10-6.

Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark for the 1996 Cubs. They started a seven-game losing streak the next day and finished April with a 13-14 record, then suffered through a 9-17 May. Jones was released in June after converting just 2 of 7 save opportunities with a 5.01 ERA. Sandberg was hitting just .216 at the end of May. Sosa was hitting just .236, but with 16 home runs. On June 6, he slugged three roundtrippers against the Phillies in a 9-6 Cubs victory. The Cubs were 22-31 at the end of May, but, shockingly, only four games out in a laughably weak division that was led by the Astros with a 27-28 record.

At the break, the Cubs were 42-46, still four games out of the division lead, having played much better in June. Sosa led the NL with 27 homers, although he was not selected as an All-Star. Sandberg's batting average was at .214 on June 25, but he went 20-48 (.417) in the 11 games before the break to raise his average to .247. Grace was at .335, but like Sosa (and Sandberg) he was not an All-Star. The Cubs' representative was Steve Trachsel, who was following a terrible 1995 with a great 1996; his ERA was at 2.14 in 109 innings pitched.

The Cubs continued to play relatively well after the All-Star break; on August 13, they actually evened their record at 59-59; quite an accomplishment for a team that, at one point in late May had been ten games under .500. Sosa was the main catalyst; on August 19, he hit his 40th home run of the season and drove in his 98th and 99th runs. Both totals led the league, and Sosa had a shot at becoming the first Cub since Hack Wilson in 1930 to homer 50 times in a season. The next day, against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley, Sosa was hit in the right hand with the bases loaded in the first inning. It was his 100th RBI of the season. He grounded out later in the first, an eight-run inning for the Cubs, and popped out in the fourth, but was replaced by Ozzie Timmons in right field in the top of the fifth. Postgame x-rays revealed that Sosa's hand was broken; his season was over. It was a terrible blow to both Sosa and the team.

The Cubs refused to give up though. They won that August 20 game to even their record at 62-62. After Trachsel beat the Phillies 3-2 on September 13, they were 74-72; five games out in the division with sixteen to go. Unfortunately, they would win only two of those final sixteen games.

It was a complete collapse. The pitching staff gave up fewer than five runs in only two of the games and the hitters scored more than four runs in only two; a 10-9 victory over the Pirates in the second game of a September 27 double-header and a 7-8 loss to Pittsburgh the next day. They could really have used Sosa. The 2-14 stretch took them from five games behind to twelve games out, though they only fell from third to fourth place in the division.

Sosa's power totals were frozen at 40 homers and 100 RBIs and he had a slash line of .273/.323/.564. According to Baseball-Reference.com's version of wins above replacement, it was actually the best season of Sosa's career to that point, though he only played in 124 games. Barring the injury, he might have competed for the MVP award.

Sosa's aborted season was a disappointment, but the Cubs also had a feel-good story in Ryne Sandberg. After taking over a season off, the 36 year-old second baseman came back and performed better than anyone could rightly have expected. True, he hit only .244, far below the standard of his best years, but he contributed 25 home runs and 92 RBIs, stats similar to those of his best seasons, he had an excellent year with the glove and he was durable, playing in 150 games. The season helped cement his legendary status in the Windy City.

There were other notable performances. Grace hit .331, fifth in the league; it would remain the highest average of his career. Brian McRae gave the Cubs a legitimate leadoff hitter for the first time since Jerome Walton's Rookie of the Year campaign in 1989. The ex-Royal hit .276 with 17 homers and 111 runs scored.

It wasn't enough. Shortstop was split between Rey Sanchez, who could field, but batted .211 with no power, and Jose Hernandez, who hit .242 with some power (10 HRs), but couldn't field. Leo Gomez, a 30 year-old failed Orioles prospect, manned third base. The leftfielder was Luis Gonzalez who was decent but unexceptional (.271, 15 HRs). Ending up with the Arizona Diamondbacks after a couple of trades, he would hit 57 roundtrippers in the homer-crazy season of 2001 (and never more than 31 in any other season) and would win the seventh game of the World Series that fall with, ironically, a bloop single. All this added up to 772 runs scored by the Cubs, good for fifth in the league.

What really tripped the club up was the pitching, particularly the starting pitching. Trachsel faded after his great first half, but still finished with good numbers: a 3.03 ERA (sixth in the league) in 205 innings, good for a 13-9 record. The staff's workhorse was Jaime Navarro, who threw 237 innings. His 3.92 ERA might not seem great, but was not bad for a pitcher throwing half his games in Wrigley in a big-hitting era. His final record was 15-12.

The rest of the starting staff was a disaster. Four other pitchers started more than five games and, among them, the lowest ERA was Frank Castillo's 5.28. He finished at 7-16, tying for the NL lead in losses. Jim Bullinger and Kevin Foster had ERAs over 6.00, although neither threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, and 22 year-old rookie Amaury Telemaco was at 5.46.

The bullpen was a little better. After Jones was released, closer duties devolved upon Turk Wendell, a 29 year-old righthander and noted eccentric; sort of a poor man's Mitch Williams. He ended up with a 2.84 ERA in 79 innings and a team-leading 18 saves. Rookie Terry Adams threw 101 innings in relief with a 2.94 ERA and Kent Bottenfield and Bob Patterson also had good ERAs, but the relief corps couldn't overcome the deficiencies of the starting staff and the Cubs finished ninth out of fourteen clubs in team ERA.

1996 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Brian McRae, 111; H - Mark Grace, 181; HR - Sammy Sosa, 40; RBI - Sosa, 100; BA - Grace, .331; OBP - Grace, .396; SP - Sosa, .564

1996 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Bob Patterson, 79; IP - Jaime Navarro, 237; W - Navarro, 15; SO - Navarro, 158; ERA - Steve Trachsel, 3.03; SV - Turk Wendell, 18

1995 - Ride My Seesaw

The 1994-1995 offseason was a time of great uncertainty for baseball fans. With the owners prepared to start the season with replacement players, the strike was not settled until April 2, 1995 and play did not actually begin until April 25. 1995 became the fourth season in which games were lost to labor problems, joining 1972, 1981, and 1994. Unlike in the other years, each team played the same number of games, 144.

Rightly or wrongly, Tom Trebelhorn was ousted as the Cubs' manager after overseeing one tremendously disappointing season. The new manager was Jim Riggleman, who had served as the Padres' skipper for part of the 1992 and 1994 seasons and all of 1993, compiling a 112-179 record. There were several other changes, but, because of the timing of the strike's settlement, most of them took place either during the season or just before it started.

The biggest preseason addition was probably Brian McRae. Son of Royals great Hal McRae, he had debuted with his father's team at age 22 in 1990 and had been Kansas City's primary centerfielder from 1991 to 1994, hitting .262 with 93 stolen bases. On April 5, Chicago acquired him in exchange for minor league pitchers Geno Morones and Derek Wallace. The Cubs hoped he could establish some consistency in centerfield; four different players had been opening-day starters at the position in as many seasons heading into 1995.

Four days after trading for McRae, the Cubs signed Jaime Navarro, a right-handed pitcher who had been with the Milwaukee Brewers. Navarro had shown early promise, finishing at 15-12 with a 3.92 ERA in 1991 and 17-11 with a 3.33 mark in 1992. Two weak seasons after that, with ERAs of 5.33 and 6.62 made him expendable, but the Cubs took a chance that he could bounce back with a change of scenery. The desperately need some sort infusion to their starting rotation. The only pitcher on the roster who had ever won more than 11 games in a season was Mike Morgan, and the club's opening day starter would be Jim Bullinger, who was 9-10, mostly as a reliever, in his three major-league seasons prior to 1995.

Other than McRae and Navarro, the cast was much the same. Longtime holdovers Mark Grace and Shawon Dunston were healthy and ready to go, as was Sammy Sosa, back for his fourth season in Chicago. Left field would be held down by a pair of rookies, lefthanded-hitting Scott Bullett (who had played a few games for the Pirates in 1991 and 1993) and righthander Ozzie Timmons.

1995 Opening Day Lineup
McRae, cf
Sanchez, 2b
Sosa, rf
Grace, 1b
Wilkins, c
Dunston, ss
Buechele, 3b
Bullett, lf
Bullinger, p

Meeting the Reds in Cincinnati on opening day, April 26, McRae started the season by striking out. He hit into a double play in his last at-bat, in the 8th inning. However, in between those to at-bats, he singled, tripled, and doubled. Grace also had three hits, and Bullinger pitched six scoreless innings. The Cubs were off to a good start in 1995, winning 7-1. After beating the Reds again on April 27, the Cubs came home to Wrigley and won two more against the Expos to start 4-0. The fourth game was Navarro's first start as a Cub and it was a success, with the newly-acquired hurler giving up just one earned run and five hits in seven innings to earn the victory.

The Cubs lost their next three, but then settled into a pattern of winning two and losing one that was broken by a three-game winning streak from May 19-21. At the end of May, the Cubs stood at 20-11 and were tied for first place with the Reds. It was an inspiring turnaround; in 1994, they hadn't won their twentieth game until their 46th contest of the season. After pitching six innings of one-run ball on May 27, and getting a no-decision in a game that the Cubs won, Navarro was 4-0 with a 2.83 ERA, giving the Cubs a legitimate number one starter. Sosa was hitting .315 with 10 home runs and 27 driven in, and Grace was at .322.

Unfortunately, the Cubs couldn't sustain their early success and suffered through a horrendous "June swoon," posting a terrible 9-20 record for the month. Between June 5 and June 14, they lost nine of ten games to fall 5.5 games back in the division. On June 6, the Braves teed off on Steve Traschel for 7 runs in just 3 1/3 innings on their way to a 17-3 shellacking of the Northsiders. But even that was not as bad as it got for the Cubs; on June 25, they suffered a 19-6 disaster at the hands of the Houston Astros. With a tired bullpen, Riggleman allowed reliever Bryan Hickerson to take a fearful pounding in the eighth, leaving him in to absorb nine Houston runs in the inning. Hickerson's ERA was 3.26 going into the game and 7.03 coming out. The loss dropped the Cubs' record to 28-27 on the season and began a string of five losses in six games that left them 29-31 at the end of the month. They seemed to have returned to their 1994 form.

The team rallied, however, to take eight of the next nine, putting them back on the good side of .500. After that stretch, though, they returned to their losing ways, dropping 11 of 12, including a seven-game losing streak that left them at 38-43 on July 23. Then, they won 8 of 10. They were a streaky club; just when they looked hopeless, they would go on a tear, and then, as soon as fans' hopes were up, they seemed to revert to being one of the league's worst teams. One positive aspect of the Cubs' June and July was the performance of Brian McRae. At the end of May, the Cubs' new centerfielder was hitting .260 with a .307 OBP, unacceptable for a leadoff man. However, between June 1 and August 5, McRae hit .294 with a .358 OBP - just the kind of performance the Cubs were hoping for.

The Cubs continued to see-saw between respectability and awfulness until mid-September. After losing to the Pirates on September 21 to drop to 65-69, they seemed headed for another sub-.500 record. However, they beat Pittsburgh in the next two games and on September 24 against the Pirates, catcher Scott Servais tied it with a two-out RBI single in the ninth and McRae won it in the tenth by smashing a Dan Miceli pitch into the rightfield bleachers. The next day, Frank Castillo started against the Cardinals at Wrigley. Castillo was a 26 year-old righthander who had had a promising campaign for the Cubs in 1992, finishing with a 3.46 ERA in 205 innings, but hadn't done much in the intervening years. He stood at 10-10 going into his start against the Cardinals. He was brilliant, shutting down the Redbirds with no hits through eight, while the Cubs built a 7-0 lead. Castillo got the first two batters in the ninth and was one pitch away from immortality when St. Louis' Bernard Gilkey tripled to center on a 2-2 offering. Castillo retired the next batter to finish a complete-game shutout. After Chuck Rainey and Jose Guzman, he became the third Cubs pitcher to lose a no-hitter with one out to go since the team's last no-hitter in 1972 (in which Milt Pappas lost a perfect game with one out to go by issuing a walk).

The win got the Cubs back to .500 at 69-69. They followed it up with two more wins to go to 71-69, just two wins away from clinching a winning season. On September 28, they won a slugfest 12-11 against the Astros on ninth-inning RBI singles by Scott Bullett and backup catcher Mark Parent. The next day, they went into the ninth trailing 3-0, but four singles and two walks yielded three runs to send the game to extras, where Luis Gonzalez's tenth-inning, bases-loaded single won it, clinching only the Cubs' fourth winning seasons since 1972. The finished at 73-71, in third place, 12 games behind the Reds.

The winning season was highlighted by some fine individual performances. Navarro finished at 14-6 with a 3.28 ERA in 200 innings, a heartening return to the form of his early promising seasons in Milwaukee. Grace had what would arguably remain the best season of his career, hitting .326 with 51 doubles in a short season. Dunston also had a fine year, hitting .296, a career high at the time. McRae ended up at .288, with a .348 OBP and scored 92 runs.

But the real story in Chicago was Sammy Sosa. Sosa cemented his superstar status with a 36 homer, 119 RBI season. Both figures were second in the league to Colorado's Dante Bichette, but Bichette hit 31 of his 40 homers and drove in 84 of his 123 RBIs in the rarified air of Denver, while Sosa's spilts were much more even: 19 homers and 62 RBIs at Wrigley; 17 and 57 in road games. Sosa finished 8th in the NL MVP voting and won his first Silver Slugger award. He was now one of the elite power hitters in the game.

There wasn't a lot behind the team's marquee players, though. Their catching was a mess, with nobody playing more than 52 games at the position. Third base was also a problem. On June 16, the Cubs unloaded Mike Morgan, a huge disappointment after his great 1992 season, and two minor leaguers to the Cardinals, in exchange for Todd Zeile, who had had seasons of 17 home runs and 103 RBIs in 1993 and 19 and 75 in 1994. However, Zeile didn't want to come to Chicago and played poorly, hitting just .227 with 9 home runs in the Windy City. The incumbent third baseman, Steve Buchele, was released on July 6, after posting a .189 batting average through that date.

Besides Navarro and Castillo, the Cubs didn't have much on the pitching side. Jim Bullinger and Kevin Foster both won more than they lost, but with ERAs over 4.00. Tracshel, the Cubs' best starter in 1994, had a terrible season at 7-13 with a 5.15 ERA in 160 innings. Randy Myers did save 38 games, but with a 3.88 ERA that was not particularly good for a closer. A couple of middle relievers (Mike Perez, Larry Casian) had decent seasons, but with light workloads, as Riggleman relied heavily on his starters. Five pitchers threw 150 or more innings, thus qualifying for the ERA title, a true rarity. The division champion Reds, for example, had only two pitchers who qualified for the ERA championship. The Cubs finished eighth of twelve teams in ERA.

Still, coming off a .433 seasons, a .507 season had to be seen as a success. Hopefully, the Cubs were on the rise.

1995 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Mark Grace, 97; H - Grace, 180; HR - Sammy Sosa, 36; RBI - Sosa, 119; BA - Grace, .326; OBP - Grace, .395; SP - Grace, .516

1994 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Mike Perez, 68; IP - Jaime Navarro, 200; W - Navarro, 14; SO - Kevin Foster, 146; ERA - Frank Castillo, 3.21; SV - Randy Myers, 38

1994 - Mercifully Short

Big changes were in store for 1994. After 25 seasons of playing with each league organized into East and West divisions, the leagues were re-organized. Now both leagues would have an East, Central, and West division. Whereas the divisions had originally featured six teams each (increased to seven in the AL in 1977 and in the NL in 1993), the East and Central divisions would each feature five teams, while the West would have four. In addition, there would now be an extra round of postseason play. The best of the division winners would now meet the top second-place, or "wild card" team in one best-of-five Division Series, while the other two division winners met in another. The winners of the Division Series would meet each other in the League Championship Series. The Cubs were placed in the NL Central with the Reds, Astros, Pirates, and Cardinals.

The Cubs came into 1994 with a new manager, but few substantial changes on the field. Tom Trebelhorn had had some success as the Milwaukee Brewers' skipper from 1986 through 1991, finishing over .500 in five out of his six full seasons there. Despite Jim Lefebvre's accomplishment in leading the Cubs to only their third winning season since 1972, he was ousted and Trebelhorn installed in his place before the 1994 season. Cubs' brass felt that they needed a tougher manager.

For the second year in a row, the Cubs lost their team leader in pitching wins, named Greg, to free agency. The difference was that failing to pay the cost to retain Greg Hibbard turned out to be a good decision. Hibbard went to the Seattle Mariners, threw 81 innings in 1994, was knocked around to the tune of a 6.69 ERA, and never pitched again.

Chicago would have to fill the gap with young pitchers. The club picked up Willie Banks in a minor deal with the Twins. The second-best player named "Banks" ever to play for the Cubs (no relation), Willie Banks was a right-handed starter who had thrown 171 innings with a decent (for the Metrodome) 4.04 ERA in 1993. Steve Trachsel, a 1991 draft pick out of Cal State-Long Beach, was also in the mix, as was Kevin Foster, an Evanston, IL native who had come over from the Phillies in a very minor trade. And then there was right-handed swingman Anthony Young, acquired in a trade with the Mets. Young was famous for all the wrong reasons, suffering a brutal 27-game losing streak in 1992 and 1993 that broke an 82 year-old MLB record (and is still the record as of 2020). Young, surely one of the most unlucky pitchers in all of baseball history, left New York after three seasons with a 5-35 record despite an ERA that was just a smidgen worse than league-average. His streak had ended on July 28, 1993, so at least he was not carrying that particular baggage to Chicago.

There were few changes in the lineup. Shawon Dunston, who had played 900 games for the Cubs at shortstop between 1985 and 1991, was back after missing almost all of 1992 and 1993 with a herniated disc in his back (in the 25 games he did play during those seasons, he hit .325). There were no major acquisitions for the staring lineup; the Cubs could only hope that Ryne Sandberg would find his power again after an injury-shortened 1993 and that the breakout seasons of Sammy Sosa and Rick Wilkins were not flukes.

1994 Opening Day Lineup
Rhodes, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Grace, 1b
May, lf
Sosa, rf
Wilkins, c
Buchele, 3b
Dunston, ss
Morgan, p

Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes was a 25 year-old former outfield prospect for the Houston Astros. Showing little in 92 games there, spread out between 1990 and 1993, he was granted free agency, signed by the Kansas City Royals to a minor-league contract and picked up by the Cubs in a trade deadline deal in 1993. In 15 games with the 1993 Cubs, he hit .288 and was the Cubs' opening-day centerfielder in 1994, mainly because the northsiders had few options. Batting leadoff against the Mets' Dwight Gooden, who had always been rough on the Cubs, Rhodes worked the count full and then hit Gooden's sixth pitch for a roundtripper to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. In the third, with the Cubs trailing 2-1, Rhodes came up with two out and no one on and deposited a Gooden pitch into the leftfield bleachers to tie the game. Rhodes led off the bottom of the fifth with the Cubs trailing 9-5 and smashed a Gooden offering out of the yard to bring the club within three runs.

It was a stunning performance by a completely unheralded player, coming at the expense a pitcher who had enjoyed a decade of stardom. Rhodes became only the second player to go deep three times on opening day, joining the Blue Jays' George Bell, a far more notable power hitter. Unfortunately, the fact that the Cubs lost the game 12-8 was more indicative of the type of season it would be than were Rhodes' heroics.

The Friendly Confines would turn out to be not so friendly in 1994. The Cubs were swept at Wrigley by the Mets in their first series of the year before a 3-2 road trip left them with a not-all-that-bad 3-5 record on the morning of April 15. They were shellacked at Wrigley by the Braves 15-9 on that date and proceeded to lose their next four games to complete an 0-5 homestand. They were 6-14 entering their next home game on April 29. They lost four more games in Chicago before finally breaking the string on May 4, with a 5-2 victory over the Reds, leaving them with a 1-12 record at home. At 7-18 and 10 1/2 games out of the division lead, their season was all but over after just a month.

The pitching staff was in shambles. Both of the Cubs' veteran starters were completely ineffective. Mike Morgan started the opener against the Mets and was hit hard. By the end of the month, he was 0-3 with a 5.85 ERA. Jose Guzman was 0-2 with a 16.43 (!) ERA when he was shut down after his April 10 start with a flareup of his shoulder problems. He was reactivated in May, won two starts (allowing three runs in six innings in each), then was shut down a second time. Though he attempted to rehab, he never pitched in the majors again.

The Cubs were a dismal 11-24 by mid-May, but, amazingly, put together an eight-game wining streak which seemed to offer hope. Young started the streak with a 4-2 victory over San Diego in Chicago and Guzman contributed his last two major-league victories. Highlights included two 11-inning victories over the Giants on May 20 and 22; the first won by Rick Wilkins with a two-out RBI double, the second by Derrick May's homer leading off the bottom of the 11th. At the end of the streak, the Cubs were incredibly only five games below .500 at 19-24 and only 6.5 games out of the division lead, after having trailed by 12 games just two weeks previously. The Cubs lost two, then won their next four, the last one coming on a one-hit shutout of the Phillies, with Banks pitching the first eight innings and Myers finishing up. They were now only four games under .500 and only five out in the division. It could have been the start of something special.

But it was not to be. A ten-game losing streak from May 31 to June 10 effectively ended their season. Their pitching seemed to be slightly better, but the hitters went into a collective slump, averaging less than three runs per game during the streak. The worst moment of the season, though, came on May 13, two days after the end of the streak. Ryne Sandberg, the Cubs' best player for a decade and one of the greatest in the storied history of the franchise, announced his retirement.

Sandberg had gotten off to a good start in 1994, a rarity for him, but a horrendous slump dropped his average to .238 by June 10, with only 5 home runs. Sandberg's stated reason for retiring was that he wanted to spend more time with his children, but his wife filed for divorce soon thereafter, so it's likely there were other family issues as well. He was having a disappointing seasons for a team that was going nowhere and, although he said nothing at the time, was reportedly not happy about the direction in which the front office was taking the team. The announcement came as a shock not only to Cubs fans, but to the entire MLB community. The Cubs' franchise player was gone, with no one around to replace him in that role.

Sandberg's retirement, shocking though it was, was hardly the biggest story in baseball in 1994. On August 12, with no collective bargaining agreement in place and the owners trying to push through a salary cap, the players felt they had no alternative but to strike. Unlike in 1981, the season would never resume, making 1994 the first year since 1904 that no World Series was played. The Cubs' 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Giants on August 11, their eighth loss in their last nine games, turned out to be their last game of a mercifully short season. They finished 49-64, a winning percentage of .434, their worst since the previous strike-shortened season in 1981. The same percentage would have translated to a 70-92 record over a full 162-game schedule. Their record at Wrigley was an unbelievably dismal 20-39, which more than offset a winning record in road games. Despite playing only 113 games, they still managed to finish 17 games out of first place.

In some bad seasons, Cubs fans at least had individual performances to hang on to as points of pride, but there was little of that sort of consolation in 1994. Wilkins' 1993 performance did turn out to be a fluke. He hit just .227 in '94 with seven home runs. He played until 2001 for seven other teams and had one season of 14 homers, but no others in double figures. After 1993, his highest average in anything resembling a full seasons was .243. His 1994 performance remains a fascinating aberration; a Hall of Fame quality season in the midst of an otherwise utterly ordinary career.

The other breakthrough player from 1993, Sammy Sosa, was not to suffer the same fate. Sosa hit 25 home runs in the short seasons and drove in 70. He also increased his battering average by 39 points, hitting an even .300. There was little doubt he had replaced Sandberg as the team's best player. The other competitor for the title, Mark Grace, hit .298, only his third finish below .300 in his seven-season career. He would not post another sub-.300 average for the rest of the decade. Dunston hit surprisingly well in his return as the regular shortstop, finishing at .278 with 11 home runs in 88 games played. Glenallen Hill did well, at .292 and 10 roundtrippers. Rhodes ended up at .234 with eight homers. The Cubs finished eleventh out of fourteen teams in runs scored.

The Cub's leader in pitching wins was Trachsel at 9-7, with a 3.21 ERA. He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting. Young (3.92 in 115 innings) and Foster (2.89 in 81 innings) both pitched OK, but Banks did not quite come up to that level, with a 5.40 ERA in 138 frames, leading to an 8-12 record. Morgan never improved on his awful start in the opener, finishing 2-10 with 6.69 ERA. Myers saved 21 games with an OK 3.79 ERA. The club finished tenth in ERA with a 4.47 team mark.

1994 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Sammy Sosa, 59; H - Sosa, 128; HR - Sosa, 25; RBI - Sosa, 70; BA - Sosa, .300; OBP - Grace, .370; SP - Sosa, .545

1994 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Jose Bautista, 58; IP - Steve Trachsel, 146; W - Trachsel, 9; SO - Trachsel, 108; ERA - Trachsel, 3.21; SV - Myers, 21

1993 - The One That Got Away

The only drawback to Greg Maddux's incredible year in 1992 was that it was the final year of his contract with the Cubs and would increase the amount it would take to re-sign him. Cubs fans were nervous as Maddux hit free agency in the offseason. Unfortunately, their worst fears were realized when Maddux agreed to a huge contract with the Atlanta Braves that was actually just slightly more than what the Cubs were offering (and significantly less than what the New York Yankees offered). Cubs general manager Larry Himes seemed to lose interest after Maddux did not accept the Cubs' first offer. Instead of negotiating with Maddux, Himes went out and signed free-agent pitchers Jose Guzman and Randy Myers while Maddux was still available, supposedly leaving no money to re-sign Maddux.[1]

It was a disaster, much worse than the infamous Brock-for-Broglio trade with the Cardinals in 1964. Maddux built on his superior 1992 season, establishing a run of dominance that would make him a no-doubt Hall of Famer. He pitched for Atlanta for 11 seasons, never winning fewer than 16 games, pitching fewer than 200 innings only once (a year in which he threw 199.1) and winning four ERA titles, with figures as low as 1.56. Probably his best year was 1995 when he was 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA and led the Braves to their first World Series championship in Atlanta. He also pitched for two other pennant winners, in 1996 and 1999. The 1992 NL Cy Young Award turned out to be the first in an unprecedented string of four consecutive Cy Young Awards. In all Maddux had a record of 194-88 with an ERA of 2.63 in over 2500 innings pitched during his time in Atlanta.

Losing Maddux hurt at the time, although the magnitude of the damage would only be seen in hindsight. Cubs fans could only hope that the new pitchers would fill some of the gap. Jose Guzman was a 29 year old righthanded starter who after a couple of fair seasons with the Rangers in the late eighties, missed all of 1989 and 1990 with shoulder problems. He returned from surgery in 1991 to finish at 13-7 with a 3.08 ERA, winning Comback Player of the Year honors. The next year he was at 3.66 in 224 innings, yielding a record of 16-11 and prompting Himes to sign him to a four-year contract.

Myers was a lefthanded closer and charter member of the "Nasty Boys," along with Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton, a trio of hard-throwing relievers who had helped the Reds to a World Series Championship in 1990. Myers was coming off a one-year tenure in San Diego, during which he saved 38 games (though with a high ERA) and seemed a good bet to plug the gaping hole at the back of the Cubs' bullpen. The team hadn't had a pitcher save more than 17 games since Mitch Williams in 1989.

Besides Maddux, another long-time Cub left as a free agent after the 1992 season. Andre Dawson had come to the Cubs partly because the pain in his knees led him to desire to play his home games on a field with natural grass. Now, with six more seasons behind him, he needed more rest and an American League team, where he could DH some of the time, seemed the best fit. He signed a free-agent contract with the Boston Red Sox. Dawson would play two years in Boston and two more back in his hometown of Miami before retiring. When Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010, he wanted to be portrayed on his plaque wearing a Cubs cap, but ended up being pictured as an Expo, for whom, in truth, he had had his best years. Still, his Cubs tenure was memorable and he remains one of the best rightfielders in team history. The way in which he came to the team, as well as his memorable 1987 season, will always be a part of Cubs lore.

Besides Myers and Guzman, other significant offseason acquisitions for the Cubs included Candy Maldonado, Willie Wilson, and Greg Hibbard. Maldonado was a 32 year-old corner outfielder, who had seasons of 22, 20, 20, and 18 home runs on his resume. The Cubs hoped that he could provide some much needed power. Wilson was a leftfielder who had been a sensation after coming up with the Royals in the late 1970s, stealing 83 bases in 1979 and 79 in 1980, helping lead Kansas City to its first AL pennant. After hitting .217 in his rookie year, Wilson was over .300 each of the next four years, culminating in a .332 average and an AL batting title in 1982. He faded after that, however, and, by the time he came to Chicago, was just another player.

After a good year in 1990 and so-so years in 1991 and 1992, the White Sox's Greg Hibbard was selected in the expansion draft by the brand-new Florida Marlins, who immediately flipped him to the Cubs for disappointing third baseman Gary Scott and a young infielder named Alex Arias. Hibbard was a lefthanded starter who would compete for a rotation spot in 1993.

1993 Opening Day Lineup
Wilson, cf
Sanchez, ss
Grace, 1b
Maldonado, lf
Sosa, rf
Buechele, 3b
Wilkins, c
Vizcaino, 2b
Morgan, p

Greg Maddux started the opener in Chicago. Unfortunately, he was, of course, pitching for the Braves. Equally unfortunately, the Cubs were missing their best remaining player. Ryne Sandberg had broken his hand in spring training and would not play until the last day of April. With only Mark Grace in the lineup from the Sandberg-Maddux-Dawson-Grace quartet that had been the heart of the team since 1988, the result was a 1-0 loss, with Maddux giving up just 5 hits in 8 1/3 innings.

The Cubs managed to reverse the score the next day with Jose Guzman making his first start as a northsider and going the distance in dramatic fashion. No Cubs pitcher had thrown a no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972, but Guzman went into the ninth inning with a chance to end that streak. He retired Mark Lemke on a groundout to first and Francisco Cabrera on a pop to third to come within one out. However, Otis Nixon poked a single into leftfield to break up Guzman's bid for immortality. After balking the speedy Nixon to second to jeopardize the Cubs' 1-0 lead, Guzman got Jeff Blauser (a major Cubs' nemesis) to pop to shortstop to complete the shutout. It was the most impressive mound debut by a new acquisition since 1960, when Don Cardwell threw a no-hitter in his first Cubs' start after coming over via a midseason trade with the Phillies.

Despite the loss of Sandberg, the Cubs managed to hang tough, going 10-11 without their star second baseman and winning his first game back to finish April at .500. It was another year of mediocrity; no long losing streaks dashed their hopes for a winning season, but no long winning streaks gave any promise of contention. The team went 13-12 in May, 14-16 in June, and 15-12 in July. A 12-18 August seemed to dash any hopes of finishing over .500. They were 18 games behind the Phillies, in fourth place in the NL East. Of the new acquisitions, Myers was all they could have hoped for, with 37 saves, nearly equaling his output for the entire 1992 season. Hibbard was just OK at 10-11 with a 3.81 ERA and Guzman, after his great start, was 11-9, with a 4.15 ERA. Maldonado was already gone by the end of the month, traded to Cleveland for reserve outfielder Glenallen Hill after a tremendously disappointing .186/.260/.286 tenure in Chicago, with three home runs.

Amazingly, the Cubs reversed recent trends with a strong finishing kick, winning 20 of their final 30 games to finish with an 84-78 record. Hibbard was 5-0 during the stretch to finish at 15-11, leading the team in wins. Myers saved an outrageous 16 games, finishing with a league-leading total of 53, which remains the club record. Hill, installed as the new leftfielder, hit .345 with 10 round-trippers in only 87 at-bats after coming over on August 19 in the trade for Maldonado.

Sandberg hit .309 for the season after his late start, but the hand injury seemed to rob him of his power as he hit only nine home runs, his lowest total in a decade. He didn't play after September 13 because of a dislocated finger and finished with only 117 games played. For the first time since 1988, he failed to score at least 100 runs in a season. Mark Grace helped pick up some of the slack by raising his average to .325 and driving in 98 runs, which would remain his career high. The aging Wilson contributed little with a .258/.301/.348 slash line and 7 steals. The 17 games he played for the Cubs the following season would be his last in the majors.

Guzman and Mike Morgan, who were expected to be rotation anchors in 1993 both disappointed. Guzman pitched 191 innings, but his ERA was poor, at 4.34, which led to a pedestrian 12-10 record. Morgan came back down to Earth after a great 1992, finishing at 4.03 in 208 innings and a 10-15 record. There were no other viable starters and the bullpen, outside of Myers and swingman Jose Bautista (2.82 ERA in 111 innings), was weak. The staff sorely missed Maddux and finished 10th in the league in ERA.

The two biggest stories, though were the Cubs' rightfielder and catcher. Sammy Sosa was healthy all year, and proved to be the player the Cubs hoped he would be. He finished with 33 home runs and 36 stolen bases, becoming the team's first 30-30 player and scoring 92 runs. At age 24, Sosa seemed set to hold down the rightfield position for years to come.

While Sosa's performance was somewhat anticipated based on the potential the Cubs' brain trust thought they saw in him, catcher Rick Wilkins' performance came as a shock, albeit a pleasant one. Drafted out of Florida College in Jacksonville in 1986, Wilkins reached the majors in 1991 and was thrown into the Cubs' catching mix along with Hector Villanueva and future Yankees manager Joe Girardi. He showed no signs of become a star, hitting .222 with six home runs in 1991 and .270 with eight homers in 1992. He won the regular job in 1993, but was nothing special over the first two months; his average stood at .237 with 8 roundtrippers at the end of May. He exploded in June, hitting an eye-popping .414 to raise his overall average to .312 and matching his homer output of the first two months with 8. He continued to hit for power, finishing with 30 circuit blasts, though his batting average dropped to .289 in mid-September. But another torrid stretch to end the season, 17 hits and a .447(!) average over his last 12 games, left his final average at .303. He became, and remains, the only Cubs catcher to go deep 30 times in a season other than Hall-of-Famer Gabby Hartnett, who turned the trick in 1930.

The 1993 season marked the first time since 1972 that the Cubs finished over .500 without winning a division title. Cub fans could only hope that it was the start of another upswing.

1993 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Sammy Sosa, 92; H - Mark Grace, 193; HR - Sosa, 33; RBI - Grace, 98; BA - Grace, .325; OBP - Grace, .393; SP - Rick Wilkins, .561*

1993 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Randy Myers, 73; IP - Mike Morgan, 208; W - Greg Hibbard, 15; SO - Jose Guzman, 163; ERA - Hibbard, 3.96; SV - Myers, 53

*Wilkins just missed qualifying for the batting title, finishing 2 plate appearances short; Sosa's .485 was the best figure for a Cub who did qualify.


[1] Stew Thornley, "Greg Maddux," Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/d13d4022, accessed 16 May 2020

1992 - The Frustration Continues

After another disappointing season in 1991, the Cubs didn't make wholesale changes, but did make some important moves. Jim Essian was not retained in the managerial position, which instead went to Jim Lefebvre. Lefebvre, a Dodgers infielder of the late 1960s and early 1970s, became Seattle's manager in 1989. In his third year there, he led the team to the first winning season in its history at 83-79, but was fired anyway.

Despite the free-agent failures of 1991, the Cubs signed another big-ticket free agent during the offseason. Mike Morgan was a journeyman right-handed starter who had debuted in the majors at age 18 in 1978. Landing with the Dodgers, his sixth team, he showed promise in 1989 as a swingman, posting a 2.53 ERA in 153 innings, more than two full runs lower than his career ERA coming into the season. In 1991, he blossomed into a star, with a 2.78 ERA in 236 innings and a 14-10 record. The Cubs took a chance that it was not a fluke and signed him.

The Cubs' best signing in the offseason was of a player they already had. Ryne Sandberg was in the last year of his three-year contract in 1992 and he announced he would not engage in negotiations after the start of spring training. Seeing Ryno in any major league uniform but the Cubs' was unthinkable, so the team negotiated a four-year extension that made their second baseman the highest-paid player in baseball history, at over $7 million per year.

The transaction with the most far-reaching implications, though no one knew it at the time, was conducted at the end of spring training. Cubs fans were wondering if George Bell could recapture his 1987 form in his second year at Wrigley, but they never got a chance to find out. On March 30, Bell was sent across town to the White Sox for middle reliever Ken Patterson and a young centerfielder named Sammy Sosa.

Sosa was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Texas Rangers at the age of 16. He made his debut with the Rangers in June 1989, but was included in a blockbuster deal with the White Sox in July (Harold Baines was the Rangers' main acquisition). He showed promise in 1990, with 15 home runs and 32 steals in 153 games, bit hit just .233 with a horrendous .282 on-base percentage. He spent significant time in the minors in 1991, getting into 116 major league games with a .203 average. Still he was only 23 years old in spring 1992 and the Cubs were willing to take a chance that he would develop.

Sosa was part of a mini-youth movement conducted by the team. 37 year-old Andre Dawson and 32 year-old Ryne Sandberg weren't going anywhere, but several youngsters would see significant playing time in '92, including middle infielders Rey Sanchez and Jose Vizcaino, both 24 and outfielder Derrick May, the 23 year-old son of former Brewers outfielder Dave May.

1992 Opening Day Lineup
Dunston, ss
Sosa, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Dawson, rf
Grace, 1b
Villanueva, c
Salazar, lf
Scott, 3b
Maddux, p

The Cubs won the opener in Philadelphia behind Maddux, but the rest of April was a disaster, as the Cubs won just 7 of their 20 games during the month. Although they would rally to flirt with a winning record, they never contended. They lost to Philadelphia on April 21 to drop 5.5 games back of the division lead and never got closer than 5 games for the rest of the season.

Sosa started out slowly. Fans who remember only the muscle-bound "Slammin' Sammy" of the late '90's and early 2000's may find it hard to imagine, but Sosa, at this point, was a sleek, fast centerfielder, who usually batted leadoff or second and was known as "The Panther." However, at the end of May, he was hitting just .243 with 2 homers, although he did have 11 steals. On June 10, he seemed to break out with 2 home runs in a victory against the Cardinals. In his next game, on June 12, he was hit in the wrist by Montreal's Dennis Martinez and forced to go on the disabled list with a broken bone.

The Cubs were playing better after their rough start and evened their record at 38-38 on June 30. On July 11, they traded Danny Jackson, their big disappointment of 1991, to the Pittsburgh Pirates straight up for third baseman Steve Buchele, a glove man with decent power. The trade came near the end of a 2-10 stretch that dropped the club 8 games below .500 and 9.5 back in the division. Sosa returned on July 27 and responded with two 3-hit games in a row and an 11th inning game-winning home run in his third game to key a sweep of the Pirates. He had another 3-hit game on August 1 and by August 5, had his average up to .260. On August 6, though, he fouled a pitch off his ankle, breaking it. He was done for the season. Cubs fans would have to wait until 1993 to see if Sosa could fulfill his potential.

The Cubs got hot without Sosa in the lineup. When he went down for the second time, their record was just 51-55, but the northsiders went 16-8 for the rest of the month to enter September with a 67-63 record. Both Morgan and Maddux went 3-0 during that stretch. Morgan was proving to be as good as the Cubs had hoped. By the end of the month, he was 13-6 with a 2.38 ERA. Maddux, though, was even better. After throwing a complete game shutout against the Dodgers on August 31, he was 16-10 with a 2.13 ERA.  He had as many strikeouts as hits allowed, 157 of each, and had given up only 61 walks in 224 innings.

Unfortunately, September was not a good month. The Cubs fell to 74-75 on September 20, but evened their record the next day, dealing a 10-1 shellacking to the Mets behind Maddux. They then proceeded to lose their next eight games, assuring themselves of their 17th losing season in a 20-year span. After taking two of three from the Expos at Wrigley in the concluding series of the year, they finished at 78-84. The team seemed to be drifting along just south of mediocrity. They had now won between 76 and 78 games in five out of their last six seasons, a streak broken only by their divisional championship year of 1989.

The only highlights of the last month of the season were provided by Maddux, who was 4-1 during the month, with his 20th win of the season coming via complete-game shutout against the Pirates on September 30. He became the first Cubs pitcher to win 20 since Rick Reuschel in 1977. For the 26-year old hurler it was an incredible year, which marked his arrival as not only a top-of-the-line starter, but a pitcher with Hall of Fame ability. Maddux's 20 wins led the league, as did his 268 innings pitched. He was third in strikeouts with 199. His microscopic 2.18 ERA was, somewhat amazingly, only third in the league, but he was first (retroactively) in adjusted ERA, a measure that takes into account the effect of each pitcher's home park. According to another retroactive stat, Baseball-Reference.com's Wins Above Replacement (rWAR), Maddux was not only the best pitcher, but the best player in all of MLB in 1992. It all added up to his first NL Cy Young Award.

The Cubs had two starters having great seasons in 1992. Morgan justified the Cubs' faith in him by finishing with a 2.55 ERA in 240 innings, resulting in a 16-8 record. The rest of the starters and the bullpen were just OK (Bob Scanlan led the team with only 14 saves), but the Maddux and Morgan combination helped the Cubs finish 5th in the league in ERA.

Whereas in 1991, a strong offense had been let down by a weak pitching staff, in 1992, a decent pitching staff was undermined by a weak offense, as the Cubs finished just 10th in the league in runs scored. The Cubs' trio of offensive stars did alright. Sandberg bolstered his Hall of Fame credentials with another fine year, hitting .304 with 100 runs scored and homering 26 times. Mark Grace hit .307 and 37-year old Andre Dawson led the team with 90 RBIs while homering 22 times and batting .277. As far as decent offensive performances, though, that was it. No one besides that trio drove in or scored even 50 runs and no one besides Sandberg and Dawson hit as many as 10 homers. With Maddux in the walk year of his contract in 1992 and Dawson and Sandberg on the wrong side of 30, the future seemed very uncertain.

1992 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Ryne Sandberg, 100; H - Sandberg, 186; HR - Sandberg, 26; RBI - Dawson, 90; BA - Mark Grace, .307; OBP - Grace, .380; SP - Sandberg, .510

1992 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Chuck McElroy, 72; IP - Greg Maddux, 268; W - Maddux, 20; SO - Maddux, 199; ERA - Maddux, 2.18; SV - Bob Scanlan, 14

1991 - Busted

The Cubs ended the 1990 season with a good core, including Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Mark Grace, and Greg Maddux, but little behind them. The team had been unable to sustain success after division titles in 1984 and 1989. The front office decided to try something different.

Free agency in baseball had effectively started after the 1976 seasons. Some teams, such as the California Angels, were quick to go this route in an attempt to build winners, but the Cubs had never jumped on the bandwagon. Their only significant free agent additions had been Dave Kingman, before the 1978 season, and Andre Dawson, before the 1987 season, and Dawson was only signed because he was willing to take the unprecedented step of signing a blank contract. So it was big news when the club went out and signed three star players in the 1990-91 offseason.

Danny Jackson was a left handed starting pitcher who had been a key member of the Royals' rotation during their championship year of 1985. Traded to the Cincinnati Reds after an off year in 1987, he exploded in 1988, finishing at 23-8 with a 2.73 ERA in 260 innings. Only an incredible year by Orel Hershiser kept Jackson from a Cy Young Award. Jackson missed time due to injury in '89 and '90, but the Cubs believed he was healthy and signed him to a huge contract in November 1990.

Dave Smith was a veteran closer who had spent his entire 11-year career through 1990 with the Houston Astros. Since becoming their full-time closer in 1985, he had never posted an ERA above 2.73 and was significantly below that most years. The Cubs signed him on December 17, 1990. The move signaled that they were giving up on Mitch Williams after his disappointing 1990 season and he was duly traded to the Phillies on April 7 for middle relievers Chuck McElroy and Bob Scanlan.

The biggest signing though, was leftfielder George Bell. Bell has been the 1987 AL MVP hitting 47 home runs with a league-leading 134 RBIs. Many baseball fans considered Bell to be the key member of what was regarded at the time as one of the greatest outfields in history, along with Blue Jays teammates Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield. Bell wasn't quite as impressive in 1990, hitting 21 homers with 86 driven in, but it was easy for Cubs fans to imagine him going 30-100 in cozy Wrigley Field. Another new face was third baseman Gary Scott, who made the club in spring training after hitting a combined .298 in stops at the A and AA levels in 1990. The Cubs were hoping he could displace 35 year old Luis Salazar at third, who had played well as a late-season acquisition in 1989, but hadn't done much since.

Most media outlets thought that the Cubs had done well in their offseason shopping spree and several prognosticators picked them to win the NL East in 1991.

1991 Opening Day Lineup
Walton, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Grace, 1b
Bell, lf
Dawson, rf
Berryhill, c
Dunston, ss
Scott, 3b
Jackson, p

The Cubs opened against the archrival Cardinals in Chicago. Jackson struggled with his control, but kept the Redbirds off the board until walking in a run in the 5th. Shawon Duston, though, led off the bottom of the 5th by lining a Bryn Smith pitch into the leftfield bleachers to tie it. It was still 1-1 going into the eighth, but Jackson, after getting Pedro Guerrero, loaded the bases on a double, his sixth walk of the game, and a single. He was removed at that point, but all three runners eventually scored, making a loser of Jackson in his first Cubs start.

The Cubs won 2-0 the next day behind Maddux, then lost their next two to fall to 1-3. Starting on April 13, they ripped off a six-game win streak to take over first place. It seemed they were fulfilling their promise. Jackson still had not won a game, and Bell was off to a slow start, but Smith had 4 saves with a 2.25 ERA.

But it wasn't to last. The club suffered through a painful five-game losing streak, beginning with three losses to the Pirates. On April 19, the Cubs trailed 3-0 going into the top of the ninth in Pittsburgh, but Dawson hit a dramatic 2-out grand slam to put Chicago ahead. Smith came in to save a thrilling victory, but instead gave up two singles, a run-scoring wild pitch, and after a sacrifice, a groundout and two intentional walks, a two-out single to Jeff King that sent the Cubs to defeat. Incredibly, just two days later, still in Pittsburgh, a very similar scenario played out. The Cubs took a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th, but gave up 4 in that inning. Smith tried for the save in the ninth again, but with two outs and a runner on second, gave up a double to ex-Cub Gary Varsho to tie the game. In the 11th, the Cubs loaded the bases with two out and got an RBI single by backup outfielder Doug Dascenzo. Dawson followed with his second grand slam in a three-day span, giving the Cubs a seemingly insurmountable five-run lead. Unbelievably, the Chicago bullpen gave up six in the bottom of the inning, with the winning run scoring on Don Slaught's one-out double. At the time, it was the largest lead any team had ever blown in extra innings.

These two crushing defeats seemed to be the turning point of the season. Smith never recovered his effectiveness and finished with a 6.00 ERA. A variety of injuries limited Jackson to 17 appearances and a 1-5 record with a 6.75 ERA. Mike Harkey, who had shown so much potential as a rookie in 1990, needed arthroscopic shoulder surgery in May and missed the rest of the season. Suffering a variety of other injuries, including one in 1992 after attempting to turn a cartwheel in the outfield, he would never fulfill his promise.

The Cubs beat the Phillies on May 19 to run their record to 18-19. The next day, Don Zimmer was fired as their manager. Although no one knew at the time, this marked the end of Zimmer's career as a major league manager. He managed four teams for all or part of 13 seasons and compiled a record of 885-858, including 265-258 as the Cubs' manager. The 1989 Cubs were his only postseason team. Zimmer continued in the game as a coach, primarily for the Yankees, where he served from 1996-2003, a stretch in which New York won six pennants and four World Series. He was working as a senior adviser to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the time of his death in 2014.

Joe Altobelli took over as interim manager for one game, a loss, then the job was given to Jim Essian, who had caught for five teams between 1973 and 1984, but had never managed. The Cubs got off to a good start under Essian, winning their first five games, but he ended up at 59-63. It was to be his only big league managerial experience.

Maddux continued to pitch well, but without Jackson, Harkey, or Smith contributing, it was a lost cause; the team would finish 11th out of 12 in team ERA with a 4.03 figure. After their five-game losing streak, the Cubs would never be more than three games above .500 at any point in the season. They were 65-64 at the end of August, but a brutal 8-18 September ended their chance at a winning season. They had to win their last four games just to finish at 77-83, in third place, 20 games behind the Pirates.

Pitching weaknesses again doomed the efforts of a good offense. The Cubs finished 3rd in the league in runs scored. Grace had an off year, finishing at .273, but Sandberg continued to excel, driving in exactly 100 runs for the second year in a row and scoring 104. Dawson finished with 31 home runs and 104 driven in. Bell was okay, hitting .285 with 25 round-trippers and 86 RBIs, but was far from the elite power hitter Cubs fans were hoping for.

The Cubs had been hoping for a return to form by Jerome Walton, the 1989 Rookie of the Year, but he hit only .219 in 298 plate appearances. The Cubs' other great '89 rookie, Dwight Smith, was down to .228 in 190 PA's. Scott, the opening day third baseman hit a dismal .165 and quickly lost his job to Salazar. One notable sub was Ced Landrum, an outfielder who may have been the fastest Cub in the period covered by this blog. He led the team with 27 stolen bases (in 32 attempts) despite appearing in only 56 games.

The free agent splurge turned out to be a bust. Only Bell contributed anything to the club and he was gone after one season. If one goes by Baseball-Reference.org's Wins Above Replacement (rWAR) stat, the most valuable acquisition of the 1990-91 offseason was actually Chuck McElroy, one of the relievers acquired in the Mitch Williams deal, who put up a 1.95 ERA in 101 innings.

1991 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Ryne Sandberg, 104; H - Sandberg, 170; HR - Dawson, 31; RBI - Dawson, 104; BA - Sandberg, .291; OBP - Sandberg, .379; SP - Dawson, .488

1991 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Paul Assenmacher, 75; IP - Greg Maddux, 263; W - Maddux, 15; SO - Maddux, 198; ERA - Maddux, 3.35; SV - Dave Smith, 17