Winning Isn't Everything

Jun 30, 2000... Bill Krieger

Geez.... this is a long one. So, let's start with a quiz: can you name the two right-handed sluggers in the pictures below?

Name that Slugger Quiz

Of course, that's a no-brainer. On the left, it's Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs... and on the right, Mark Krieger of the mighty North Suburban Redhawks.

My second question: who had a better 1999? Let's go to the videotape:

Statistically, I'm going to have to go with the Krieger youngster. He also brings a couple important intangibles. In 1999, Mark cost $11 million less than Sammy. Also, Mark's girlfriend is hotter than Sammy's wife (though maybe not as hot as Sammy's girlfriend(s)).

I've talked with a lot of people about the Sammy Sosa trade (it's June 30 and Sammy hasn't been unloaded by the Cub... yet). My response, "shit, who cares." The Cub won't win with Sammy, and they won't win without him. The Cub are clearly mismanaged by Andy McFail and Ed Lynch and are in a shambles. Don Baylor is an incompetent manager, and if you don't believe that watch how many problems Joe Torre has with Sammy if/when he gets traded to the Yankee.

So, fuck it. I hope Sammy gets his $16-20 million a year and ends up in the hall of fame. The days of guys being stuck with a fucking loser ballclub (e.g. Ernie Banks) for their entire career are over. We'll miss you Sammy.

The Last 5 Decades

Speaking of the "f" word... Ladies and gentlemen, I present... five decades of futility:

Here's the last 50 years of Cub history. I grabbed this from www.cubs.com which is actually a nice site. You'd think they'd make records like this a little harder to find. By the way, GA/GB means "games ahead or games behind". Enjoy.

Yup, five consecutive decades of losing baseball. A couple futility factoids:

• In fifty years, the Cub had only 12 winning seasons (98, 95, 93, 89, 84, 72-67, 63)
• In fifty years, the Cub played in the post-season only 3 times (98, 89, 84)
• In fifty years, the Cub are a total of more than 500 games below .500
• Over the past 50 years, the "average" Cub season is a 76-86 record, 16 1/2 games out of first place
• In fifty years, the Cub played in zero world series games

If you want the raw data, it's here: Cub Record for the Last 50 Years

I have summarized each decade below with stats and my insightful commentary. Enjoy.

Here's a key to some of the table data:

The 1990's

The Cub were actually a bit lucky in the 90's. The Cub were a one-game playoff away from writing off the whole decade. In 1998, the Cub defeated the San Francisco Giant in a one-game playoff to make their only playoff appearance of the decade. The Cub fell flat in the playoffs and were swept by the Atlanta Braves 3-0.

Some highlights of the decade:

• Sammy Sosa finished second in a torrid home run race with Mark McGwire... Sammy hit 66 homers, second to McGwire's 70. Sammy, however, won the National League MVP award. Sammy led the league in RBI, batted well over .300 and led his team into the playoffs.

• Ryne Sandberg ended his hall of fame career in 1994 (?). He finished with the most home runs and the highest fielding percentage of any second baseman in major league history.

• Mark Grace completed the 1990's with the most hits during the decade of all major-leaguers. It is a testament to his great career batting average and his durability.

• Kerry Wood won rookie of the year in 1998. Kerry tied a major league record by striking out 20 Astros in a June, 1998 contest.

• Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse both passed away in 1998. I list this as a highlight because we were so lucky to have the best (Caray) and one of the best (Brick) broadcasters in the biz doing so many Cub games for so many years.

The lowlight of the decade? If you have to ask, then you're not a real Cub fan. Of course, it's the Cub losing Greg Maddux to the Atlanta Brave over a piddling amount of money and a healthy helping of mishandling by Cub management. Maddux, a certain first ballot hall-of-famer, won a zillion Cy Young awards and a World Series title.

The 1980's

The 1980's began the Harry Caray era. Harry transformed Cub fans from a cult to a religion. Harry also turned Wrigley Field from a quaint ballpark into baseball's shrine. With the help of WGN superstation exposure every spring and summer day for 15 years, Harry did all this, and took the time to have a blast and make himself the most popular Cub of all time.

1984 was special for the Cub and for me. We didn't know it then, but 1984 was the pinnacle of 50 years of Cub baseball. The team (Ryno, Andre Dawson, Ron Cey, Bobby Dernier, Rick Suttcliffe, Lee Smith, etc.) marked the best record of any Cub team since 1950. Ryno was named MVP of the National League, and a key trade for Rick Sutcliffe put the team over the top. I had moved to North Carolina in 1984 for my new high-powered job at GE. Well, the Cub made the playoffs for the first time in, well, my lifetime, and I had the formidable task of explaining the significance of this event to my Dutch-immigrant boss. Shit, I wasn't going to miss afternoon playoff games at Wrigley.

You probably know the story. The Cub crushed the Padre in their 2 games at Wrigley... and proceeded to lose the next three in San Diego. Jesus, it was gut-wrenching because the Cub really had a better team. They have sweet stats and lineups of the carnage at www.cubs.com ... just click on "history" and then "postseason".

1989 was pretty flukey. Sure, we won the division, but it wasn't a dominant team like in 1984. Jerome Walton won rookie of the year, but that was a big lie. The Cub picked up Mitch Williams to be their closer, and he's as flaky as they come. Mark Grace and Greg Maddux were pups, but the rest of the team was old old old. We got hammered pretty good by the San Francisco Giant 4 games to 1. I remember fucking Will Clark killing us with every atbat he had.

I was living in the bay area during the 1989 season, and I bet one of my coworkers (Steve Carlson, for the record) on the series: the loser had to recite a speech written by the winner for the entire comany. I lost, and I read. It wasn't as bad as Will Clark.

For the record: Nearly a decade later, I would later bet that same coworker, Mr. Carlson, and another Giant fan (Janet Greene) on the outcome of the 1998 Cub/Giant one-game playoff. I won... and they didn't pay off. Cub fans may be losers, but we're not welchers. Thank you.

The 1970's

I loved the 70's Cub. My favorite player was (and is) shortstop Don Kessinger. He was the best fielding shortstop I have ever seen, and his favorite move was getting grounders deep in the hole at short, whirling in air and throwing the man out at first. Excellent. He also happened to be a perfect gentleman.

I would rush home from school to catch the end of day games at Wrigley Field on channel 9. Jack Brickhouse did all the games, and he had so much positivity going, it was infectious. Invariably, Jack bled those Cub losses along with me and all the other Cub fans watching. It's like getting punched in the face, and then rushing home the next day to get your next beating.

This was all before the advent of cable or superstations or ESPN or VCR's. It's hard to explain to kids what that means. You saw the game or you missed it. While you were watching the game, it was more special because there wasn't going to be another game on later or 24 hours of highlights on some other channel. It was the Cub or nothing. Well, it was the Cub or play outside... don't forget, this was before video games too.

A couple notes:

• Ernie Banks hit his 500th homer in 1971. He finished with 512 and was elected to the Hall of Fame. Ernie is recognized by many people as the best baseball player (and maybe professional athlete) to never play in a playoff game.
• The Cub had two oddities or "freaks" at the end of the 70's. First, Dave Kingman joined the Cub and fell in love with the short porch in left field. Kingman led the league in homers for a couple years, and he had some awesome Sosa-like shots too. My favorite though is the 2-3 check-swing homers that Kingman hit during his Cub tenure.
• Our second freak, a guy named Bruce Sutter, came from nowhere to become the dominant reliever in all of baseball for a number of years. Sutter's rise was attributed to a new-fangled pitch called the split-fingered fastball. Now, everyone throw a "split-finger", but it took the league nearly five years to catch up with Sutter's new pitch. For that span, not only was Sutter unhittable, he made a lot of great hitters look bad... way bad.

The 1960's

The 60's are one thing... the 1969 Cubs. The collapse of the 1969 Cubs is the defining moment of the Cub half-century of losing.

Man, the Cub developed a nice core of sweet players in the 60's: Ernie at first, Beckert at second, Kessinger at short, Santo at third, Billy Williams at left, Rand Hundley catching... all these guys, except Ernie, were brought up through the Cub farm system in the sixties. We had many all-star appearances. Santo led the league in RBI's a number of years. Billy Williams led the league in RBI's and average. Kessinger and Beckert routinely led the league in double plays.

The pitching was great, too. Fergie Jenkins set a major-league record by reeling off 6 straight 20 win seasons. We had other top starters backing him up: Ken Holtzman, Bill Hands, Milt Pappas, and Phil Regan and Ted Abernathy out of the bullpen.

This core led the Cub to 6 straight winning seasons for 1967-1972. By 1972, it was over. Our all-star core had gotten old and hadn't managed a single playoff appearance. Ernie, Billy and Fergie have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Santo has the numbers to make the Hall, but hasn't been voted in. How could the Cub have 4 Hall of Famers and not win a damn thing. Got me.

Finally, how about those two 103 loss seasons in the 60's. 1962 was the worst season of these woeful 50 years. Rock.

The 1950's

Well, this is easy. All this was before I was born, but jesus christ, what a fucking disaster of a decade: THE WORST. Did they hold a party in 1952 when the team hit .500 for their one and only time?

Okay, just for the sake of due diligence, I give you one highlight. Ernie Banks won 2 MVP awards in the 50's. Ta-da!

Wrapup Quotes

"Nice guys finish last"

- Leo Durocher

Maybe, Leo. Wrigley Field is an awfully "nice" experience. Sammy, Gracey, Kerry Wood... all these guys do seem pretty "nice". Ernie, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ryno... all really nice guys. We didn't always finish last, so let me improve on Leo's accuracy a bit:

"Nice guys never finish first"

- Bill Krieger

I know, I know... lots of bitching, Bill.

But, in reality, being a Cub fan is great. No team has better tradition than the Cub... it's just not a winning tradition.

I love going to Wrigley Field.

I loved listening to Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse.

I love Kessinger, Ernie, Santo, Ryno, Gracey, Sammy, Sutter, Billy Williams, Zim, Andre Dawson, Beckert, Ron Cey, Bobby Dernier, Fergie, Randy Hundley, Sutcliffe, Sarge Matthews, Ron Cey, Bill Madlock, Kenny Holtzman, Jim Hickman, Freddy "Fumbles" Young, Ivan DeJesus, Manny Trillo, Jody Davis, Ted Abernathy, Phil "the vulture" Regan, Paul Popovich, Dave Kingman, Larry Bowa, Bobby Murcer, Rick Monday, Steve Swisher, Bill Caudill, Rod "the shooter" Beck, Terry Mulholland, Lee Smith, Mitch Williams, Carmelo Martinez, Adolfo Phillips, Bill Hands, Dick Selma, Mickey Morandini, Riggs, Jose Vizcaino, Jose Hernandez, Ken Rudolph...

About the only Cub I can remember really disliking actually is Leo Durocher. Cock smoker. Actually, I'm not too fond of Don Baylor either. Some day nice guys will win, and when it happens I'll be there.

"Cub win! Cub win! Cub win!"

- Harry Caray

That's more like it. Thanks, Harry...

yow, bill