1984 - Triumph, Then Tragedy

The Cubs’ first order of business after the 1983 season ended was to hire a new manager. Green chose Jim Frey, the manager who had opposed him in the 1980 World Series. As a rookie manager, Frey had skippered the Royals to their first pennant after postseason failures in 1976, 1977, and 1978, but had been fired during a disappointing 1981 and was serving as a coach for the Mets.

Green kept dealing in the 1983-84 offseason. On December 7, 1983, he picked up Chicago-area native Scott Sanderson from the Montreal Expos in a three-team trade. Sanderson was another veteran starting pitcher; he had gone 16-11 with a 3.11 ERA for Montreal in 1980, then contributed a 9-7 record and a 2.95 ERA to the Expos’ only postseason team in 1981. Green also signed Richie Hebner, who had provided mid-range power as a corner infielder for the contending Phillies and Pirates teams of the 1970s, as a free agent. On a more poignant note, on March 19, near the end of spring training, the Cubs released Fergie Jenkins, ending his major league career. He won 284 games in the majors, including 167 for the Cubs and would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991.

The biggest trade came right before the start of the season. On March 26, the Cubs sent reliever Bill Campbell, the NL’s leader in games pitched in 1983, and catcher Mike Diaz to Philadelphia for Porfi Altamirano, Bob Dernier, and Gary Matthews. Altamirano was a 31 year-old reliever who never did much for the Cubs. Dernier was a speedy, slap-hitting centerfielder who had stolen 77 bases for the Phils over the past two season combined, but had hit only .242. Matthews was the key. He was a 32 year-old corner outfielder who had played well for the Giants, Braves, and Phillies. In 1979, he hit .304 with 27 home runs for Atlanta and had batted .284 with 18 homers for the ’82 Phillies while playing every game. He was coming off an off season in ’83, but had been named the MVP of the 1983 NLCS, hitting .429 with 3 homers and also homering in the World Series. If he could recapture the magic of his best seasons, he would be a valuable addition to the lineup.

1984 Opening Day Lineup

Dernier, cf

Sandberg, 2b

Matthews, lf

Cey, 3b

Moreland, rf

Davis, c

Durham, 1b

Bowa, ss

Ruthven, p  

Despite the moves, expectations were low for the Cubs going into 1984. They had an OK lineup, but a poor starting rotation that featured no true ace, and little support behind Smith in the bullpen. However, they got off to a good start, beating the Giants in a two-game series to open the season. By the end of April, they were 12-8 and tied for first place. After sweeping a doubleheader from the Reds on May 24, the Cubs were 26-15, the best record in the National League and the third-best record in baseball, trailing only Detroit (which was 35-5(!), on its way to a 104-win season) and Toronto. Unlike the GMs during the last years of the Wrigley regime, though, Green refused to stand pat. On May 25, he pulled off a blockbuster deal with the Red Sox. Bill Buckner, the longest-tenured Cub, was sent to Boston. Buckner was off to a poor start, hitting .209, and the trade opened up first base for Durham, who was no longer needed in the outfield with the acquisition of Dernier and Matthews. In return the Cubs got backup catcher Mike Brumley and starter Dennis Eckersley. Eckersley was a veteran control pitcher who had back-to-back 20 and 17 win seasons for the Red Sox in 1978 and 1979, with a 2.99 ERA each year. His presence would help solidify the Cubs’ rotation.

May ended with the Cubs at 27-20, half a game out of the division lead. The new acquisitions were performing like all-stars. Dernier, inserted in the leadoff slot, was hitting .321. Matthews, who usually batted third, was at .285, but with a .413 on-base percentage. His clubhouse leadership skills and habit of exchanging salutes with the fans in the leftfield bleachers earned him the nickname “Sarge.” Durham and Sandberg were both hitting .325. Trout was 6-3 with a 2.28 ERA and Sanderson was 4-1 with a 2.72 ERA. Amazingly, the Cubs were contenders for the first time since 1979. The spent the first couple of weeks of June trading first place in the NL East with the Phillies. On June 13, Green made another big trade in an effort to get more pitching.

Rick Sutcliffe was a starting pitcher and former NL Rookie of the Year, being voted the honor after a 17-10 freshman season for the Dodgers in 1979. A temper tantrum, during which he overturned manager Tommy Lasorda’s desk after being told he would not be on the 1981 postseason roster, punched his ticket out of LA. He ended up in Cleveland, where he led the AL in ERA with a 2.96 mark in 1982 and won 17 games again in 1983. He was off to a slow start in 1984, and the Indians, 22-34 on June 12 and going nowhere, were willing to deal. Green pulled the trigger on a seven-player trade. Going to the Indians were outfielders Mel Hall and Joe Carter and pitchers Don Schulze and Daryl Banks. Coming to the Cubs were Sutcliffe, relief pitcher George Frazier, and catcher Ron Hassey.

The trade played immediate dividends. Sutcliffe started his first game on June 19 against the Pirates. He pitched 8 innings of four-hit ball against Pittsburgh and was the winning pitcher in the Cubs’ 4-3 victory. Four days later, the Cubs faced the Cardinals at Wrigley in a contest that was televised as part of NBC’s “Game of the Week” lineup.  The Cubs were 36-31, but only 9-11 in June. However, they were still in contention, in third place, but only 1 ½ games behind the first-place Mets. Fans were beginning to hope that this team had the staying power that the teams of the late 70’s had not. No one realized it, but this game would go a long way toward showing that it did. It also introduced a new superstar, not only to Cubs fans, but to an entire nation.

The starters were Steve Trout, who at 7-3 with a 2.30 ERA ranked as the Cubs’ ace. Opposing him was Ralph Citarella, making his first major league start. It seemed a mismatch, but it didn’t work out the way the Cubs expected. After the two teams traded runs in the first, the Redbirds lit up Trout for 6 runs in the 2^nd, a rally highlighted by Willie McGee’s bases-loaded triple. The Cubs got two back in the 5^th on Sandberg’s RBI groundout and Mathews’ double, but St. Louis immediately negated that when McGee hit a two-run homer off Dickie Noles in the 6^th. The Cubs mounted a comeback attempt in the bottom of the inning. Two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases. Hebner pinch-hit and singled in a run. Dernier doubled in two, and then Sandberg singled in two more with his third hit of the game. Unfortunately, Sandberg was thrown out at second on the play and Matthews struck out, ending the inning with the Cardinals still ahead 9-8.

The score was still 9-8 going into the bottom of the ninth and Bruce Sutter, the ex-Cub, was on the mound for St. Louis. After a down year in 1983, Sutter had regained his position as the NL’s best relief pitcher in 1984, a season in which he would save a career-high 45 games. Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, brought Sutter in with 2 out in the 7^th in this contest, a practice much more common then than it is now, and the ace closer had pitched an uneventful 8^th.  Sandberg led off the ninth. He promptly sent Wrigley into delirium by smashing a split-fingered fastball into the left field bleachers for a game-tying round-tripper.

Matthews lined a base hit into left on the very next pitch, but Sutter got out of the inning without further damage, sending the game to extras. In the top of the 10^th, St. Louis answered quickly. The first batter, Ozzie Smith, singled, stole second, and scored on Willie McGee’s double, which completed a cycle for the Cardinals’ centerfielder. Later McGee scored on a groundout. It seemed the Cubs’ stirring comeback was all for naught, especially when Sutter easily retired the first two hitters in the bottom of the 10^th. NBC announcers Bob Costas and Tony Kubek named McGee the Player of the Game and began to read the final credits as Dernier stepped to the plate.

The Cubs’ centerfielder took the first three pitches for balls, then the next two for called strikes. The sixth pitch was near the edge of the plate. It might have been a strike, but St. Louis catcher Darrell Porter failed to hang on to it, denying himself a chance to “frame” the pitch. Plate Umpire Doug Harvey called it a ball and Dernier trotted to first, bringing up Sandberg. Wrigley Field nearly came apart at the seams when Sandberg hit a long fly that landed in the leftfield bleachers for another game tying homer. Sandberg’s blasts were two of only seven homers that Sutter gave up that year.

But the Cubs still had to win the game, which they accomplished in the 11^th. With the score still tied, Durham, the leadoff batter in the inning, walked, stole second, and went to third on Porter’s errant throw. Moreland and Davis were walked intentionally to bring up the pitcher’s spot forcing Frey to insert his last position player, utility infielder Dave Owen, as a pinch hitter. Owen lined a pitch into right for a game-winning single.

The game brought Sandberg national fame. Herzog said that the Cubs’ second baseman was the best player he had ever seen. Talk of “Ryno” winning the National League’s Most Valuable Player award begin to heat up. Even today, Cubs fans of a certain age remember this contest as “The Sandberg Game.” The stirring comeback against baseball’s best closer marked the Cubs as a team to be reckoned with. For once, it was not a mirage.

The Cubs’ only weakness seemed to be that they did not have a true ace, but that had already been taken care of. The day after Sandberg’s heroics, Sutcliffe started against the Cardinals and pitched a complete game five-hit shutout. On June 29, he started against his old team, the Dodgers, and took the loss. Incredibly, it would be his last loss of the regular season; he won his last 14 decisions to finish at 16-1 for the Cubs. Since he had won 4 games for Cleveland before the trade, he became the first pitcher in 39 years to win 20 in a season split between the two leagues. The last to do it had been Hank Borowy, who, in 1945, had started the season 10-5 for the Yankees and then come over to the Cubs to contribute an 11-2 record to their drive to the NL pennant.

With Sutcliffe winning practically every fifth day, there would be no collapse for the ’84 Cubs. On August 1, they moved into first place when Jody Davis’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9^th beat the Phillies. On August 5, they led the Mets by half a game, with the New Yorkers coming to town for a four-game series.  The Cubs proceeded to sweep all four games, a satisfying reversal of the 1969 choke.  A 4-2 victory over Atlanta on September 2 clinched Chicago’s first winning season since 1972. On September 24, Sutcliffe pitched a brilliant complete-game two-hitter to beat the Pirates 4-1. It was his 20^th win of the season and, more importantly, it clinched the NL East title for the Cubs. They were headed to the postseason for the first time since 1945.

Their opponents would be the San Diego Padres who were experiencing the first taste of post-season play in their 16-year history, after winning the NL East with a 92-70 record. The Friars were led by rightfielder Tony Gwynn who, as a first-time regular, won his first batting title at .351. They also had a trio of veteran players who had played in the 1978 World Series: third baseman Greg Nettles, first baseman Steve Garvey, and closer Goose Gossage. They had no true ace, but three capable starters in Eric Show, Ed Whitson, and Mark Thurmond. The Cubs were favored to win their first pennant since 1945.

The lack of lights in Wrigley Field brought day baseball back to the postseason for the first time since the early 1970s. After Sutcliffe retired the Padres 1-2-3 in the top of the first, Dernier, the Cubs’ leadoff hitter, greeted San Diego starter Eric Show with a home run. One out later, Mathews also homered and the rout was on. Sutcliffe himself homered in the third and Mathews connected for another homer, a three-run shot, in the fifth. Cey also homered and the Cubs made a triumphant return to the postseason with a 13-0 shellacking. Game 2 was not as easy, but Chicago got the job done as Trout pitched into the ninth, Smith finished up and the Cubs again emerged victorious by a 4-2 score. The Cubs seemed poised to end their 39-year pennant drought as the series shifted to San Diego. They only needed to win once in three tries on the west coast to make the dream a reality.

But the Padres refused to go quietly. The Cubs led 1-0 going into the bottom of the fifth in Game 3, but San Diego’s bats came alive as they struck for three in the fifth and four in the sixth for a 7-1 verdict that surely would only delay Cub fans’ celebration for one more day.

San Diego struck first in Game 4, but with the Cubs trailing 2-0 in the fourth and Mathews on first with two outs, Jody Davis and Leon Durham uncorked back-to-back home runs to put the Cubs in front. But Garvey tied the game with a two-out single in the fifth and put the Padres ahead with another RBI single in the seventh. San Diego added a run on Davis’ passed ball. The Cubs weren’t done, though. In the eighth, with Gossage trying for a two-inning save, Sandberg singled, stole second, and scored on Moreland’s single. A double by Davis scored pinch-runner Henry Cotto and tied the game. In the top of ninth, a one-out double by Dernier was wasted when Cey grounded out with two outs and the bases loaded. With the score still tied in the bottom of the frame, Smith retired the first hitter, gave up a single to Gwynn, then served up a pitch that Garvey hit over the right-centerfield fence for a heartbreaking walkoff homer.  The 1984 NL pennant race had come down to one game.

It started out well. After the first two Cubs were retired in the top of the first, Mathews walked and Durham followed with a homer. Davis led off the second with a round-tripper to make it 3-0 Chicago. Surely with the unbeatable Sutcliffe pitching, a three-run lead would hold up, even supposing the Cubs did not add on.

All seemed well as the game moved into the bottom of the sixth, with the 3-0 lead still intact. But then Sutcliffe weakened. Two singles and a walk to Garvey loaded the bases with nobody out. Sutcliffe managed to retire the next two batters on outfield flies, each of which scored a run. A groundball to Durham ended the inning with the Cubs’ lead intact, but their margin of error was gone. In the seventh, Sutcliffe walked ex-Cub Carmelo Martinez to start the inning and Martinez was sacrificed to second. The next hitter was Tim Flannery, a banjo-hitting middle infielder. His easy grounder to Durham promised to be the second out of the inning. However, Durham didn’t get his glove down quickly enough and the ball rolled through his legs for an error. Martinez scored and the Cubs’ lead was gone.

It fell apart quickly after that. Alan Wiggins singled, Gwynn doubled in two runs, and Garvey singled in another. Sutcliffe was replaced by Trout, but it was too late. The Cubs put two runners on base in the eighth, but didn’t score. Moreland hit a one-out single in the ninth, but Gossage retired Davis on a groundout to end it and the heartbreak was complete. The Cubs became the first NL team to lose a best-of-five League Champion Series after winning the first two games.

As in 1969, a fine season was diminished, if not ruined, by the way it ended. There were some consolations. With 96 wins and a division title, the 1984 team easily trumped the accomplishments of any of the Santo-Williams-Jenkins-Banks teams of the late 60’s and early 70’s, whose high-water mark was 92 wins and a second-place finish in 1969. Sandberg was voted the NL MVP, announcing the birth of a new star. Sutcliffe won the NL Cy Young Award, the first player to win the award after starting the year in the other league.

1984 Cubs Batting Leaders: R – Ryne Sandberg, 114; H – Sandberg, 200; HR –Ron Cey, 25;  RBI – Cey, 97; BA – Sandberg, .314; OBP – Matthews, .410; SP – Sandberg, .520

1984 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Lee Smith, 69; IP - Steve Trout, 190; W - Rick Sutcliffe, 16: SO - Sutcliffe, 155; ERA - Trout, 3.41*; SV - Smith, 33

*Sutcliffe had a 2.69 ERA, but at 150 innings pitched, just missed qualifying for the league ERA championship. Trout was the only Cubs pitcher with enough innings to qualify.