1989 - Back on Top

Cubs fans were not optimistic after the end of the 1988 seasons. There were some good players, but there wasn't enough behind them to get the club to a .500 record, much less the postseason. The club was weak at centerfield and catcher and the bullpen was a disaster. After Hall of Fame-level seasons in 1984 and 1985, Ryne Sandberg seemed to have settled into being a very good, but not great player. Shawon Dunston was well-regarded for his powerful arm, but was erratic in the field and wasn't contributing much with the bat. Greg Maddux had very-good full-season stats for 1988, but it was still unclear if the real Maddux was the one with the 2.14 ERA before the All-Star break, or the one with the 4.92 ERA after. Rick Sutcliffe seemed to have regressed after his comeback 1987 season, and most fans paid more attention to Jamie Moyer's 9-15 record than they did to his decent ERA and high number of innings pitched.

General Manager Jim Frey moved to address the bullpen problem first. On December 5, 1988, he pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade with the Texas Rangers. On their way to Arlington were Rafael Palmeiro, Jamie Moyer, and reliever Drew Hall. Coming to Chicago were pitchers Paul Kilgus and Steve Wilson, backup infielder Curtis Wilkerson, and closer Mitch Williams. It was a typical Frey trade of proven talent for potential. Williams was a hard thrower whose style was probably best revealed by his 1987 stats: 129 strikeouts, but 94(!) walks in only 109 innings pitched. In 1988, he saved 18 games, but with a 4.63 ERA. It did not turn out to be a good trade. Moyer went on to a near-Hall of Fame career and was still pitching at age 49.[1] Palmeiro piled up Hall of Fame stats in his career, although he was accused by teammate Jose Canseco of using steroids and his career ended in 2005 shortly after he received a 10-game suspension for testing positive for steroids.

Of course, this was all in the future in 1989 and fans hoped that Williams would be the closer they lacked in 1988. The club's commitment to him was emphasized on March 28, when Rich Gossage was released. 1988 marked the end of his career as a primary closer, although he did subsequently have a couple of effective years in middle relief. Al Nipper, acquired in the disastrous Lee Smith trade in 1987 was also released the same day as Gossage.

The Williams trade was the only major deal of the offseason, although the Cubs did acquire catcher-outfielder Lloyd McClendon from the Reds in a minor deal. A future Major League manager, McClendon turned out to be a useful backup outfielder who would have the best year of his career in 1989.

The centerfield problem was addressed from within the organization. Jerome Walton was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1986 draft out of Enterprise-Ozark Community College in Enterprise, AL. He was a centerfielder who could run (21 out of 21 in steal attempts in Rookie League ball) and hit for a high average (.335 in A ball, .331 in AA) with good on-base percentages. He made the team out of spring training and was the leadoff hitter on opening day against the Phillies at Wrigley.

1989 Opening Day Lineup
Walton, cf
Webster, lf
Sandberg, 2b
Dawson, rf
Grace, 1b
Law, 3b
Dunston, ss
Girardi, c
Sutcliffe, p

The 1989 opener provided some excitement right off the bat. The Cubs led the Phillies 5-4 going into the top of the 9th. Mitch Williams gave up singles to the first three batters, bringing up future Hall-of-Famer and renowned Cubs-killer Mike Schmidt with no outs and the bases loaded. The new closer proceeded to strike out Schmidt, as well as Chris James and Mark Ryal to complete a nerve-wracking save.

The Cubs lost the other two games in the season-opening series, but then ripped off seven wins in a row, sweeping three games from the Pirates and two each from the Cardinals and Phillies. They then proceeded to lose 8 of their next 9 to fall to 9-10. They won 3 or their last 4 in April to finish the month at 12-11. They were a streaky team. A five-game losing streak from May 9-14 was immediately followed by a five-game winning streak that brought them within half a game of first place. The winning streak kicked off a 15-5 stretch. After beating the Mets on June 6, the Cubs were 32-23, in first place by 2 games over the Montreal Expos.

During this period, there was another crucial addition to the team. Dwight Smith had been drafted in the secondary phase of the 1984 draft out of Spartanburg Methodist College in Spartanburg, SC. He spent the entire 1988 season at the Cubs' AAA farm club in Iowa, hitting .293, though with only a .410 slugging percentage. He started out hot in 1989 and stood at .325 after 21 games in Des Moines. The Cubs called him up and gave him the start in leftfield on May 1. Through May 21, he was doing OK, hitting .270. On May 22, he pinch-hit with two outs and the bases loaded and tripled off Houston's Danny Darwin. It was the beginning of an outrageous three-week hot streak. From then through June 16, Smith hit .433 to raise his average to .375 and the Cubs had a new leftfielder.

Their other rookie, Walton, got off to a slow start and was hitting just .244 through May 10. On that day, he hurt his right hamstring running the bases against the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs were afraid he might be lost for a long period, but he only missed a month. Once he came back on June 11, after a 4-game rehab stint at Iowa, he started hitting. Between June 11 and July 13, he batted .353 to lift his average over .300. Starting on July 21, Walton reeled off an incredible 30-game hitting streak; the longest by any Cubs player in the 20th century.

Andre Dawson also missed time. His knee problems caught up to him and he did not play between May 6 and June 13. Hitting .305 when he went down, he hit just .235 for the rest of the season, though with 16 homers after his return.

However, the player whose batting average the fans seemed to care about most was Shawon Dunston. The young shortstop got off to a terrible start. On June 4, he lifted his average over .200 for the first time all season. The next day, fans in the leftfield bleachers displayed a hand-painted sign dubbed the Shawon-O-Meter, with Dunston's batting average followed by the words, "and rising!" It turned out to be prophetic; Dunston shook off his long slump and his average climbed by the day. By the time of the All-Star break on July 9, it was up to .238. It would rise to .278 by season's end.

Joining Walton and Smith as breakout stars was pitcher Mike Bielecki. No one noticed when Bielecki, an obscure swingman with a 4.57 career ERA, was acquired from Pittsburgh for a minor leaguer before the 1988 season. He was effective in very limited use in '88, pitching to a 3.35 ERA in only 48 innings during the year. In 1989, the Cubs needed starters and Bielecki won a spot in the rotation out of spring training. He beat his former team, the Pirates, in his first start on April 8, and continued to be effective, running his record to 8-4 at the break, with a 2.72 ERA.

Greg Maddux's first few starts in 1989 seemed to show that his first-half performance in 1988 had been a fluke. After losing to the Mets on April 22, he was 0-3 with an ERA of 6.00. But a complete-game 1-0 shutout of the Dodgers on April 27 seemed to turn his season around. Although hard luck eventually dropped his record to 1-5, his ERA continued to fall. After pitching a complete-game three-hitter in Houston on May 13, but losing 1-0, he went 7-2 with a 2.41 ERA from then until the break. Sutcliffe seemed to have recovered his 1988 form; he was 10-6 with a 3.54 ERA at the end of the first half, giving the Cubs three effective starters for the first time since the magical season of '84.

Mitch Williams continued to get the job done at the back end of the pen. The unkempt Williams threw with a jerky motion that seemingly required a maximum amount of effort and made his pitches look (at least to the fans) much faster than they actually were. "I pitch like my hair's on fire," he was quoted as saying. He frequently got himself in trouble with walks, but was often able to wiggle out of perilous situations, making a habit of living on the edge. He had 22 saves with a 1.93 ERA at the break and the Cubs had an ace closer once again. Starting in June, Williams had an untouchable set-up man in Les Lancaster. After splitting time between starting and relieving for the Cubs in 1987 and 1988, Lancaster started 1989 at Iowa and was not called up to the Cubs until June 24. He was used in mop-up duty in his first couple of appearances, in games which the Cubs lost 5-0 and 12-2. In a 6-4 victory against the Dodgers on July 7, he faced two hitters in the 7th inning and stuck them both out. After that, he began to be used in crucial situations. In his first 30 2/3 innings of the season, through August 8, Lancaster did not give up a single run. He faced 119 batters, giving up only 19 hits and 7 walks.

At the break, the Cubs were in 2nd place, 1.5 game behind the Expos, having been knocked out of first by a seven-game losing streak between June 23 and June 29. In 1988, they had looked OK at the break, but started the second half by losing five straight to the Dodgers. In 1989, they got off to another slow second-half start by losing 3 out of 4 to the Padres. On July 17, they scratched out three runs in the 8th against the Dodgers to win 6-3. They split the next two games with Los Angeles, then beat the Giants when Lancaster was allowed to bat for himself in the bottom of the 11th with two outs and a man on first and promptly doubled in the winning run. However, the Cubs lost the next day and fell to third place, behind the Mets. A four-game winning streak quickly propelled them back to second. They solidified that standing when Mark Grace's two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th on July 30 completed a three-game sweep of New York at Wrigley. On August 5, the Cubs scored 3 times in the 9th for a come-from-behind 4-2 victory in Pittsburgh and moved into a tie for first place.

The Expos came to Wrigley on August 7, with Chicago and Montreal tied for first in the NL East with records of 63-48. Greg Maddux went the distance for his 13th win, beating the Expos 5-2 with the help of round-trippers by Grace and Sandberg and three hits by Walton, including a triple. Sandberg and Grace both homered again the next day, helping Mike Bielecki to a 4-2 victory over Montreal's Dennis Martinez (who came into the game with a 12-1 record). On August 9, Sandberg homered again, Sutcliffe pitched seven innings and Williams got his 29th save as the Cubs completed the sweep with a 3-0 shutout. They were now in first place, three games ahead. Sandberg, incidentally, hit two homers the next day in a heartbreaking 16-13 loss to the Phillies (the Cubs led 10-3 at one point), and another circuit clout on August 11 in a 9-2 victory over Philadelphia to complete a streak of five consecutive games with a home run.

As it turned out, the Cubs were in first place to stay. Even a six-game losing streak from August 18 through August 23 didn't knock them out of the top spot. On August 29, they beat the Astros at Wrigley despite trailing 9-0 going into the 6th inning. The team went 18-11 in September, finishing at 93-69, the league's best record and six games ahead of the Mets in the NL East. Five years after the disappointment of 1984, they were finally heading back to the postseason.

The Cubs' offense was the league's best, leading the NL in runs scored. Sandberg re-emerged as an elite hitter, with a career-high 30 home runs and 104 runs scored. Grace hit .314. Walton finished at .293 and Smith hit .324, although in fewer than 400 plate appearances. Walton was voted the NL Rookie of the Year and Smith finished second in the voting. The task of driving in runs was shared; Grace led the team with just 79 RBIs.

The pitching was good enough, finished 6th in the 12-team league in team ERA. The rotation was anchored by the big three of Maddux, Bielecki, and Sutcliffe, each of whom threw over 200 innings. Maddux finished with a 2.95 ERA and a 19-12 record, Bielecki was at 3.14 and 18-7, Sutcliffe's numbers were 3.66, 16-11. Williams finished with 36 saves and a 2.76 ERA, while Lancaster compiled a microscopic 1.36 ERA in 72.2 relief innings.

Unfortunately, the club failed to redeem itself in the postseason, falling to the Giants in five games in the NLCS. Still there were many signs of hope for the future, especially in the performance of so many good young players. Had the team changed directions for good?

[1] To be fair, Texas, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Boston all subsequently gave up on Moyer before he established himself as a rotation anchor for the Seattle Mariners.

1989 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Ryne Sandberg, 104; H - Sandberg, 176; HR - Sandberg, 30; RBI - Mark Grace, 79; BA - Grace, .314*; OBP - Grace, .405; SP - Sandberg, .497

1989 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Mitch Williams, 76; IP - Greg Maddux, 238; W - Maddux, 19; SO - Rick Sutcliffe, 153; ERA - Maddux, 2.95; SV - Williams, 36

*Dwight Smith hit .324, but he had only 381 plate appearances, too few to qualify for the batting championship