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Chicago Cubs

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Chicago Cubs
2024 Chicago Cubs season
File:Chicago Cubs Logo.pngFile:NLCubsIcon.PNG
LogoCap insignia
Major league affiliations
Current uniform
File:NLC-Uniform-CHC.PNG
Retired numbers10, 14, 23, 26, 42
Name
  • Chicago Cubs (1902–present)

Chicago Orphans (1898-1901)

(a.k.a. Remnants 1898-1901)
Other nicknames
  • The Cubbies, The North Siders, The Loveable Losers
Ballpark
Major league titles
World Series titles (2)1908 • 1907
NL Pennants (16)1945 • 1938 • 1935 • 1932
1929 • 1918 • 1910 • 1908
1907 • 1906 • 1886 • 1885
1882 • 1881 • 1880 • 1876
Central Division titles (1)2003
East Division titles (2)1989 • 1984
Wild card berths (1)1998
Front office
Principal owner(s)Tribune Company
General managerJim Hendry
ManagerLou Piniella

The Chicago Cubs are a Major League Baseball team that plays at Wrigley Field in the North Side Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs are part of the National League. They are one of two clubs in Chicago, the other being the Chicago White Sox of the American League. Both are charter franchises of their respective leagues.

The Cubs are affectionately referred to by the media and fans as "The Cubbies" and are also known as "The North Siders," in contrast to the White Sox, who play on the city's South Side. The Cubs are one of the only two remaining charter members left in the National League, (Atlanta Braves) and the only team in its original city.

Samuel Zell recently acquired the Tribune Company, the current owners of the Cubs. The company will sell the team after the 2007 Major League Baseball season.[1] The Cubs are managed by Lou Piniella. The team's president is John McDonough, and their general manager is Jim Hendry.

The Cubs are one of the most popular teams in sports, as evidenced by their ticket sales. According to ESPN the team was fifth in the attendence in 2006, despite the fact that they play in one of the smallest stadiums, and the club broke the record for most ticket sales in a single day at almost 600,000. [2] [3]

Franchise history

Main article: History of the Chicago Cubs

White Stockings

The success and fame of the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first openly all-professional team, led to a minor explosion of openly professional teams in 1870, each with the singular goal of defeating the Red Stockings. A number of them adopted variants on that name and color, and it happens that Chicago adopted white as their primary color. On April 29, 1870, the team played their first road game against the St. Louis Unions, defeating the Unions 47-1.[4]

After a summer of individually arranged contests among the various teams, the time was right for the organization of the first professional league, the National Association, in 1871.

The Chicago White Stockings were close contenders all summer, but disaster struck in October 1871 with the Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed the club's ballpark, uniforms, and other possessions. The club completed its schedule with borrowed uniforms, finishing second in the National Association, just 2 games behind, but it was compelled to drop out of the league during the city's recovery period until being revived in 1874.

After the 1875 season, Chicago acquired several key players, including pitcher Albert Spalding of the Boston Red Stockings, and first baseman Adrian "Cap" Anson of the Philadelphia Athletics. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the club president, William Hulbert, was leading the formation of a new and stronger organization, the National League.

With a beefed-up squad, the White Stockings cruised through the National League's inaugural season of 1876. The Chicagoans went on to have some great seasons in the 1880s, starting with 1880 when they won 67 and lost 17, for an all-time record .798 winning percentage. Extrapolating an 84-game season onto a 162-game season is a dubious proposition, but it does provide some perspective to note that a similar winning percentage nowadays would yield 129 wins.

By then, Spalding had retired to start his sporting goods company. The length of the season was such that a team could get by with two main starters, and the team had a couple of powerhouse pitchers in Larry Corcoran and Fred Goldsmith. Those two were fading by mid-decade, and were replaced by other strong pitchers, notably John Clarkson. Much has been written about Old Hoss Radbourn's 60 victories for the Providence Grays of 1884, but Clarkson also had a fair year in 1885, winning 53 games as Chicago won the pennant.

A second major league, called the American Association, came along in 1882, and Chicago met the American Association's champions three times in that era's version of the World Series. Twice they faced the St. Louis Browns in lively and controversial Series action. That St. Louis franchise, which went on to join the National League in 1892 after the American Association folded, would later be renamed the St. Louis Cardinals and continues to be a perennial rival of the Cubs.

During this period the team was captained and managed by first baseman Cap Anson, one of the most famous and arguably the best player in baseball in his day. He was the first ballplayer to reach 3,000 hits. However, the Hall of Famer is chiefly remembered today for his racist views (which he stated in print, in his autobiography, lest there be any doubt) and his prominent role in establishing baseball's color line, rather than for his great playing and managing skills.

After Chicago's great run during the 1880s, the on-field fortunes of Anson's team (by then often called "Anson's Colts" or just "Colts") dwindled during the 1890s, awaiting revival under new leadership.

The Cubs are the only team to play continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876. The other surviving charter member of the National League, the Braves, has played in three cities: Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta.

"Tinker to Evers to Chance"

Joe Tinker (shortstop), Johnny Evers (second baseman), and Frank Chance (first baseman) were three legendary Cubs infielders who played together from 1903 to 1910, and sporadically over the following two years. They, along with third baseman Harry Steinfeldt, formed the nucleus of one of the most dominant baseball teams of all time.

After Chance took over as manager for the ailing Frank Selee in 1905, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span. Their record of 116 victories in 1906 (in a 154-game season) has not been broken, though it was tied by the Seattle Mariners in 2001, in a 162-game season. The 1906 Cubs still hold the record for best winning percentage of the modern era, with a .763 mark. However, they lost the 1906 World Series to their crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox. Curiously, both of those teams were so far in front that they seemingly lost their edge, and fell in the post-season.

The Cubs again relied on dominant pitching during this period, featuring hurlers such as Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Jack Taylor, Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfiester and Orval Overall. The Cubs' pitchers posted a record for lowest staff earned run average that still stands today. Reulbach threw a one-hitter in the 1906 World Series, one of a small handful of twirlers to pitch low-hit games in the post-season (another was Claude Passeau of the Cubs' 1945 squad). Brown acquired his unique and indelicate nickname from having lost most of his index finger in farm machinery when he was a youngster. This gave him the ability to put a natural extra spin on his pitches, which often frustrated opposing batters.

Some experts believe the Cubs could have been in the Series for five straight seasons, had their great catcher Johnny Kling not sat out the entire 1909 season. He had temporarily retired to play professional pocket billiards, but his primary reason for not playing was a contract dispute. His absence hurt the stability of the pitching staff. When he returned in 1910, the Cubs won the pennant again, but the veteran club was unable to defeat the powerful young Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series.

The infield also attained fame. After turning a critical double play against the New York Giants in a July 1910 game, the trio was immortalized in Franklin P. Adams' poem Baseball's Sad Lexicon, which first appeared in the July 18, 1910, edition of the New York Evening Mail:

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The 1906 Cubs won a record 116 games in a 154 game season. The club then won it's last World Series title in 1908

:These are the saddest of possible words:

"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double--
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

At that time, the Giants and the Cubs were two of the league's strongest teams. "Gonfalon" is a poetic way of referring to the league championship pennant that both clubs were symbolically fighting for.

The expression "Tinker to Evers to Chance" is still used today, and means a well-oiled routine or a "sure thing". People sometimes tend to add an "s" to Tinker. They also typically pronounce Evers' name as "EH-verz". According to baseball historian and biographer Lee Allen (in The National League Story, p.107), the proper pronunciation was "EE-verz", as in the proper British long-E pronunciation of "Mt. Everest".

Tinker and Evers reportedly could not stand each other, and rarely spoke off the field. Evers, a high-strung, argumentative man, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1911 and rarely played that year. Chance suffered a near-fatal beaning the same year. The trio played together little after that. In 1913, Chance went to manage the New York Yankees and Tinker went to Cincinnati to manage the Reds, and that was the end of one of the most notable infields in baseball. They were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together in 1946. Tinker and Evers reportedly became amicable in their old age, with the baseball wars far behind them.

Every three years

The Cubs fell into a lengthy doldrum after their early 1900s Glory Years, broken only by their pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918. Around that time, chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley obtained majority ownership of the Cubs, and things started to turn around, especially after they acquired the services of astute baseball man William Veeck, Sr..

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Hack Wilson hit .356 with 56 home runs and 191 RBI for the Cubs in 1930. Some call this the best season by any player in MLB history.

With Wrigley's money and Veeck's savvy, the Cubs were soon back in business in the National League, the front office having built a team that would be strong contenders for the next decade. During that stretch, they achieved the unusual accomplishment of winning a pennant every three years - 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1938 - sometimes in thrilling fashion, such as 1935 when they won a record 21 games in a row in September, and 1938 when they won a crucial late-season game with a game ending home run by Gabby Hartnett, known in baseball lore as the "Homer in the Gloamin'."

Unfortunately, their success did not extend to the post-season, as they fell to their American League rivals each time, often in humiliating fashion. Since their last World Series win in 1908, the Cubs have now appeared in seven World Series, and have lost all of them. By the late 1930s, the double-Bills (Wrigley and Veeck), were both dead. As the decade wound down, the front office under P.K. Wrigley was unable to rekindle the kind of success that P.K.'s father had created, and the Cubs slipped into mediocrity. The Cubs enjoyed one more pennant, at the close of another World War. Due to the wartime travel restrictions, the first three games were played in Detroit, where the Cubs won two of them, and the last four were to be played at Wrigley. In game 4 of 1945 World Series, the Curse of the Billy Goat was laid upon the Cubs when Mr. Wrigley ejected Billy Sianis, who had come to game 4 with two tickets, one for him and one for his goat. Upon his ejection, Mr. Sianis uttered, "the Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs lost game 4, lost the 1945 World Series, and have not been back since then, at least through the 2006 season.

Championship dry spell

The Cubs have the longest dry spell between championships in all of the four major U.S. sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), having failed to win a World Series since 1908. The Cubs have not been to the World Series since 1945, and they finished in the second division, or bottom half, of the National League for 20 consecutive years beginning in 1947.

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Cubs uniforms from different eras

The long history of the Cubs is a trichotomy. For their first 80 years, prior to and including 1945, the Cubs were generally assumed to be contenders, playing well and winning the occasional pennant. For the next 38 years, the Cubs were the driest team in baseball, never making the playoffs once. Since 1984, the "baseball gods" have granted the Cubs just an occasional glimmer of hope.

Even a few years into the post-World War II era, astute observers of the game began to suspect that something had gone wrong with the Cubs franchise, and that it might take them a long time to recover. In his 1950 book The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, LaMont Buchanan wrote the following prose next to photos of Wrigley (apparently taken during the 1945 World Series) and of their newly-hired manager: "From the sublime to last place! Wrigley Field, the ivy of its walls still whispering of past greatness, watches its Cubs grow less ferocious in '47, '48, '49. New doctor of the cure is smiling Frank Frisch, veteran of previous baseball transfusions who thinks, 'It's nice to have the fans with you.' Chicago has a great baseball tradition. The fans remember glorious yesterdays as they wait for brighter tomorrows. And eventually their Cubs will bite again." Little did anyone realize how long "eventually" might turn out to be.

What may be the least known, but possibly the most telling, statistic of futility for the Cubs, though, is that their first back-to-back winning seasons since 1973 came in 2003 and 2004. Nonetheless, they remain one of the best-loved and best-attended teams in the league, with attendance figures consistently in the top 10, despite the 3rd smallest stadium in Major League Baseball.

As with the Boston Red Sox (prior to their astonishing 2004 post-season triumph), the Cubs of recent generations have seemed to be a team that "bad things happen to." Although there is a tendency to compare the Cubs and the Red Sox, there is a stark difference. Since World War II, the Red Sox have been frequent contenders and frequent visitors to the post-season, including five trips to the World Series. They have had more of a reputation as "chokers" than as "losers", the tag that the Cubs bear.

Despite their image as "Lovable Losers" during the post-World War II era, the club's longevity combined with their earlier successes add up to a major league record 9,756 victories (for a franchise in a single city) through the 2004 season. In other years the Cubs have shown they can win, or at least contend, when their pitching is superior. Outstanding pitching has been a major factor in every one of their winning seasons since World War II. But although there is no substitute for front-office savvy and on-the-field excellence, the venerable ballpark itself has to be considered a factor in the team's failures to go farther than they have. When the bleachers were extended into left field in 1937, it shortened the true power alley from a posted distance of 372 feet to about 350 feet, which is too short for major league standards, especially for a left field. Most batters are right-handed, so their natural power alley is left-center. Thus most asymmetric ballparks have their short field in right. Not so with Wrigley. This allows more left-center field home runs than the average ballpark would. Pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, upon being traded to the Texas Rangers after a successful though home-run prone career with the Cubs, bitterly complained that "Wrigley Field is a bad ballpark!"

Refusal to realign

File:Greg Maddux.jpg
Greg Maddux, a Cy Young winner with Chicago in 1992, returned in 2004.

After the 1992 season, then-commissioner Fay Vincent thought the addition of the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies was the perfect time to realign the National League to make the Western and Eastern divisions more geographically accurate. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds were to move to the Eastern Division while the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were to go to the West. Many thought this plan would be beneficial to the league as a whole, especially by building a regional rivalry between the new franchise in Miami and the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs, however, opposed the move, suggesting that fans in the Central Time Zone would be forced to watch more games originating on the West Coast with later broadcast times (had the realignment included the use of a balanced schedule, the Cubs would have actually played more games against teams outside their division). Partially due to the complications of a two-division system, a three-division structure was born in 1994, Which placed the Cubs in the newly formed National League Central, along with Houston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and the newest NL team, Milwaukee, who moved from the American League. The NL Central is the biggest division in the MLB, with 6 teams. All other divisions have 5 teams, except the AL West, which has only 4. This was done to keep the number of teams even in both leagues, though many believe it hurts the NL Central teams, having more teams to compete with annually.

Heartbreak

While the Cubs haven't won a World Series championship since 1908, the past 40 years have seen some potentially great seasons come to abrupt and agonizing conclusions.

In 1969, the Cubs had a substantial lead in August, led by All Star Ron Santo and Hall Of Famers Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, and Billy Williams. Ken Holtzman pitched a No-Hitter on August 19. At mid-month they led by 8½ games over the Cardinals and 9½ games over the Mets, but they wilted under pressure, lost key games against those surprising New York Mets, and floundered a shot at the postseason by 8 games (92-70). Many superstitious fans attribute this collapse to an incident at Shea Stadium when a fan released a black cat onto the field, thereby cursing the club. Others have stated that all the day games that the Cubs had to play contributed them to their collapse. (Lights for night games were not installed in Wrigley Field until 1988.) Chicago's summers are quite humid (85-90 degrees Fahrenheit on average), and playing in this heat day after day might have taken its toll (although the average temperature that summer was 71.8 degrees, about the mean[5]). From August 14 through the end of the season, the Mets went 39-11 (23-7 in September alone)[6], while the Cubs went 18-27 (8-17 in September) [7]

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Ryne Sandberg was the 1984 National League MVP

In the 1984 season, Jim Frey managed the Cubs to the NL East Championship, winning 96 games. The Cubs acquired star pitcher Rick Sutcliffe to compliment an already good team which boasted players such as Ron Cey, Lee Smith, and Leon "Bull" Durham, as well as 1984 NL MVP Ryne Sandberg. It was the clubs first postseason appearance since 1945, and the team won the first two games of the NLCS at Wrigley Field against the San Diego Padres by scores of 13-0 and 4-2, respectively. The Western Division Champion Padres held home field advantage in 1984, however, and games 3, 4, and 5 would be played in San Diego. The Cubs needed to win only one those next three contests in San Diego to make it to the World Series. After being soundly beaten in game 3, the Cubs lost a heart breaker when Smith, the teams All-Star closer, allowed a game-winning home run to Steve Garvey in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4. Game 5 was just as bad - the Cubs took a 3-0 lead to the 6th inning, and a 3-2 lead into the 7th with 1984 Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe on the mound. But Sutcliffe tired, and a critical error by Leon Durham helped the San Diego Padres win the game and head to the World Series to face Detroit. Many fans still remember Garvey rounding first after his home run in Game 4, pumping his fist into the air, as one of the lowest moments in Cubdom.

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During his famous "Home Run Race" with Mark McGwire in '98, Sammy celebrates one of his 66 with a trademark hop.

The 1989 Cubs, still anchored by Sandberg and Sutcliffe, won the NL East again, finishing with up a 93 win season with a 6 game lead over New York. Some young faces contributed to the teams success, as Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith finished first and second in the race for NL Rookie of the Year, respectively. First baseman Mark Grace led the team in hitting in only his second season in the majors. The pitching was solid as well, featuring starters Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, and Mike Bilecki. This time the Cubs met the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS. After splitting the first two games in Chicago, the series headed to the Bay Area. Despite holding the lead at some point in each of the next three games, and an despite solid play from shortstop Shawon Dunston and an MVP caliber series from Grace, the team was unable to overcome bullpen meltdowns and managerial blunders by Don Zimmer, which ultimately led to three straight losses and another early exit from the post season. The Giants went on to lose to the Oakland Athletics, in the famous "Earthquake Series."

The 1998 Cubs made some major offseason moves prior to the season. Dunston was replaced by Jeff Blauser and the team also acquired Henry Rodriguez, fresh off a 40-HR season with the Montreal Expos to compliment Sammy Sosa, on a team that also featured Kevin Tapani, Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams and fan favorite Mark Grace. The Cubs won an intense race to the playoffs, and qualified as a wild card team on the strength of an incredible 66 HR season from Sosa and Kerry Wood's dominating Rookie of the Year pitching, which included an MLB record-tying 20 strikeout performance against the Astros. Near the end of the year, Gary Gaetti was claimed off waivers to fill the gap at third base. After finishing the regular season tied with San Francisco for the wild card, the Cubs faced the Giants in a one-game playoff, in which Gaetti had the winning home run at Wrigley. Their next opponent was the Atlanta Braves, but the Cubs performed poorly, scoring only four runs as they were swept in 3 games. The Sosa-McGwire home run chase, however, is believed to have "saved baseball" bringing new fans and bringing back fans who were soured following the 1994 MLB labor strike which cancelled the entire playoffs. GM Ed Lynch and manager Jim Riggleman opted to keep many of the same players who had career years in 1998 for the 1999 season. The team was 9 games over .500 in June when they were swept by the crosstown rival White Sox in Comiskey Park, which was the genesis of an epic tailspin, resulting in the club finishing in last place, a whopping 30 games behind Houston.

The 2001 Season flew under the radar with most fans, but the Cubs made a respectable drive for the division and Wild Card that season, finishing only 5 games behind both St. Louis and Houston. (The Astros were awarded the division title due to beating The Cardinals in head to head play) The Cubs had acquired Rondell White in late 2000 and made a deadline trade to acquire All-Star 1B Fred McGriff, though McGriff took over a month debating whether or not to approve the deal and leave his hometown Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jon Lieber had a 20 win season, and along with Tapani and Wood made up a very solid rotation. Sosa had perhaps his best season, hitting 64 homers and had career highs in batting average (.328) and RBI (160) for Don Baylor's club. The team's spirits took a hit in early September as the Cubs led the eventual Wild Card winning Cardinals by 3 games, but Preston Wilson's game winning home run off of the Cubs' closer Tom "Flash" Gordon killed the team's momentum, and they failed to make another serious charge. The Cubs did manage to win 7 of their last 9 games and finished 88-74, but had a disasterous 2002 campaign, after which manager Don Baylor was fired and replaced with Dusty Baker.

2003

The Cubs won their first division title in 14 years in 2003, after trading for Aramis Ramirez and riding Sosa, Wood, and Mark Prior to an 88 win season. The Cubs played rather poorly near the end of the season but beat out the charging Astros and clinched the division on September 27th against Pittsburgh (exactly as they did in 1984) extending to a 2 game lead in the NL Central with one game to play. The Cubs ended up winning by only one game. Prior and Wood were dubbed "Chicago Heat" by Sports Illustrated and the name stuck. The team regrouped for the playoffs, and their NLDS victory over the Atlanta Braves was the team's first postseason series win since 1908. The Cubs then took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Florida Marlins, and it appeared they would reach the World Series for the first time in 58 seasons.

Sign at a Wrigleyville bar taken on the day of the "Bartman Game."
Sammy Sosa tells the Bleacher Bums "2 outs!!" during a home game at Wrigley Field.

Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett shut out the Cubs in Game 5. Most fans thought this a blessing, as with Prior and Wood slated to start the next two games, victory seemed all but assured, and the team could "break the curse" at home. Game 6 was a scene unlike anything since, as some estimated 200,000 screaming fans battled the chilly weather and packed the streets outside Wrigley Field, and thousands more packed into local bars around the park, in anticipation of witnessing a Cubs World Series berth. That night, the Cubs took a 3-0 lead into the 8th inning, when the now-infamous incident took place in which a fan, Steve Bartman, attempted to catch a foul ball that Moises Alou was attempting to catch to record an out. The play, coupled with an error by SS Alex S. Gonzalez rattled the team and opened the door to 8 Florida runs and a Marlin victory. The next night, the Cubs rebounded to gain a lead in Game 7, with Kerry Wood on the mound, but lost a close, back and forth game and were once again were left on the outside of the World Series looking in.

(To historians of the game, the incident in game 6 of the 2003 NLCS echoed another Cubs disaster, Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, in which the Cubs yielded 10 runs to the Philadelphia Athletics in the seventh inning. A key play in that inning was center fielder Hack Wilson losing a fly ball in the sun, resulting in a 3-run inside-the-park home run.)

A return to disappointment

In 2004, misfortune struck the Cubs again. The team welcomed back prodigal son Greg Maddux as to fill the fourth spot in the rotation behind Wood, Prior, and Carlos Zambrano, giving the Cubs what on paper was considered to be the strongest rotation in the league. In late July, GM Jim Hendry pulled a blockbuster trade with eventual champion Boston for Nomar Garciaparra, and the Cubs held the Wild Card lead by a game and a half on September 24, but suffered a late inning comeback from the Mets, and then proceeded to drop 7 of their last 9 games and relinquished the lead to the Houston Astros. The final game of the season was a meaningless victory over the Braves, which Sosa requested to sit out, but was videotaped by security cameras as he left the ballpark early in the game. When asked about the event by the media, Sosa attempted to lie about it. Already a controversial figure in the clubhouse, Sammy alienated much of his fan base (and the few team members who still were on good terms with him) with this incident, leaving his place in Cubs' lore possibly tarnished for years to come. The disappointing season also led to the departure of popular commentator Steve Stone, who became increasingly critical of management and players toward season's end. At one point, reliever Kent Mercker phoned the booth during a game and told Stone and Chip Caray to "keep out of team business." Though Dusty Baker had led the team to 89 wins in 2004, a one game improvement over 2003's near World Series season, the expectations were loftier and the season was deemed a failure. This time, the fallout was decidedly unlovable, as the Cubs traded Sosa in the off-season to the Baltimore Orioles for Jerry Hairston Jr and Mike Fontenot. Months later, Sammy, along with many other players, was summoded to testify to the grand jury about steroids.

Lee, Alou and A-Ram led the Wild Card charge in 2004

Inconsistency struck the Cubs in 2005, as the team finished in fourth place in the NL Central and, at 79-83, under .500 for the first time since 2002. Many key players expected to contribute to the teams success missed extended time due to injury, including Ramirez, Prior, Wood, and Garciaparra. Though many felt Baker had done a great job leading the team to what was nearly a .500 season, most of the the media and fan base started to call for Baker's head. Not all was negative however, as despite the injuries and the team's mediocre overall performance, the team witnessed a career year from newly acquired first baseman Derrek Lee (.335 batting average, 46 home runs, 107 RBIs) and the rise of a closer, Ryan Dempster (33 saves in 35 save opportunities). The Tribune gave Baker one last chance to turn things around, and Jim Hendry retooled the lineup for the 2006 campaign. During the offseason, the Cubs revamped the outfield, acquiring speedy center fielder Juan Pierre from the Florida Marlins for three young pitchers (including Sergio Mitre and Ricky Nolasco). The Cubs also signed free agent outfielder Jacque Jones to a 3-year deal to fill a hole in right field. Veterans Bob Howry and Scott Eyre were both brought in to shore up the bullpen - each received a 3-year contract. Former blue-chip prospect Corey Patterson, who despite short flashes of brilliance never showed the ability to play well consistently at the big league level, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

The Cubs came out of the gate hot in 2006, starting out at 14-9, but an injury to All-Star first baseman Derrek Lee sent the team into a tailspin of historic proportions. In early May, the team set a franchise record for offensive futility by scoring only 13 runs in 11 games. The Cubs finished the season 66-96; they have now decreased their win total each year by at least 10 each year beginning in 2004, and manager Dusty Baker was let go.

2007

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Soriano signed the richest deal in the franchise's during the 2007 season

After letting Baker's contract expire, the Cubs hired veteran skipper Lou Piniella, after a managerial search that included former Cub Joe Girardi. Soon afterward, The Chicago Tribune was sold to Sam Zell, along with the Cubs. Zell, a minor partner with the White Sox, had no desire to own the team and demanded the Tribune sell before the start of the 2008 season. Some of those interested in the team include Mark Cuban, who filled out an application in July, as well as Jerry Colangelo. There are reports that Steve Stone may be interested in joining one of the ownership groups as well.

The Tribune has decided to give it one last shot. The Cubs signed pitchers Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis to complement Zambrano, and gave Alfonso Soriano the richest contract in team history to complement Lee and the newly re-signed Ramirez. Chicago started slowly and trailed the division leading Milwaukee Brewers by eight games in May. However, the Cubs won nineteen games in July, and tied the Brewers briefly for first place in early August, but fell behind after failing to win five consecutive series. The team is currently leading the Brewers for first place in the National League Central by one half game.

See also

Season-by-season results

Main article: Chicago Cubs seasons

No-hitters throughout team history

Cy Young Award winners

Opening day starting pitchers

Baseball Hall of Famers

Elected at least in part based on performance with Cubs

 

Other Hall-of-Famers associated with Cubs

Retired numbers

Reserved Numbers

  • 31 - Upon signing with the Cubs prior to the 2007 season, Ted Lilly was told that he would wear uniform number 30 rather than his usual 31 due to its imminent retirement. It is currently unannounced if 31 would be retired in the name of Ferguson Jenkins, Greg Maddux, or both.[8]

Current roster

Chicago Cubs 2025 spring training roster
40-man roster Non-roster invitees Coaches/Other

Pitchers


Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders







Manager

Coaches

  • 55 Quintin Berry (third base)
  • 63 Juan Cabreja (assistant hitting)
  • 93 Erick Castillo (bullpen catcher)
  • 84 Ryan Flaherty (bench)
  • 68 Tommy Hottovy (pitching)
  • 86 Casey Jacobson (assistant pitching)
  • 65 Jose Javier (first base)
  • 76 Dustin Kelly (hitting)
  • 85 Garrett Lloyd (bullpen catcher)
  • 80 John Mallee (assistant hitting)
  • 90 Jonathan Mota (major league coach)
  • 97 Alex Smith (major league strategy)
  • 81 Mark Strittmatter (bullpen)



39 active, 0 inactive, 0 non-roster invitees

7-, 10-, or 15-day injured list
 * Not on active roster
 † Suspended list
 Roster, coaches, and NRIs updated December 9, 2024
 Transactions • Depth chart
 → All MLB rosters


Minor league affiliations

Radio and television

As of 2007, the Cubs' flagship radio station was WGN, 720AM. With the recent end of the Pittsburgh Pirates' run on KDKA, this may now be the longest team-to-station relationship in MLB. Pat Hughes is the play-by-play announcer, along with color commentator Ron Santo and pre- and post-game host Cory Provus. Santo is by far the most popular, and his in game "meltdowns" when something goes wrong (Brant Brown's drop in 1998 being onte of the most famous) and his jubuliant celebrations when something goes right are quickly becoming a Cub legend.

Cubs telecasts are split three ways: WGN (both the local station and the superstation), WCIU (a local independent station), and Comcast SportsNet. Len Kasper is the play-by-play announcer, and Bob Brenly, a former major league catcher and Arizona Diamondbacks manager, is the color commentator for the games. WGN also produces the games shown on WCIU; for those games, the score bug changes to "CubsNet." WGN and Comcast Sports Net each show an even number of Cubs and Sox games, while WCIU averages about 8 games per season per team. Occasionally, the Cubs are shown on the cable channel Comcast Sports Net+, when the usual CSN channel has a scheduling conflict. CSN+ is just the CSN game broadcast on a different cable channel from regular CSN, with the channel depending on the region.

Harry and Jack

Harry Caray memorialized in a statue near Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Two broadcasters have made their mark on the team. Jack Brickhouse manned the Cubs radio and tv booth for parts of four decades, and his trademark call "Hey Hey!" usually followed a home run or other spectacular play.

Harry Caray's stamp on the team is even deeper than that of Brickhouse, though his tenure was half as long. Caray had the benefit of being in the booth during the NL East title run in 1984, when being a Cub fan became more popular to Chicagoans. His trademark call of "Holy Cow!" and his enthusiastic singing of "Take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning streach made Caray a fan favorite both locally and, thanks to WGN's superstation status, on a national level as well. Even more entertaining was Caray's gawking at women in the stands, his mispronouncing of players names, (especially Hector Villanueva) spelling names backward (Harry once informed fans that Sosa spelled backward is "Asos") and his lively discussions with Steve Stone and producer Arnie Harris. Caray often playfully quarrelled with Stone over Stone's cigar, while Stone would counter with poking fun at Harry being "under the influence." Harry once did a commercial for Budweiser singing "I'm a Cub fan, I'm a Bud man," while dancing with models dressed as ballgirls.

The Cubs still have a live singer, usually a celebrity, during the 7th inning streach to this day. Caray is honored with a statue located at the corner of Sheffield and Addison streets, and druing the 1998 season, a pacth with Caray's caricature and Brickhouse's "Hey Hey" were worn on the players sleeves to honor the passing of both commentators within a span of a few months.

Miscellaneous

File:Cubswarmup.JPG
Cubs warmup while on the road

The Cubs have no official mascot, though a 'polar bear' looking mascot, which had no name, and was not popular with the fans, was used briefly in the early 1990's.[citation needed] Currently, however, the Cubs' un-official mascot is a formerly homeless man named Ronnie Wickers, who goes by the nickname of "Ronnie Woo Woo."[9] Wickers is not employed by the team, but is seen daily at games and outside the park, dressed in full uniform, usually with a hula hoop or jump rope. Wickers is the second fan to reach this status, the first being "Gary The Drunk" in the 1980's thru mid 90's.[citation needed] Wickers, however, is much more popular. He is known for his trademark yelling, for example "Mark.... Wooo! Grace.... Wooo!," and has been adopted by fans as a part of the culture at Wrigley Field. Wrigleyville is part of the Lakeview neighborhood, on Chicago's north side. Wrigley Field itself is located in between Sheffield Ave, Waveland Ave, Addison St, and Clark St. Wrigleyville itself extends about 3 blocks each direction, though parking on the streets during the games sometimes fills an area far beyond that. Many residents rent out their yards and driveways during games to people looking for a parking spot. Though many Wrigleyville homeowners have seen their property values skyrocket since the 1984 season, most still oppose the teams quest to play more night games and stadium expansion[10].

File:Fansatwrigleybar2003.JPG
Some Cub fans celebrate the NLDS win over Atlanta at a Lakeview nightclub in 2003

The large amount of day games is a popular reason for the Cubs tendency to break down late in the season, often called the "June Swoon." The team has also gotten stout opposition from Chicago Mayor (and die-hard White Sox fan) Richard Daley.

Wrigley field is often called a "beergarden" and the fans "yuppies" or "partygoers". Some of these stereotypes of Cub fans are drawn off of the fact that the ballpark is located in an area which contains various nightclubs and bars, many of which are themed after the team. The Cubbie Bear, Murphy's Bleachers, Sluggers, Harry Caray's (High Tops will become Harry Carays in 2008 [11]) and the Billy Goat Tavern, among others. Many fans also congregate on the rooftops across from the park, which have charged inflated admission and undergone large-scale expansions, especially since the Wild Card run and Sosa/McGwire home run chase in 1998. Cub fans are also known as some of the best "travelling fans" in sports, in that there are usually plenty of Cub fans attending the teams away games. This is especially true when the club visits Arizona, Milwaukee, Colorado, and St. Louis.

Many players call Wrigley, especially the bleacher sections, one of ballparks where heckeling is at its highest. Wrigley has had many famous hecklers over the years, the most notable was Mike Murphy, who now hosts a radio show on "The Score" 670 AM (WSCR)in Chicago.[citation needed] The heckling is known as "the crossfire."

Songs

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Many songs have been written about the Cubs or are otherwise associated with the team. Here are a few:

  • "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game" - a 1950s tune by the Harry Simeone Songsters, it was the WGN radio intro music during the Quinlan-Lloyd-Boudreau years. The song was included on one of the "Baseball's Greatest Hits" CD collections.
  • "The Cubs Song (Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel)" - produced in 1969 by a Chicago studio group (the Len Dresslar Singers), and later covered by several members of the team. Its title refers to the home run calls of the team's TV and radio play-by-play men, Jack Brickhouse and Vince Lloyd respectively. It became kind of infamous among fans, as a reminder of a year that ended badly for the team. However, it was played over the public address with no sense of irony, during the ceremony retiring Ron Santo's number 10 on the last day of the 2003 regular season.
  • "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" - a lengthy and funny (and prophetic) song recorded "live" by die-hard Cubs fan and folk musician Steve Goodman in the early 1980s.
  • "Go Cubs Go" - a rah-rah tune by Steve Goodman that became the theme for the WGN radio coverage of the team during its division-winning season of 1984. Goodman died of leukemia just days before the Cubs clinched their first title in 39 years. The song is played over the stadium PA system following a Cubs victory.
  • "Here's to You, Men in Blue" - a bluegrass/country number recorded by a group of team members in 1984.
  • "The Land of Wrigley" - by a local group called Stormy Weather, inspired by the old standard "Let the Good Times Roll."
  • "Here Come the Cubs" - a rah-rah tune done specially for the Cubs by The Beach Boys, to the tune of "Barbara Ann", used extensively on WGN radio during the team's division-winning season of 1989.
  • "Cubs, Cubs, Cubs" - a song done by The Beach Boys, to the tune of "Fun, Fun, Fun"
  • "Jump" by Van Halen - This 1984 song (from the group's album titled 1984) was played immediately before every Cubs home game from 1984 through 2006 when the Cubs defense would take the field for the top of the 1st inning. It was also used as an opening-credits theme for WGN-TV broadcasts during the 1984 season. The energetic number has also been among various rock songs played over the public address in recent years.
  • "Cubs in Five" by The Mountain Goats, off their 1995 EP Nine Black Poppies. Mountain Goats' main songwriter John Darnielle is a long-time Cubs fan.

Since the 2006 season, the Cubs have instituted a rotation of songs, going with "Clocks" by Coldplay, "Have a Nice Day" by Bon Jovi, "Jump" by Van Halen, "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation" by U2.

Media references

  • In an early episode of Crime Story, Detective Mike Torello (played by real-life Cubs fan Dennis Farina) meets a friend at Wrigley Field, and in another, a character mentions a Cubs victory, and Ron Santo by name.
  • In the 1986 thriller Manhunter, a Cubs loss is mentioned in passing on a radio station.
  • In a 1993 episode of the science fiction TV series Time Trax, Dale Midkiff played Darien Lambert, a 22nd century police officer who wore a vintage Cubs' baseball cap of the year 2145, that being the next year they won a pennant (200 years later). [12]
  • The team is featured as an opponent of Gary Coleman's team (The Padres) in The Kid from Left Field in 1979.
  • In the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in the year 2015 witnesses a newsflash on a public video message board saying the Cubs swept the Miami Gators(a fictional team) in the World Series, a "100-to-1 shot," according to a passer by.[12] Ironically, the Chicago Cubs and the real Miami-based Florida Marlins would meet in the 2003 National League Championship Series. Unless the Marlins or Cubs swap leagues, they will definitely not meet in the World Series.
  • W.P. Kinsella's 1984 short story "The Last Pennant Before Armageddon" depicts a Cubs manager who dreams of Cubs fans appealing to God to let the Cubs win the pennant, which God does, but only just prior to the day of Armageddon.[12] This is briefly mentioned in the form of a crank letter received at the team offices in his full-length story The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, which features the World Champion 1908 team.
  • On the TV series 24, Tony Almeida, played by Carlos Bernard who is a Cubs fan in real life, had a Cubs coffee mug, christened "Cubby" by fans of the show, that appeared on his desk at CTU during seasons 1-3, and again at his home in seasons 4 and 5. Curiously, according to Operation Hell Gate, Tony is from the South side of Chicago, where the White Sox play. However, since the Declassified novels have not been established as series canon, Tony may actually be from the North side.
  • In the movie A Sound Of Thunder Cubs world series pennants from the years 2018 and 2021 hang on the wall in the main character's apartment.
  • A pair of films, Elmer, the Great and Alibi Ike, have the Cubs in their central plotline.
  • The film Rookie of the Year deals with a young teenager who, after breaking his arm, acquires a fastball that tops 100 mph and is signed to pitch for the Cubs.
  • In the 1991 movie Taking Care of Business, James Belushi's character breaks out of jail so that he can watch the Cubs play the California Angels in the World Series.
  • In the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Matthew Broderick's title character catches a foul ball in the left field stands of Wrigley Field.
  • In the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, both the Illinois State Police and a neo-Nazi leader played by Henry Gibson are led to believe that Jake and Elwood reside at 1060 West Addison Street. It is the actual address of Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs.
  • In the 2006 movie The Break-Up, Vince Vaughn's character met Jennifer Aniston's character at a Cubs game, and can regularly be seen watching Cubs highlights throughout the movie.
  • In the 2007 movie License to Wed, John Krasinski wears a Cubs hat, Mandy Moore uses a Cubs mug and Robin Williams pretends he is listening to baseball, while Krasinski catches him and says; "Nice try, the Cubs are off today".
  • 1997 Live Episode of the NBC series "ER" showed a scene in which in the background a television showed a live broadcast of an actual Cubs/Astros game.
  • 2007 ABC series "Traveler," main characters Jay Burchell,Tyler Fog, and Will Traveler are Cubs fans and mention Cubs references throughout the show.
  • Current TBS series "My Boys" features actress Jordana Spiro (character PJ Franklin) as a Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and Kyle Howard (character Bobby Newman) as beat writer for the Chicago Tribune

Unusual management practices

  • Evil Eye: For one year during the United States Great Depression, P.K. Wrigley hired a man for $5,000 to sit behind home plate of Wrigley Field and hex the opposing baseball teams' pitchers with an "evil eye" procedure.[13] It failed.
  • College of Coaches: During the 1961 and 1962 seasons, P.K. Wrigley instituted a never-before-tried team management system of rotating of coaches between the team and its minor leagues and farm system. It also failed with a combined 123-193 won-loss record[13]
  • Around that same time, the Cubs hired an "Athletic Director", a retired military officer named Robert Whitlow. His purpose was to instill some discipline, but his primary achievement was extending Wrigley Field's center field fence upward by adding a screen to the top of the wall and letting the ivy twine its way up. "Whitlow's Wall" was supposed to improve the batters' background, but it was also in play, and cost some Cubs hitters some home runs. Once Whitlow was fired, the fence was removed.
  • During a dispute between the Cubs and their manager, Leo Durocher, ca. 1971, Wrigley took a full-page newspaper ad chastising the "rebellious" players and stating "if only we had more team players like Ernie Banks." However well-intentioned, the ad served only to cause further divisiveness and the Durocher era soon came to an end.
  • Eye tests, rubber tires and balance beams: Cubs' Player Development Chief, Al Goldis once instituted a player development program during spring training which required the players to undergo eye tests and practice their coordination, batting stance and bat swing atop a series of 25 old rubber tires and a pile of two-by-fours[13]

Unusual events

  • Cap Anson once hung between 275 and 500+ bats on the ceiling of the basement of his house.[13]
  • Femme Fatale Miss Violet Valli, on July 6, 1932, psychotic and suicidal, entered Cubs' shortstop Billy Jurges's apartment and shot him during a confrontation.[13] This became an inspiration for the Bernard Malamud novel The Natural.
  • In July of 2005, Jasen Mummert and Derek Schaul, the head "Bleacher Bums" reported to WSCR host and Bleacher Bum "founder" Mike Murphy that they were boycotting all games until the team was 10 games over .500, siting Baker's futility and the teams poor play, and though they have been seen at games since, their influence has erroded. The two were known for repeated and relentless heckeling, most notably the instance written about by Mike Piazza in The Sporting News, April of 2002. Schaul is known as the "Ballhawk" and has collected over 2000 game balls at Wrigley and other parks.[14]
  • In 1995, a fan named John Murray charged the mound and assaulted closer Randy Myers. That same fan is now a driving force behind the "It's Gonna Happen" slogan, which has caught on in 2007 as the Cubs are fighting for first place.
Wrigley Field's famous manual scoreboard, the oldest scoreboard in all of sports

Notes

  1. ^ ESPN.com, Prominent names mentioned as possible Cubs' buyers Retrieved on April 2, 2007
  2. ^ "Cubs set MLB and franchise record in tickets sold", Chicago Cubs Press Release, February 22, 2006.
  3. ^ "MLB Team Valuations", Forbes Magazine, 2005. Statistics are for the 2004 season.
  4. ^ "Opening of the Base Ball Campaign at St. Louis". Chicago Tribune. 1870-04-30. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ "Chicago Summer Temperature Rankings", NOAA's National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, September 7, 2006.
  6. ^ "1969 New York Mets Schedule", Baseball Almanac.
  7. ^ "1969 Chicago Cubs Schedule", Baseball Almanac.
  8. ^ Muskat, Carrie (2006-12-15). "Cubs welcome Lilly to Chicago" (HTML). MLB.com. MLB.com. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ "Woo Who", Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times, April 1, 2005.
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ [2]
  12. ^ a b c Castle, George. The Million-To-One Team. Why the Cubs Haven't Won a Pennant Since 1945. 2000. Diamond Communications, Inc., South Bend, Indiana. ISBN 1-888698-31-4
  13. ^ a b c d e Gentile, Derek. The Complete Chicago Cubs. The Total Encyclopedia of the Team. 2002. Black Dog and Leventhal. New York, N.Y. ISBN:1-57912-241-8
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference multiple was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chicago Cubs.


Further reading

  • Murphy, Cait (2007). "Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History." New York, NY: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-0-06-088937-1
  • Wright, Marshall (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4
Preceded by World Series Champions
Chicago Cubs
1907 and 1908 		Succeeded by
Preceded by National League Champions
Chicago Cubs
1906 and 1907 and 1908 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
1910 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
1918 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
1929 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
1932 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
1935 		Succeeded by
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Chicago Cubs
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Chicago Cubs
1945 		Succeeded by

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