1986 - Getting Old

The nucleus of players who won the 1984 NL East title was still around in 1986, primed for another run. If the Cubs could avoid the injury bug, perhaps there was a chance. The only trade of any consequence came on December 16, when the Cubs sent Billy Hatcher, who would be a postseason hero for the Astros and Reds, to Houston for veteran outfielder Jerry Mumphrey.

1986 Opening Day Lineup
Dernier, cf
Trillo, 3b
Sandberg, 2b
Moreland, rf
Durham, 1b
Davis, c
Dayett, lf
Dunston, ss
Sutcliffe, p

The Cubs lost 8 of their first 10 games and never really recovered. It was a dismal, dull season. At no point did the Cubs have a winning record and July was their only winning month, at 15-11. They ended April 7 1/2 games out of first and never got any closer, finishing at 70-90, in 5th place, 37 games behind the Mets, with 108 wins one of the best teams of the era. It was clear that the momentum from the '84 season was gone and the Cubs would have to rebuild. They were far too old. Cey was 38 and Matthews was 35. Davis was 29, but had caught too many games, averaging 142 per season from 1983 through 1986. The four top players off the bench were Mumphrey, Lopes, Chris Speier, and Manny Trillo, who were 33, 41, 35, and 36 years old respectively (although they all had solid seasons). Lopes was actually traded to the Astros for reliever Frank DiPino during the season.

Unlike in past disappointing years, there were no exceptional individual performances to comfort the fans. Sutcliffe suffered from arm woes and could not recapture his 1984 form, finishing at 5-14 with 4.64 ERA and missing the entire month of July. In fact, no pitcher won more than 9 games and the team finished dead last in ERA in the NL. On the offensive side, no one hit more than 21 homers or drove in or scored as many as 80 runs. Mumphrey had a fine season as a part-timer, hitting .304 in 111 games. Dunston, in his first full season as a regular, showed some power, hitting 17 homers and 37 doubles, but his on-base percentage was a terrible .278. Even that was better than Dernier's, whose .275 OBP marked the end of any idea that he could still be a viable leadoff man, or even an everyday player.

One of the few interesting things about the Cubs' 1986 season was only evident in retrospect. In the 2nd round of the 1984 amateur draft, the Cubs selected righthanded pitcher Greg Maddux from Valley High School in Las Vegas. In the 6th round, they drafted lefthander Jamie Moyer from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. In the 1986 season, both saw their first big league action. Moyer started and won his big league debut against Steve Carlton and the Philadelphia Phillies on June 16. Maddux pitched in relief on September 3, coming into a game (that Moyer had started) against the Astros in the 18th inning. The game had started the previous day, but been suspended by darkness in the 14th. Houston seemed to put it away with three runs in the top of the 17th, but the Cubs answered with a three-run Keith Moreland homer in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately, Maddux gave up a round-tripper to ex-Cub Billy Hatcher in the 18th and took the loss in his debut. However, 5 days later, Maddux got his first start and pitched a complete game victory, 11-3 over the Cincinnati Reds.

For the season, Moyer pitched 87 innings in 16 games (all starts) and finished at 7-4 with a 5.05 ERA. Maddux had 5 starts and the one relief appearance, finishing with a 5.52 ERA in 31 innings. His record was 2-4. Together Maddux and Moyer would win 624 games in the majors; only 161 of those, however, would be for the Cubs. The 1986 Cubs are a trivia buff's delight, a team that finished last in the league in ERA, yet had five pitchers on the roster, Maddux, Dennis Eckersley, Moyer, Rick Sutcliffe, and Lee Smith, who had Hall of Fame or near-Hall of Fame careers. Only Smith had anything like a decent year.


As often happens, with the Cubs needing to clean house, the manager was the first to go. Frey was dismissed on June 11, with the team at 23-33 and former Yankee skipper Gene Michael was hired to take his place. It didn't make any immediate difference; Michael was 10 games under .500 (46-56) just as Frey had been.

1986 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Keith Moreland, 72; H - Ryne Sandberg, 178; HR - Jody Davis & Gary Matthews, 21; RBI - Keith Moreland 79; BA - Sandberg, .284; OBP - Leon Durham, .350; SP - Durham, .352

1986 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Lee Smith, 66; IP - Dennis Eckersley, 201; W - Smith & Scott Sanderson, 9; SO - Eckersley, 137; ERA - Sanderson, 4.19; SV - Smith, 31