Ryne Sandberg's abrupt retirement in 1994 had come about because of a combination of personal problems and disaffection with the front office. With his family life sorted out and Larry Himes, the general manager who had allowed Greg Maddux to get away, gone, Sandberg made the decision to unretire. Although he had forfeited his record $7 million per year contract, signed before the 1993 season, Sandberg signed a one-year contract that eventually paid $2.3 million. No one knew how the layoff would affect his play, but Cubs fans were thrilled to have their brightest star since the Banks/Williams/Santo/Jenkins days back in the fold.
Another longtime Cub left the fold during the offseason. Shawon Dunston had been with the team for fifteen years, missing most of the '92 and '93 seasons due to injury; he signed with the Giants as a free agent.
The only other major change came in the bullpen. After three seasons of high save totals, but less than dominant ERAs, Randy Myers was allowed to depart as a free agent. In his place the Cubs signed veteran reliever Doug Jones. Jones was an atypical closer in that he relied on changing speeds, rather than a blazing fastball, to get outs. He also had an atypical path to the big leagues. After a cup of coffee with the pennant-winning 1982 Brewers, he had not emerged again until surfacing with the Indians at age 29 in 1986. Since then, playing for several teams, he had had years of 43, 37, 36, and 32 saves with ERAs as low as 1.85. He was wildly inconsistent from year to year: from 1992 through 1995 his final ERAs were 1.85, 4.54, 2.17, and 5.01. The Cubs were taking a gamble that they could catch him in a good year and that he still had something left at age 39.
1996 Opening Day Lineup
McRae, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Grace, 1b
Sosa, rf
Gonzalez, lf
Servais, c
Hernandez, 3b
Sanchez, ss
Navarro, p
The Cubs beat the Padres on opening day in Chicago, 5-4. The news was not all good. In his first appearance as a Cub, Jones came in to the game in the ninth to protect a 4-3 lead. After retiring Tony Gwynn, he promptly gave up a single to Ken Caminiti (on his way to a surprise MVP season) and a double to Wally Joyner to blow the save. Mark Grace singled in shortstop Rey Sanchez to win it in the 10th. Sanberg went 0-3 in his return, but did walk twice.
Two days later, Sandberg got his first hit since 1994, a two-run homer that began a comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 9-4 victory over the Dodgers. On April 7, Grace won the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth and on April 17, Sosa's two-run homer in the tenth beat the Reds. After beating the Giants on April 19 by a 10-6 score, thanks to two Sandberg homers, the Cubs' season record also stood at 10-6.
Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark for the 1996 Cubs. They started a seven-game losing streak the next day and finished April with a 13-14 record, then suffered through a 9-17 May. Jones was released in June after converting just 2 of 7 save opportunities with a 5.01 ERA. Sandberg was hitting just .216 at the end of May. Sosa was hitting just .236, but with 16 home runs. On June 6, he slugged three roundtrippers against the Phillies in a 9-6 Cubs victory. The Cubs were 22-31 at the end of May, but, shockingly, only four games out in a laughably weak division that was led by the Astros with a 27-28 record.
At the break, the Cubs were 42-46, still four games out of the division lead, having played much better in June. Sosa led the NL with 27 homers, although he was not selected as an All-Star. Sandberg's batting average was at .214 on June 25, but he went 20-48 (.417) in the 11 games before the break to raise his average to .247. Grace was at .335, but like Sosa (and Sandberg) he was not an All-Star. The Cubs' representative was Steve Trachsel, who was following a terrible 1995 with a great 1996; his ERA was at 2.14 in 109 innings pitched.
The Cubs continued to play relatively well after the All-Star break; on August 13, they actually evened their record at 59-59; quite an accomplishment for a team that, at one point in late May had been ten games under .500. Sosa was the main catalyst; on August 19, he hit his 40th home run of the season and drove in his 98th and 99th runs. Both totals led the league, and Sosa had a shot at becoming the first Cub since Hack Wilson in 1930 to homer 50 times in a season. The next day, against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley, Sosa was hit in the right hand with the bases loaded in the first inning. It was his 100th RBI of the season. He grounded out later in the first, an eight-run inning for the Cubs, and popped out in the fourth, but was replaced by Ozzie Timmons in right field in the top of the fifth. Postgame x-rays revealed that Sosa's hand was broken; his season was over. It was a terrible blow to both Sosa and the team.
The Cubs refused to give up though. They won that August 20 game to even their record at 62-62. After Trachsel beat the Phillies 3-2 on September 13, they were 74-72; five games out in the division with sixteen to go. Unfortunately, they would win only two of those final sixteen games.
It was a complete collapse. The pitching staff gave up fewer than five runs in only two of the games and the hitters scored more than four runs in only two; a 10-9 victory over the Pirates in the second game of a September 27 double-header and a 7-8 loss to Pittsburgh the next day. They could really have used Sosa. The 2-14 stretch took them from five games behind to twelve games out, though they only fell from third to fourth place in the division.
Sosa's power totals were frozen at 40 homers and 100 RBIs and he had a slash line of .273/.323/.564. According to Baseball-Reference.com's version of wins above replacement, it was actually the best season of Sosa's career to that point, though he only played in 124 games. Barring the injury, he might have competed for the MVP award.
Sosa's aborted season was a disappointment, but the Cubs also had a feel-good story in Ryne Sandberg. After taking over a season off, the 36 year-old second baseman came back and performed better than anyone could rightly have expected. True, he hit only .244, far below the standard of his best years, but he contributed 25 home runs and 92 RBIs, stats similar to those of his best seasons, he had an excellent year with the glove and he was durable, playing in 150 games. The season helped cement his legendary status in the Windy City.
There were other notable performances. Grace hit .331, fifth in the league; it would remain the highest average of his career. Brian McRae gave the Cubs a legitimate leadoff hitter for the first time since Jerome Walton's Rookie of the Year campaign in 1989. The ex-Royal hit .276 with 17 homers and 111 runs scored.
It wasn't enough. Shortstop was split between Rey Sanchez, who could field, but batted .211 with no power, and Jose Hernandez, who hit .242 with some power (10 HRs), but couldn't field. Leo Gomez, a 30 year-old failed Orioles prospect, manned third base. The leftfielder was Luis Gonzalez who was decent but unexceptional (.271, 15 HRs). Ending up with the Arizona Diamondbacks after a couple of trades, he would hit 57 roundtrippers in the homer-crazy season of 2001 (and never more than 31 in any other season) and would win the seventh game of the World Series that fall with, ironically, a bloop single. All this added up to 772 runs scored by the Cubs, good for fifth in the league.
What really tripped the club up was the pitching, particularly the starting pitching. Trachsel faded after his great first half, but still finished with good numbers: a 3.03 ERA (sixth in the league) in 205 innings, good for a 13-9 record. The staff's workhorse was Jaime Navarro, who threw 237 innings. His 3.92 ERA might not seem great, but was not bad for a pitcher throwing half his games in Wrigley in a big-hitting era. His final record was 15-12.
The rest of the starting staff was a disaster. Four other pitchers started more than five games and, among them, the lowest ERA was Frank Castillo's 5.28. He finished at 7-16, tying for the NL lead in losses. Jim Bullinger and Kevin Foster had ERAs over 6.00, although neither threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, and 22 year-old rookie Amaury Telemaco was at 5.46.
The bullpen was a little better. After Jones was released, closer duties devolved upon Turk Wendell, a 29 year-old righthander and noted eccentric; sort of a poor man's Mitch Williams. He ended up with a 2.84 ERA in 79 innings and a team-leading 18 saves. Rookie Terry Adams threw 101 innings in relief with a 2.94 ERA and Kent Bottenfield and Bob Patterson also had good ERAs, but the relief corps couldn't overcome the deficiencies of the starting staff and the Cubs finished ninth out of fourteen clubs in team ERA.
1996 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Brian McRae, 111; H - Mark Grace, 181; HR - Sammy Sosa, 40; RBI - Sosa, 100; BA - Grace, .331; OBP - Grace, .396; SP - Sosa, .564
1996 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Bob Patterson, 79; IP - Jaime Navarro, 237; W - Navarro, 15; SO - Navarro, 158; ERA - Steve Trachsel, 3.03; SV - Turk Wendell, 18
The only other major change came in the bullpen. After three seasons of high save totals, but less than dominant ERAs, Randy Myers was allowed to depart as a free agent. In his place the Cubs signed veteran reliever Doug Jones. Jones was an atypical closer in that he relied on changing speeds, rather than a blazing fastball, to get outs. He also had an atypical path to the big leagues. After a cup of coffee with the pennant-winning 1982 Brewers, he had not emerged again until surfacing with the Indians at age 29 in 1986. Since then, playing for several teams, he had had years of 43, 37, 36, and 32 saves with ERAs as low as 1.85. He was wildly inconsistent from year to year: from 1992 through 1995 his final ERAs were 1.85, 4.54, 2.17, and 5.01. The Cubs were taking a gamble that they could catch him in a good year and that he still had something left at age 39.
1996 Opening Day Lineup
McRae, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Grace, 1b
Sosa, rf
Gonzalez, lf
Servais, c
Hernandez, 3b
Sanchez, ss
Navarro, p
The Cubs beat the Padres on opening day in Chicago, 5-4. The news was not all good. In his first appearance as a Cub, Jones came in to the game in the ninth to protect a 4-3 lead. After retiring Tony Gwynn, he promptly gave up a single to Ken Caminiti (on his way to a surprise MVP season) and a double to Wally Joyner to blow the save. Mark Grace singled in shortstop Rey Sanchez to win it in the 10th. Sanberg went 0-3 in his return, but did walk twice.
Two days later, Sandberg got his first hit since 1994, a two-run homer that began a comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 9-4 victory over the Dodgers. On April 7, Grace won the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth and on April 17, Sosa's two-run homer in the tenth beat the Reds. After beating the Giants on April 19 by a 10-6 score, thanks to two Sandberg homers, the Cubs' season record also stood at 10-6.
Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark for the 1996 Cubs. They started a seven-game losing streak the next day and finished April with a 13-14 record, then suffered through a 9-17 May. Jones was released in June after converting just 2 of 7 save opportunities with a 5.01 ERA. Sandberg was hitting just .216 at the end of May. Sosa was hitting just .236, but with 16 home runs. On June 6, he slugged three roundtrippers against the Phillies in a 9-6 Cubs victory. The Cubs were 22-31 at the end of May, but, shockingly, only four games out in a laughably weak division that was led by the Astros with a 27-28 record.
At the break, the Cubs were 42-46, still four games out of the division lead, having played much better in June. Sosa led the NL with 27 homers, although he was not selected as an All-Star. Sandberg's batting average was at .214 on June 25, but he went 20-48 (.417) in the 11 games before the break to raise his average to .247. Grace was at .335, but like Sosa (and Sandberg) he was not an All-Star. The Cubs' representative was Steve Trachsel, who was following a terrible 1995 with a great 1996; his ERA was at 2.14 in 109 innings pitched.
The Cubs continued to play relatively well after the All-Star break; on August 13, they actually evened their record at 59-59; quite an accomplishment for a team that, at one point in late May had been ten games under .500. Sosa was the main catalyst; on August 19, he hit his 40th home run of the season and drove in his 98th and 99th runs. Both totals led the league, and Sosa had a shot at becoming the first Cub since Hack Wilson in 1930 to homer 50 times in a season. The next day, against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley, Sosa was hit in the right hand with the bases loaded in the first inning. It was his 100th RBI of the season. He grounded out later in the first, an eight-run inning for the Cubs, and popped out in the fourth, but was replaced by Ozzie Timmons in right field in the top of the fifth. Postgame x-rays revealed that Sosa's hand was broken; his season was over. It was a terrible blow to both Sosa and the team.
The Cubs refused to give up though. They won that August 20 game to even their record at 62-62. After Trachsel beat the Phillies 3-2 on September 13, they were 74-72; five games out in the division with sixteen to go. Unfortunately, they would win only two of those final sixteen games.
It was a complete collapse. The pitching staff gave up fewer than five runs in only two of the games and the hitters scored more than four runs in only two; a 10-9 victory over the Pirates in the second game of a September 27 double-header and a 7-8 loss to Pittsburgh the next day. They could really have used Sosa. The 2-14 stretch took them from five games behind to twelve games out, though they only fell from third to fourth place in the division.
Sosa's power totals were frozen at 40 homers and 100 RBIs and he had a slash line of .273/.323/.564. According to Baseball-Reference.com's version of wins above replacement, it was actually the best season of Sosa's career to that point, though he only played in 124 games. Barring the injury, he might have competed for the MVP award.
Sosa's aborted season was a disappointment, but the Cubs also had a feel-good story in Ryne Sandberg. After taking over a season off, the 36 year-old second baseman came back and performed better than anyone could rightly have expected. True, he hit only .244, far below the standard of his best years, but he contributed 25 home runs and 92 RBIs, stats similar to those of his best seasons, he had an excellent year with the glove and he was durable, playing in 150 games. The season helped cement his legendary status in the Windy City.
There were other notable performances. Grace hit .331, fifth in the league; it would remain the highest average of his career. Brian McRae gave the Cubs a legitimate leadoff hitter for the first time since Jerome Walton's Rookie of the Year campaign in 1989. The ex-Royal hit .276 with 17 homers and 111 runs scored.
It wasn't enough. Shortstop was split between Rey Sanchez, who could field, but batted .211 with no power, and Jose Hernandez, who hit .242 with some power (10 HRs), but couldn't field. Leo Gomez, a 30 year-old failed Orioles prospect, manned third base. The leftfielder was Luis Gonzalez who was decent but unexceptional (.271, 15 HRs). Ending up with the Arizona Diamondbacks after a couple of trades, he would hit 57 roundtrippers in the homer-crazy season of 2001 (and never more than 31 in any other season) and would win the seventh game of the World Series that fall with, ironically, a bloop single. All this added up to 772 runs scored by the Cubs, good for fifth in the league.
What really tripped the club up was the pitching, particularly the starting pitching. Trachsel faded after his great first half, but still finished with good numbers: a 3.03 ERA (sixth in the league) in 205 innings, good for a 13-9 record. The staff's workhorse was Jaime Navarro, who threw 237 innings. His 3.92 ERA might not seem great, but was not bad for a pitcher throwing half his games in Wrigley in a big-hitting era. His final record was 15-12.
The rest of the starting staff was a disaster. Four other pitchers started more than five games and, among them, the lowest ERA was Frank Castillo's 5.28. He finished at 7-16, tying for the NL lead in losses. Jim Bullinger and Kevin Foster had ERAs over 6.00, although neither threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, and 22 year-old rookie Amaury Telemaco was at 5.46.
The bullpen was a little better. After Jones was released, closer duties devolved upon Turk Wendell, a 29 year-old righthander and noted eccentric; sort of a poor man's Mitch Williams. He ended up with a 2.84 ERA in 79 innings and a team-leading 18 saves. Rookie Terry Adams threw 101 innings in relief with a 2.94 ERA and Kent Bottenfield and Bob Patterson also had good ERAs, but the relief corps couldn't overcome the deficiencies of the starting staff and the Cubs finished ninth out of fourteen clubs in team ERA.
1996 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Brian McRae, 111; H - Mark Grace, 181; HR - Sammy Sosa, 40; RBI - Sosa, 100; BA - Grace, .331; OBP - Grace, .396; SP - Sosa, .564
1996 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Bob Patterson, 79; IP - Jaime Navarro, 237; W - Navarro, 15; SO - Navarro, 158; ERA - Steve Trachsel, 3.03; SV - Turk Wendell, 18
