102 Years and Counting Since The Cubs Last Won the World Series

The 2010 Chicago Cubs enter the season without much fanfare. That is not to say they do not have fans, there are millions of them across the globe. But unlike the last couple of years as they approached the 100 sad anniversary of the last time they won a World Series in 1908, the so called experts that predict the winner of the 2010 World Series are not giving them high praises.

But they are one of the higher bets on some of betting websites. http://www.mysportsbook.com/sports_lines/526.html

None of the odds matter to me. So called experts can say whatever they want. I don't believe in any of it. I remember when I was in grade school in the summer time in the late 1970's I would watch the Chicago Cubs on WGN when I could have been out at the public pool or riding my bike or playing sports with my friends. I loved baseball, and something about the Cubs day games at Wrigley Field long before they finally decided to install lights for night games, intrigued me.

But I was raised to be a White Sox fan and my father hated the Cubs, so I guess in my mind I was not really cheering for them, just kind of a kid watching. In 1979 when I was 8 years old, the Cubs had a few players I liked, such as 1st baseman Bill Buckner, Outfielder Dave Kingman, and closer Bruce Sutter. Fact of the matter was it was 10 years since they had blown a big lead in August and September to the New York "Miracle" Mets, who at least went on the win the World Series.

In the ten years leading up to 1979 after the collapse of 1969 they had a winning record for the following 3 years with no playoff birth, then 4 losing seasons in a row, followed by a .500 team in 1977, and then a losing record for 1978 and 1979 when I started watching them with any regularity. I didn't care if they won or lost though, I just liked watching baseball, so there I was. I didn't know their history and none of it mattered to me. If Dave Kingman struck out, or sent one out to Waveland Avenue or beyond it was the same to me. They averaged around 20,000 fans per game that year, but remember these were day games when most people were at work, and the team wasn't very good, so most of the time you would get to see a lot of empty seats. I didn't care about that either. I simply liked the fact they had a decent pitcher named Dennis Lamp and probably only because I was 8 and liked that his last name was Lamp.

From 1980 to 1983 they were an even worse team. Well under .500 for each of those years, so they were approaching 40 years since the last time they went to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers in 1945. 40 years with no postseason action at all. They lost in 1945, but at least they were there with a chance. Before that it was 1908 when they actually won, ironically against the Detroit Tigers. They managed to make the World Series and lose 6 more times before 1945 and then that was it. The franchise remained, but they were terrible more times than not for the next 40 years.

Some blame two things primarily based solely on superstition for their failure. On September 9th 1969 at Shea Stadium in New York a black cat ran on to the field and crossed paths with the Cubs fielders before it was led away. The Cubs had a game and half lead on the Mets on that day, lost, and went 8-17 the rest of the way to lose the Division Title to New York.

24 years prior to that in 1945 a tavern owner named Billy Sianis had two tickets to game 4 and was allowed to bring a goat in with him that he had nursed back to health after the goat had fallen off a truck. He had pinned a sign on the goat declaring that they had Detroit's goat, but due to a foul stench the fans complained and the goat and Billy were asked to leave. The Cubs lost game 4 and the Series, and Billy became famous for his tavern by renaming it "Billy Goat's Tavern". That tavern was famously spoofed in the late seventies on Saturday night live with John Belushi.

http://baseball.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_chicago_cubs_curse_continues
http://www.billygoattavern.com/history.html

The 1984 Season

Prior to the 1982 season Cubs Management actually made a smart trade. They had made some poor moves when they had traded future Hall of Famers Bruce Sutter and Lou Brock among others for little in return. In 1982 they got something right. They traded long time shortstop Ivan DeJesus to the Philadelphia Phillies for an aging player named Larry Bowa and a throw in prospect named Ryne Sandberg. The results we not immediate and no one could predict the player Sandberg would eventually become. They went 73-89 in 1982 and 71-91 in 1983.

However, by 1983 they were beginning to put a respectable team on the field even if it wasn't evident on paper or record. They had a solid catcher named Jody Davis, had added the "Penguin" Ron Cey from Dodger fame, a young up and coming first baseman named Leon Durham, a solid right fielder people called "Zonk" named Keith Moreland, and an almost lights out closer named Lee Smith. Bill Buckner and Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins were still there but by 1984 they would no longer be. In 1984 they traded for a player known as "the Sarge" Gary Matthews to play left field, and brought Bob Dernier with him to play center field. Ryne Sandberg and Dernier eventually were coined the phrase "The Daily Double" based on the fact they were successful leadoff hitter/second place hitter combo.

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2009/03/1984cubs_1.php

1984 Magical Season
The promising core of players in place were not enough. Legendary broadcaster Harry Caray, who had joined the Cubs booth in 1982 with his new partner Steve Stone were not enough. The 1984 Cubs were still not going to be good enough without another pitcher. So they managed to pull off another trade that was actually to their favor by trading slugger Joe Carter to the Indians for Rick Sutcliffe.

http://www.bettertradessports.com/best-worst-trade/ricksutcliffe-for-joecarter

Rick Sutcliffe came aboard with 100 games to go and helped lead them to a 62-38 record from the time he joined the club. But Sutcliffe and the core already in place was not enough either. In 1984 it was truly a magical year because every break seemed to go their way and when Ryne Sandberg on June 23, 1984 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4CinZ3Fh4c faced Bruce Sutter on an NBC Saturday afternoon broadcast with Bob Costas.

Sandberg hit game tying homers in the 9th and tenth innings in a game they eventually won. The magic of that season took another large step forward, and Sandberg won the MVP that year. He finished the June 23rd game 5 for 6 with two homeruns and 7 runs batted in.

Everyone was excited and after years of casually watching the games and not really giving a darn either way I was hooked, and hooked for good as a suffering fan of what many know as the loveable losers. Looking at their roster in 1984 http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/1984.shtml I had totally forgotten that one of their starting pitchers was future Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley, who was dealt from Boston for long time Cub Bill Buckner.

On that roster not one starting player had 100 runs batted in and only two players scored 100 runs or more. It was truly a team effort with someone on the roster seemingly being the hero of the day on a daily basis. When the Cubs clinched the division on September 23rd, 1984 on Sutcliffe's complete game two-hitter, it seemed no one would stand in their way, especially after they won game one of the playoffs at home at Wrigley Field 13-0 against the San Diego Padres.

After 40 years the Cubs were headed to the World Series. Or not. They won game two and headed to San Diego needing only one win out of the next 3 games to clinch a spot in the World Series. One note that many people forget other than the fact they lost the next 3 in typical loveable loser fashion, was that game 5 should have been at home since they ended the season with a better record than the Padres. However, the network had the right to refuse that because the Cubs had not installed lights at their park yet and the network felt that they would not get the ratings for game 5 that they could have if the game was played in the afternoon instead of the evening. Cubs eventually lost the series and lost a chance to go to the World Series, where yes, they would have faced the Detroit Tigers once again.

In a way you could speculate that in some fashion not having lights was another curse like the goat or the black cat, but you never know. Day games were what Wrigley Field was famous for other than the Ivy on the brick walls at the time, and they still may have lost the game. The Cubs had a great season and for the first time in franchise history they drew over 2 million fans, which was a far cry from when manager Lee Elia flipped out the year before Jim Frey took over on a under attended game that saw drunken fans throw beer on his players after a loss.

From 1985 through the 1988 season the Chicago Cubs had losing seasons and did not make the playoffs. On August 8th 1988 they had their first scheduled night game in the history of Wrigley Field and of course true to Cubdom the game was rained out. On August 9th 1988 the first night game was played and they won the game 6-4. From then on after 1984 season to present the Chicago Cubs have never drawn less than 1.84 million. After the 1988 season they had the capability for night games, so if they ever made the playoffs again, the networks could never pull the day game card on them.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/wrigle.htm

The Magical 1989 Season

In 2010 Andre Dawson will be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1987 Andre Dawson was a little known free agent player from the now defunct Montreal Expos out of Canada. He was so interested in playing for the Cubs he gave them a "blank check" essentially letting the front office determine his salary without any negotiations. They gave him a modest 650,000 for an MVP season where he hit .287 with 49 homeruns and 137 runs batted in.
The Cubs went 76-85 and finished in last place. In 1988 they won 77 games. From 1985 to 1988 they had losing records and did not come close to the magic of 1984.

Then came 1989. Dawson and Sandberg were still there along with an erratic rocket-armed shortstop named Shawon Dunston. Dunston was a slick fielding shortstop that relied on a young first baseman that could hit .300 but not with power named Mark Grace to field his errant throws. A rookie center fielder came out of nowhere that year to win rookie of the year with the name of Jerome Walton. Oh and they still had Rick Sutcliffe and a guy by the name of Greg Maddux. Closer Lee Smith was gone and they now implemented "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams.

Williams was maddening to watch and without the emergence of Jerome Walton and bench help from Dwight Smith and Lloyd Mclendon it was likely another losing season for the Cubbies.

Nobody on the team had more than 79 runs batted in and Andre Dawson only had 77. Their third baseman was Vance Law who hit .235 with 7 homers and 42 rbi. At catcher they had Joe Girardi who had 14 rbi in 59 games and Damon Berryhill who knocked in 41.

Not one pitcher won more than 12 games with Maddux as the staff ace instead of Sutcliffe at this point.

No one can explain how they won 93 games, they just did. Just like in 1984 with an inferior team, they won 3 less games than 1984 and made it look easy. Easy that is until they faced the San Francisco Giants and lost the series 4 games to 1.

For the next 3 seasons they lost more games than they won and never recaptured any kind of real magic. After the 1992 losing season where Greg Maddux won 20 games, Sandberg had one of his better years, and Dawson drove in 90 runs, Cubs management let Maddux and Dawson go sign elsewhere in free agency. Despite that in 1993 they managed to go 84-78 without them but did not make the playoffs despite adding a player by the name of Sammy Sosa.

Even with Sosa they did not have another winning record until 1998 when they went 90-73, drew 2.6 million fans, and got swept in the playoffs by the Atlanta Braves, where Cubs management had let Greg Maddux sign with in 1993.
Two more losing seasons followed until 2001 when they won 88 games and did not go to the World Series. From 1998 to 2001, winning or losing record, the Cubs never drew less than 2.7 million fans. 1984 had changed everything attendance wise, but could not stop the losing. In 2002 they were a miserable 68-94, but turned it around in 2003 under manager Dusty Baker.

2003 and the Bartman

By 2003 I had been officially a Chicago Cubs fan for more than two decades after having not given a hoot either way the previous 13 years. In those 20 plus years since 1984 they had only 3 winning records, had made the playoffs only twice, and lost them both. In 2003 they only won 88 games, but made the playoffs, and on paper were a far superior team to the 1989 team for sure and probably 1984 as well. They had Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou and had traded for Kenny Lofton, Aramis Ramirez and Eric Karros among others. 4 of their five starting pitchers had at least 13 wins and closer Joe Borowski saved 33 games.

Pitcher Mark Prior was arguably one of the top ten starting pitchers in the game having gone 18-6 with a 2.43 e.r.a. And there he was on the mound in Game 6 of the National League Championship series with just 5 outs to go and a man on second. So with one out Florida Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo hit a foul ball down the left field line and the Cubs fans seated near the bricks leading to field level did what all fans tend to do when a foul ball comes their way. They attempted to catch it. Problem was left fielder Moises Alou had a good read on the ball and likely would have made the catch had there been no interference. A fan named Steve Bartman got in the way and Alou failed to make the catch.

This story is not new but is still fresh in many Cub's fans minds, because that season more than any in the 20 years before and since 1984 was their best chance to win the World Series. But I do not blame Alou or Steve Bartman for it. That event was just part of the game. To this day other than the failure by the players I blame manager Dusty Baker. There was no curse. You could say if it smells like a curse and looks like a curse that foul ball was part of the Cubs curse.

Hogwash.

In my opinion, a manager's main duty other than filling out the lineup card is to provide leadership, and on that day in October, Dusty Baker failed to provide the necessary leadership. I felt at the time and still do that if he had simply come out to the mound, gathered the infielders by the pitcher's mound until the umpire broke it up, said a few words of encouragement to calm everyone down there very well may have been a different outcome. Instead of calling it the Bartman game, we could have called it the day the Cubs went to the World Series. Instead, he sat in the dugout and did nothing and on the very next play shortstop Alex Gonzalez made an error, the runner scored from second, and the floodgates opened as everything imploded around them. Game 7 was not a blowout but in the end they lost and the Marlins went on to win the World Series.

In 2003 the Cubs drew 2.9 million fans. In 2004 they won 89 games, one more game than they won the year before, and drew 3.1 million fans as a non playoff team. In 2005 they won only 79 games, followed by just 66 wins in 2006. That 66 win team drew 3.1 million fans.

The 2007 & 2008 Playoff run

In 2007 they won 85 games and were swept out of the playoffs, but drew 3.25 million fans. In 2008 they won 97 games and lost just 64, and drew 3.3 million fans, the most in their history, only to see them get swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers 3 games to none. They were a great team. A great Regular Season team. They had a rookie of the year in catcher Geovany Soto, Greg Maddux had rejoined the Cubs, Aramis Ramirez drove in 111 runs at 3rd base, Kerry Wood had become a closer, and starters Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster had 17 wins apiece.

The 2009 Letdown

Most people around baseball, especially Cubs Fans, felt that after 97 wins in 2008, they were only a player or two away from finally reaching the World Series. The 2008 failure marked the sad 100 year anniversary of the last time they won a World Series, so that was behind them, and they were confident with their off season additions. The Cubs let Kerry Wood go and signed Kevin Gregg from the Florida Marlins to close games and he went 5-6 with a 4.71 earned run average with only 23 saves. Carlos Marmol was closing games by seasons end. Geovany Soto had a sophomore slump where he battled injuries and ineffectiveness to see his production numbers decline dramatically across the board. Aramis Ramirez dove for a ball down the third base line early in the season against the Milwaukee Brewers, missed a good portion of the season, and was never 100% the rest of the season.
Nobody on the Cub's starting staff had more than 12 wins, and Carlos Zambrano seemed to lose his temper and composure nearly every other start.
Then there was Milton Bradley and Kosuke Fukodome and Alphonso Soriano in the outfield. Bradley was supposed to have put his anger and attitude problems behind him when he signed with the Cubs but was ineffective and eventually suspended for his attitude for the remainder of the 2009 season. Fukodome played a solid outfield but did not impress much at the plate. Soriano had knee problems and seemed to chase every pitch in the dirt when he did play and seriously played lower than expectations. Ist Baseman Derek Lee rebounded from a subpar 2008 to hit 35 homeruns and 111 runs batted in, but it was not enough. They had a winning record with 83 wins, but were nowhere close to the playoff picture.

The 2010 Season

The Chicago Cubs in my opinion would need to win at least 90 games this season to have any shot at all in the Central Division. That is only an increase of 7 wins from the year before, but many things have to go right for that to become reality. Both pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Geovany Soto lost a considerable amount of weight this year, which should help to some degree to keep them stronger throughout the entire season. Both players had seasons in 2009 well below what they were able to do in 2008. Increased productivity from both of these players should be good for an additional 2 or three wins at least. Milton Bradley was traded to Seattle so the malcontent in the locker room is gone, and brought with it additional depth at the fifth starter spot or middle relief in Carlos Silva. Just not having Bradley there adds a game or two easily. They brought in Outfielder Marlon Byrd, who had a career year with the Texas Rangers, along with the hitting coach from Texas, Rudy Jamarillo, a well respected coach with a solid reputation. He will be trying to help Alphonso Soriano resurrect his career in Chicago, after falling well short each year of his career in Chicago since signing an eight year deal in 2006.

On paper as before they have more talent top to bottom than the teams from 1984 and 1989 and are at least as good or better than the 2003 team that should have won. But do they have the magic? The vibe they need in manager Lou Pinella's final year of his contract has to be evident from the start or become so early on. The St. Louis Cardinals almost always compete for the title under Tony LaRussa, and one of these days the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds will become a bigger factor in the division. Add in the Houston Astros, and the Central Division is wide open.

They win the Division they are in or have a good enough record to earn a Wildcard Birth they are in. But what is it going to take for them to win two playoff series to reach the World Series, and then somehow win it all? All I can say is Magic. No curses. Only determination, luck, skill and Magic will end the 102 year drought.

Can they do it?

That has yet to be seen. But I believe whether I want to or not. That is what Cubs fans do every year.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=chc