1980 - Down in the Depths

Although Chicago fans didn’t know it, the Cubs were about to enter a new era. P.K. Wrigley, who had owned and run the Cubs since 1932 died in April 1977, followed by his wife just a few months later. Their son, William Wrigley III, took over both the Wrigley Company and the Cubs, but had to deal with a huge estate tax bill. This would eventually force him to sell the team, but also meant that he had little extra cash to spend on baseball operations. After Kingman, there would be no major free-agent acquisitions during the Wrigley tenure and the Cubs would have trouble retaining the players they had.

This also meant that Wrigley was unable or unwilling to invest in a “name” manager for the Cubs to replace Franks. Amalfitano was considered for the job, but in the end the Cubs hired Preston Gomez, whose main qualification was that he did indeed have big-league managerial experience. He was hired as the original manager for the San Diego Padres’ franchise in 1969, lasting until early in 1972. He took over as Houston Astros manager in 1974 and led them to an 81-81 season, but was fired in August 1975. His record when he came to the Cubs was 308-477, with the ’74 Astros being his best team. The Cuban-born Gomez’s main distinction was that he was the first Latino named to lead a MLB team on a permanent basis.[1]

 

Other than hiring Gomez, the Cubs made few moves of any significance in the offseason. They sent Donnie Moore to the Cardinals for Mike Tyson, who had been the Cardinals’ regular second baseman for several years. They bought Len Randle from Seattle. Randle was an infielder who was most famous for beating up his manager, Frank Lucchesi (who would later briefly manage the Cubs), in Texas, but could at least hit (.302 in 1974, .304 in 1977). Mostly, however, the Cubs would enter 1980 with the same players who had been mediocre in 1979.

Opening Day Lineup – 1980 Randle, 2b De Jesus, ss Buckner, 1b Kingman, lf Henderson, rf Ontiveros, 3b Lezcano, cf Blackwell, c Reuschel, p

Still, the Cubs started out OK. A modest 4-game win streak from April 17-22 gave them a record of 6-3. The last game of that streak was another patented Wrigley Field slugfest, this time against the Cardinals. Even De Jesus, the slap-hitting shortstop, got in on the fun, unbelievably hitting for the cycle and adding an extra single for a five-hit game. The Cubs trailed 12-6 going into the bottom of the 5^th, but got 3 runs in that inning, 2 in the 7^th, and 1 in the 8^th to tie it heading to the ninth. After Sutter retired the Cardinals in the top of the inning, a single by Kingman, a stolen base by pinch-runner Randle, an intentional walk to Bill Buckner, and an unintentional walk to Jerry Martin loaded the bases with two down for Barry Foote, the catcher. Foote hit a Mark Littell pitch into the basket in left field for a game-winning grand slam homer.

The Cubs were 11-6 and tied for first place on May 3, and were 22-22 on June 3. However, even this modest level of accomplishment was a mirage. On July 23, with the team at 38-52, Gomez was fired and replaced by Amalfitano. The Cubs had another terrible stretch drive, going 13-21 after September 1, but it couldn’t really be termed a “collapse” because they were already so bad. One of the few consolations for Cub fans was that they did barely avoid their first 100-loss seasons since 1966, finishing at 64-98.

Another consolation was the play of first baseman Bill Buckner. After injury-plagued seasons in 1977 and 1978, Buckner had been healthy all year in 1979, but had contributed an empty .284 average (.319 OBP). In 1980, however, he was healthy again and raised his average by 40 points to .324, which edged defending champion Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals (.321) for the NL batting title. It would be the last batting title by a Cub for over 2 decades. Sutter had another good season (2.64 ERA in 102.1 innings), but with such a bad team, there wasn’t much for him to save and his save total dropped to 28, though it was still enough to lead the league. Like Sutter, Reuschel continued to pitch well (3.40 ERA in 257 innings), but had little to show for it (an 11-13 record).

But the big news among Chicago Cubs players in 1980 was Dave Kingman, and for all the wrong reasons. Kingman had seemed to be experiencing a career revival in 1979, when his consistently scary power, combined with an at least acceptable batting average, made up for some of the more unsavory aspects of his difficult personality. Unfortunately, those aspects re-asserted themselves in 1980. He started by dumping a bucket of icewater over a reporter in spring training. He was healthy for the first month of the season, then began to complain of shoulder trouble. He left the team without permission several times and refused to suit up for games. On August 7, the Cubs gave out t-shirts in his honor, but Kingman declined to even show up at the ballpark, opting to spend the day promoting jet skis on Navy Pier at ChicagoFest. He played in exactly half of the Cubs’ games, 81, and hit 18 home runs. Just a year after a superstar-level season, it was clear that Cubs management and Kingman’s teammates were sick of him, and his days in Chicago were numbered.

1980 Cubs Batting Leaders: R – Ivan De Jesus, 78; H – Bill Buckner, 187; HR – Jerry Martin, 23;  RBI – Martin, 73; BA – Bill Buckner, .324; OBP – Buckner, .353; SP – Buckner, .457

1980 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G – Dick Tidrow, 84; IP – Rick Reuschel, 257; W – Lynn McGlothen, 12; SO – Rick Reuschel, 140; ERA – Reuschel, 3.40; SV – Bruce Sutter, 28

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[1] Fellow Cuban Miguel “Mike” Gonzalez served as the interim manager of the St. Louis Cardinals for the final sixteen games of the 1938 season.