Big changes were in store for the Cubs in 1988. After the Tribune Company bought the team in 1981, Dallas Green had taken over the General Manager's slot for the 1982 season with a promise to turn the turn the club around after years of losing baseball. His rebuilding effort yielded one great season in 1984, during which the Cubs won 96 games and their first NL East title, and just missed ending their long pennant drought. However, it had been the only season during Green's tenure in which the club won more than 77 games. Relations between Green and the Tribune Company were strained, and Green resigned in October of 1987.
His replacement was a familiar face; Jim Frey, manager of the 1984 division champions. Frey hired his former third base coach, Don Zimmer as the new field manager. Zimmer was a baseball lifer, having played in the majors from 1954 through 1965, including for the Cubs in 1960 and 1961. He had also managed the Padres, Red Sox, and Rangers for part or all of nine seasons, with his most successful team being the '78 Red Sox, who won 99 games, but lost to the Yankees in a playoff for the AL East crown on Bucky Dent's home run.
It wasn't long before Frey made another dramatic move. On December 8, 1987, the Cubs traded a star closer for the second time in the decade, sending Lee Smith to the Boston Red Sox for starting pitcher Al Nipper and pitcher Calvin Schiraldi, who had come up as a starter but was being used by the Red Sox as their closer. The Cubs planning to convert him back to starting. The move was risky; Nipper had posted a 5.43 ERA for Boston in 179 innings in 1988, while Schiraldi was at 4.41 in 83.2 innings (61 relief appearances and one start). However, the Cubs needed experienced starters to eat innings while Maddux and Moyer matured, so Frey made the deal.
With Smith gone, the Cubs needed a closer, so in February Frey made a deal for perhaps the best in history up to that point. He traded Keith Moreland to San Diego for Rich "Goose" Gossage, who had pitched against the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS. Gossage was considered one of the game's most intimidating closers and had 289 saves in 16 seasons for the White Sox, Pirates, Yankees, and Padres. He had turned 36 years old during the 1987 seasons, so was obviously a stopgap, not a long-term solution. Third base, meanwhile, would be taken over by journeyman Vance Law, the son of the old Pirates hurler Vern Law, who had been signed in December as a free agent from the Montreal Expos.
But the biggest change involved not a person, but a place. Wrigley Field had been the only Major League Baseball stadium without lights since 1948, when they were installed in Detroit's Tiger Stadium. Green had fought long and hard to have lights installed in Wrigley, opposed by many fans who felt that the lack of lights was part of what made Wrigley Field special and was integral to the character of the park. Because of their lobbying, the City Council passed a law banning night games at Wrigley. For its part, Major League Baseball, unwilling to lose revenue generated by evening TV broadcasts, had announced after 1984 that future postseason games hosted by the Cubs would have to be played in St. Louis. Finally, the Chicago City Council gave in and cleared the way for lights to be installed in Wrigley in 1988, though they would not be ready until August.
1988 Opening Day Lineup
Martinez, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Dawson, rf
Durham, 1b
Palmeiro, lf
Davis, c
Law, 3b
Dunston, ss
Sutcliffe, p
The Cubs opened at Atlanta and won a thriller, with Leon Durham and Rafael Palmeiro driving in runs in the 9th off the Cubs' old friend Bruce Sutter to tie it. Law doubled to lead off the 13th and scored the winning run on Manny Trillo's sacrifice fly. In the season's second game, Greg Maddux pitched a complete-game three-hit shutout. In his next start, April 11, Maddux pitched another complete game, beating the Cardinals 6-1, with the only St. Louis run scoring in the bottom of the 9th. The team's record stood at 5-1.
They couldn't quite keep up the momentum, finishing April at 10-12, but went 15-12 in May and had a great June, winning 17 of their 28 games. At the All-Star break, they stood at 45-40, in third place, 7 games behind the Mets. Not great, but better than the mediocre teams of 1985-1987. Perhaps they had turned the corner.
The winning first half was fueled by the rise of Greg Maddux. Maddux had taken his lumps as a 21-year old rotation starter in 1987, but seemed to have made a dramatic jump to stardom in the first half of '88. On July 10, the day before the break, he pitched his eighth complete game of the year, beating the Padres and running his record to 15-3 with a 2.14 ERA.
There was another new star on the team as well. Mark Grace was a first baseman out of San Diego State who was drafted by the Cubs in the 24th round of the 1985 amateur draft. He was not considered a great prospect, but hit .342 in A ball in 1986 and .333 in AA in 1987. He was not off to a great start at AAA in 1988, but with Durham hitting only .229 at the end of April, the Cubs decided to give Grace a shot. He was called up and started at first base for the Cubs on May 2. He got two hits in that game and two more the following day and immediately displaced Durham as the everyday first baseman.
For Durham, it marked the end of his Cubs tenure. On May 19, he was sent to his hometown of Cincinnati for relief pitcher Pat Perry. The key piece acquired from St. Louis in the Bruce Sutter trade, Durham never attained the superstardom that some predicted for him, but was solid for six years as a Cub regular, especially in 1982, when he hit .312 with 22 home runs, and 1984, when he drove in 96 runs. Durham's career deteriorated rapidly after the trade, partly due to substance use issues. He played 17 games for the Reds in 1988 and 18 for his original team, the Cardinals, the following year before calling it quits.
Meanwhile, Grace continued to hit, although without the power often expected of first baseman. At the All-Star break, his batting average stood at .309. Rafael Palmeiro, who also seemed to be having a breakout year, was at .311. The Cubs began the second half with high hopes that they could build on the momentum established by the young players and make themselves contenders.
The second half started with a five-game series against the Dodgers at Wrigley. Unfortunately, Chicago lost all five games to slip back to .500. They never recovered and would never be more than one game above .500 at any point in the second half of the season, finishing with a record of 77-85, one-half game better than their record in 1986.
Even in a disappointing second half, the team made history. On August 8 (or 8/8/88), Rick Sutcliffe toed the rubber to face Phil Bradley of the Philadelphia Phillies, the game's leadoff batter. It was just after 6:00 in the evening and the lights were on. After 74 seasons, night baseball had come to Wrigley Field. The atmosphere was festive, with tuxedo-wearing TV announcers and celebrities, such as longtime Cub fan Bill Murray, at the ballpark, not to mention the Mayor of Chicago, Governor of Illinois, the Commissioner of Baseball, and the President of the National League. At the end of a countdown, a 91 year-old Cubs fan threw the switch that turned on the lights.
Bradley homered, but the Cubs fought back to take a 3-1 lead into the 4th. At that point, a torrential downpour forced the umpires to stop the contest. They waited two hours, but with the rain still coming down, the game was called. According to the rules of baseball in 1988, everything that happened was wiped off the record books, so there is no record of this game in the official stats. Some Cubs fans joked that the Almighty had delivered his verdict on night baseball at Wrigley. The first official night game was played the next night, against the Mets. The Cubs did win 6-4, but in many ways, it was just another game.
Maddux, who pitched 155 innings before the All-Star break, couldn't keep up with his workload and was only 3-5, with a 4.92 ERA after the break. He still finished with a fine 18-8 record and a full-season ERA of 3.18 over 249 innings. It was an even better performance than Rick Sutcliffe had had the previous year.
Sutcliffe was decent at best with a 3.86 ERA in 226 innings and a 13-14 record. Jamie Moyer was good, pitching 202 innings with a 3.48 ERA, but was unlucky, finishing with a 9-15 record. The new acquisitions weren't much help. Nipper pulled a hamstring in spring training and pitched only 80 innings all year, finishing at 2-4, though with a good ERA at 3.04. Schiraldi posted a terrible 4.38 mark in only 166 innings and finished at 9-13. Gossage, the new closer, was a disappointment, finishing with a 4.33 ERA and only 13 saves in 23 opportunities. Out of the five Cub relief pitchers who appeared in 20 or more games, only Pat Perry, acquired from the Reds for Durham, had a league average or better ERA, and he only pitched 38 innings. Overall, the team was 10th of 12 in ERA.
The news was better on the offensive side, where the Cubs were 3rd in runs scored. Pitchers simply refused to throw Andre Dawson anything he could hit out of the park and he hit only 23 homers, less than half of his 1987 total, and drove in just 79 runs. However, he did hit .303. Palmeiro finished at .307 and Grace at .296, though they hit only 15 home runs combined. Law, meanwhile, had the best season of his career, finishing at .293 with 78 RBIs. On the negative side, Dave Martinez failed to build on a promising 1987 and saw his batting average slip to .254, with a .311 on-base percentage, unacceptable for a leadoff man. Shawon Dunston hit .249 with only 9 home runs and a horrendous strikeout to walk ratio of 108-16. Ryne Sandberg was second on the club with 19 home runs, but hit just .264 and scored only 77 runs.
For the first time since 1980, someone besides Jody Davis was the Cubs' regular catcher. Damon Berryhill started 80 games behind the dish to only 68 for Davis. From 1982 through 1987, Davis had played at least 1000 innings at catcher every season. He was only 31 in 1988, but his heavy workload had worn him down and he would never again be a regular. He hit .229 with 6 homers in 1988. On September 29, Davis was traded to Atlanta for pitchers Kevin Blankenship and Kevin Coffman. Since Bob Dernier has signed with the Phillies as a free agent in the 1987-88 offseason, Sandberg was now the only position player left from the 1984 NL East champions.
1988 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Andre Dawson, 78; H - Dawson, 179; HR - Dawson, 23; RBI - Dawson, 79; BA - Rafael Palmeiro, .307; OBP - Mark Grace, .371; SP - Dawson, .504
1988 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Frank DiPino, 63; IP - Greg Maddux, 249; W - Maddux, 18; SO - Rick Sutcliffe, 144; ERA - Maddux, 3.18; SV - Rich Gossage, 13
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