The Top 20 Cub HR Of All Time - #8 Gary Gaetti 9/28/1998

by Al Yellon on Feb 5, 2008 8:22 AM CST in Baseball Stories

It seemed, at the time, like a useless acquisition. The Cubs signed Gary Gaetti, who had been released by the Cardinals, on his 40th birthday, August 19, 1998. Gaetti had hit decently for St. Louis -- .265/.339/.454 -- but appeared mostly done, and had had only one really good year (1995) in the previous ten.

Suddenly, those ten years melted away. In 37 games as a Cub in August and September 1998, Gaetti hit .320/.397/.594 with 8 HR in 128 AB. He even looked less statue-like at third base than he had for the past several seasons.

And on the night of September 28, he broke up a scoreless tie in the fifth inning with a home run after Henry Rodriguez had singled. Steve Trachsel still had a no-hitter going (despite six walks), although that was broken up in the 7th. For a while, it appeared the two runs would be all the Cubs would need to win the game and make the playoffs. In true Cub fashion, though, what appeared to be an easy 5-0 win into a nailbiter; the first four Giants reached base in the 9th inning and after a long fly ball by Barry Bonds put a scare into all of us who were there (it wound up caught for a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-3), Rod Beck was summoned to retire Jeff Kent and Joe Carter for the final two outs and the Cubs won what was at the time, the first winner-take-all game at Wrigley Field since Game 7 of the 1945 World Series.

The mistake then-GM Ed Lynch made was thinking that Gaetti (and the other oldsters who wheezed into the postseason with the 1998 Cubs) could do it again in 1999. Lynch kept most of that team together, and they played well for 1/3 of a season; after beating Arizona on June 8 they were 32-23 and a game out of first place. The next day, Lance Johnson got picked off first base to end the game, and that seemed to unravel the 1999 Cubs; they went 33-74 (yes, .308 ball, a 112-loss pace for a full season) the rest of the year. Gaetti hit .204/.260/.339 for the 1999 Cubs, and was released at season's end.

But for about five weeks, and especially in the 1998 tiebreaker game, Gary Gaetti was a Cub hero.

Tweet Comment 16 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

great game

I remember being really excited going into the playoffs. Then the Braves swept us....don't really have much to say about that.

AC 00 00 00 - BELIEVE

by mike @ Bleed Cubbie Blue on Feb 5, 2008 9:22 AM CST reply actions

Me too.

It's always odd to look back when pure excitement leads to undeserved optimism. I always look back and think, how did I ever think we had a shot?

by slocs55 on Feb 5, 2008 12:55 PM CST up reply actions

What a great game!

Gaetti had found the fountain of youth. At the time, I'd never witnessed so much celebrating. The Police closed off Clark Street, and fans wandered up and down Clark, stopping at there favorite watering holes. I got kissed by several young pretty girls that were over celebrating.

Cubs Win!! Cubs Win!

by Ihatethecards on Feb 5, 2008 9:23 AM CST reply actions

Trachsel's best performance as a Cub....

but, holy crap, he was a "Human Rain Delay" that night. He has always been slow, but that night he was very slow.

BELIEVE!

by cubbie08 on Feb 5, 2008 9:37 AM CST reply actions

The Rat and Trachsel

"but, holy crap, he was a "Human Rain Delay" that night."

Boy was he ever. Trachsel seemed to personify grit that night; but slow as much as true.

Gaetti is one of those really good players who was good enough to be on the ballot for the HOF, but has no chance of getting in. Four gold gloves, 360 HR's, MVP of the '87 ALCS. I remember a Trib pundit penning the phrase the next day that the SF pitcher "tried to get some high cheese past the rat"

When I think pure ballplayer..guys like Gaetti come to mind. He did alot of things well and seemed to have a penchant for the big hit.

BBWAA's name should be changed to "Power in the hands of Fools"

by cubfever7 on Feb 5, 2008 2:47 PM CST up reply actions

i was

locked in my dorm room at WIU stressed out. I believe the game ended on a "little pop fly" to Mark Grace, well I dont beleive I know

"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry "I strongly dislike Steve Stone." ---Hammer

by Hammer on Feb 5, 2008 9:41 AM CST reply actions

totally off topic

but what dorm did you live in? I spent a year in Wetzel and a semester in Tanner myself.

AC 00 00 00 - BELIEVE

by mike @ Bleed Cubbie Blue on Feb 5, 2008 10:56 AM CST up reply actions

I lived

in Thompson Hall my freshman year. Then I went on to live in Washington and then houses on Clay street and Chandler Blvd.

Good time

"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry "I strongly dislike Steve Stone." ---Hammer

by Hammer on Feb 5, 2008 1:24 PM CST up reply actions

I was in college

and a friend of mine in the dorm starting chanting "We're No. 4!" after Grace caught Carter's pop fly. Didn't talk to him for a week.

What's funny is that the same friend is a huge Padres fan. I was sure to e-mail him a "We're No. 5 chant" last season after the Rockies won the playoff game.

by elgato on Feb 5, 2008 10:00 AM CST reply actions

It was my senior year in high school

Fun fact: 1989-90 was my last year in my hometown elementary school before it closed. 1998-99 was my senior year of high school. I graduated from college in 2003. I did another semester of study this past spring. Every year I finish at a school, the Cubs go to the playoffs.

Donations are now being accepted for grad school.

By the way, the front page of the Daily Oklahoman's sport section on 9/29/98 featured a picture of Gaetti watching this homer with the headline, "Trachsel pitches Cubs into playoffs." It's framed and hanging in my office.

by JDay on Feb 5, 2008 10:24 AM CST reply actions

ah

good ol' one-dog getting picked off to end games. seems like it happened every other day!

How did Neifi Perez, Kevin Orie, and Jeremi Gonzalez get Rookie of the League votes in 1997?

by bgsiggy on Feb 5, 2008 10:42 AM CST reply actions

Harry's Ghost

Taking absolutely nothing away from Gary Gaetti, I think "Harry Carey's Ghost" floating over the bleachers contributed heavily to the win by psyching out the Giants. There was definitely something eerie about that thing. Whoever made it should have been awarded at least a quarter play-off share!

by Mike Vails Evil Twin on Feb 5, 2008 12:51 PM CST reply actions

some weird lineups

For the two games in 1999 against Arizona. Jeff Blauser actually hit leadoff in the second game!

by elgato on Feb 5, 2008 3:09 PM CST reply actions

Gary Gaetti

I loved "The Rat", but unfortunately he was the poster boy for how the McFail-Lynch regime did business for most of the '90s: acquire B-level free agents and past-their-prime stars, inexpensive ones of course, and hope that they could over-achieve and at least keep the team competitive enough to keep filling the ballpark, all the while preaching a philosophy of home-growing young talent from the farm system, which remained completely void of talent for the entire decade of the '90s. McFail would deny that until he was blue in the face, of course, but nothing he could say could ever convince me otherwise. It wasn't that he didn't care, or didn't want to win, it was just that the Tribune had him on a leash, and he was under strict orders to maximize profits above all else.

All that being said, that 1998 season was a thriller, and was a lot like 1989 in that the Cubs won a lot of games that they really had no business winning, and won 90 games with a roster (Sosa and Grace excluded) that looked more like a rotissiere team than a Major League roster. But it was so much fun.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Feb 5, 2008 10:29 PM CST reply actions

I'm not so sure...

... it was MacPhail under orders -- I think that was his MO. McDonough, when he took over (and also this year, since he left), didn't seem to be under those restrictions.

So either McDonough is a magician, suddenly unleashing the purse strings, or MacPhail was extremely cautious on his own.

Given what we have seen of MacPhail so far as Orioles GM, I'd lean toward the latter.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Feb 6, 2008 4:14 AM CST up reply actions

It's all my fault...

I was at the 1998 playoff NLDS game against Atlanta. You know... the really cold one where the Cubs lost?

Anyway, my buddies and I drove from Cedar Falls, Iowa for the game for really cold standing room only tickets. We stuck around for like a half hour afterward, walked up to behind the Cubs dugout and heckled Gaetti as he gave Steve Stone an interview post-game on the field. We kept chanting "ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR," until he smiled at us and gave us a thumbs up.

Sorry Cubs fans... It was all my fault.

An open invitation to visit Des Moines and watch the Iowa Cubs...

by IowaCubs- on Feb 7, 2008 12:14 PM CST reply actions