Remembering 1984

by puckishcubsfan on Feb 1, 2009 10:15 AM CST

First does anyone else find it hard to believe that it has been 25 years?

I think it would be fun as we anxiously await the 3849328404820898493024820th Peavy rumor and the start of spring training to remember 1984.

Boy did they look bad in spring training. So bad that some predicted possibly a 100 loss season.

Then they got Dernier and Matthews and the season was under way,

Who can forget Opening Day?

The excitement beginning to build and the what I consider the turning point for this franchise, 2 homeruns by a young second baseman on June 23, 1984?

The Sutcliffe arrival and dominance?

How it got later and later in the season and we were still in first place?

September 24, 1984. Anyone else here go to Pittsburgh? We did.

The team coming out of the clubhouse to salute the fans after the last home game., I still watch that once in awhile and get teary eyed,

The first 2 games 13-0 in game 1.

The fall in San Diego. I still have nightmares about the ball going through Durham's legs,

Quick trivia and I have a feeling this is going to go fast-

What other major Chicago sports moment happened the day the Cubs lost game 5?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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And since everything goes back to Peavy

What do you suppose he was doing on October 7, 1984

Barbara V. October 14, 1941 - December 19, 2008. A great lady who was a friend to all and like a second mom to her children's friends (she was my best friend's mom)

by puckishcubsfan on Feb 1, 2009 10:16 AM CST reply actions

Enjoying Preschool?

Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team

by carmen_fanzone on Feb 1, 2009 10:33 AM CST up reply actions

Barely.

He might not even have been toilet-trained by then. (He was barely past 3 years old)

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

by Al Yellon on Feb 1, 2009 12:04 PM CST up reply actions

Walter Payton broke Jim Brown's career rushing record

Brown’s record was 12,312 yards

"Chicago Cubs fans are ninety percent scar-tissue." -George F. Will

by In Piniella We Trustiella on Feb 1, 2009 10:22 AM CST reply actions

Other interesting October 7 trivia...

Leo Durocher died on 10/7/91.

"They say we live and learn. Often what we learn is what damn fools we have been." ~Thomas Sowell

by Goodie1969 on Feb 1, 2009 10:27 AM CST reply actions

that

was my birthday 9/24

by txcubfan85 on Feb 1, 2009 11:10 AM CST reply actions

Would a Peavy trade midseason

be the same as a Sutcliffe in 84?

"I like coconuts, you can break them open and they smell like ladies lying in the sun" Widespread Panic

by Cubbie-Tim on Feb 1, 2009 12:20 PM CST reply actions

Depends on where the team was at the time of the trade...

… and how he did after it.

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

by Al Yellon on Feb 1, 2009 12:23 PM CST up reply actions

i would love to reimburse Steve Garvey

for all the pain he has caused me

by SamuraiMike50 on Feb 1, 2009 1:23 PM CST reply actions

What a team!

Not since the 2008 team was there a Cubs club that went out and kicked ass on a daily basis. It was the first time for me as a Cubs fan that I fully expected them to win every day. I was on summer vacation during college so there was nothing to do all day long except rejoice in victory after victory. Good times, good times….

by CaliCub on Feb 1, 2009 5:35 PM CST reply actions

1984 when the world did seem to come to an end...

After 13-0 and 4-2 triumphs, it was on to San Diego for the clincher in a five game playoff format. Just one more victory and Chicago would be in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers to avenge 1945. That’s when the goat again reared its ugly head and the ball goes through Leon Durham’s legs. A 96-win season with only two Hall of Famers on the roster – Sandberg and Eckersley. And at some point maybe Lee Smith.

by cub512 on Feb 1, 2009 5:40 PM CST reply actions

On October 7th 1984

I was just over a week old

by truthaddict11 on Feb 1, 2009 7:10 PM CST reply actions

On October 7th 1984

I was in (then) San Diego Stadium watching … well, you all know.

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

by Al Yellon on Feb 2, 2009 4:36 AM CST up reply actions

I was 13.

And I remember the principal at my high school giving us updates on the games over the intercom.

We are a fever ... we are a fever ... we ain't born typical.

by daver on Feb 2, 2009 11:33 AM CST up reply actions

I still have fond memories

of coming home form school and hearng Van Halen’s Jump play on the tele, and getting excited, knowing I had made it home in time for the WGN broadcast.
I was trying to be just like that new 2nd baseman too.
That was perhaps the most magic I’ve ever seen from any team in any sport, and to this day I appreciate, and love that team.

by chrisw95 on Feb 1, 2009 8:07 PM CST reply actions

I have an irrational, unreasoning and fearful rage come upon me

anytime I see a color combination of the following ..

my wife wonders why i tell her i cannot abide to see her in ANY combination of those colors, even if they’re from Victoria’s Secret .. to this day, I cannot explain it to her without a feral snarl

Well, Next Year is here .. and Jack's century's gotta end some time .. GO CUBBIES!

by cubnational on Feb 1, 2009 11:00 PM CST reply actions

DETROIT ROAD TRIP

My Dad a Detroit native then living in Northern Michigan and I went to scout out the Tigers ..As we assumed it would be Cubs-Tigers a replay of 1945 ….It was a twi-night double header starting at 4 pm Game time 94 degrees .( Tigers v Calif Angels ) ..It was so hot vendors were offering ice to make the Strohs taste a bit cooler …..Tigers lost both games it was a quiet ride home …..I had been telling him all summer the Cubs were the team to beat …….He said son ( I was in my 20’s at the time ) let me tell you about Chicago baseball and the curse of the billygoat …..It became silent the rest of the way home ….

by cubs north on Feb 2, 2009 12:17 AM CST reply actions

I thought it was going to be a thread about this

by ol Pete on Feb 2, 2009 7:04 AM CST reply actions

My first steps...Oct 7,1984

Not exactly what you thinking, I was in a bad car wreck, earlier in the year and had been confined to a bed till then, I was so mad I got up and took a few steps for the first time! The year I fell in love with my Cubbies, and I have’nt ever looked back. This is our year!

ernie81

by ernie81 on Feb 2, 2009 8:27 AM CST reply actions

Unexpected 1984 Success

Until 2008, the 1984 Cubs team was the best I had ever seen. Games 4 and 5 of the 1984 NLCS bother me in a similar fashion that games 6 and 7 of the 2003 NLCS do. The improvement the Cubs made from 1983 to 1984 was the biggest any National League team had made since some team crosstown from the Yankees did the year Armstrong landed on the moon. Since then, those big improvements have been more common. Look at the 2008 Rays, the 1991 Twins and Braves, the 1993 Phillies, the 1999 Diamondbacks, and others.

"The big possum walks late." - Harry Caray

by memphiscub on Feb 2, 2009 10:25 AM CST reply actions

1984......

Well 1984 helped unite the Cubs fan base . Fans were so hungry to see their team have success . In the early 80’s cable TV started to spread like wildfire . And of course WGN at that time carried all Cubs games I think . So fans that had fallen away from the Cubs were back to watching daytime baseball . Harry Caray became a name and face all Cub fans could relate to …..Detroit’s Radio man Ernie Harwell would recap how the Cubs had done that day …Thinking it might come down to a Cubs-Tigers Series . But this was not to be and we all know how the season ended …..Maybe This Year ????

by cubs north on Feb 2, 2009 10:38 AM CST reply actions

Now I'm starting to feel old

I was in college during that amazing year-I became a Cub fan in 1971 so, to say the least, I had gotten very used to futility and lowered expectations. I can still feel the thrill I felt when, as I headed back to Des Moines to start my senior year, it started to sink in that this team was really special and might actually do it.

Certain memories still stand out; Going to see the Cubs play an exhibition game against Iowa and, while tailgating in the parking lot, being joined by Steve Trout and Bob Dernier (just shows what I different time that was).

Coming out of a summer school night class to be greeted by my brother telling me that Sutcliffe was throwing a shutout in his first Cubs start.

And, most painfully (up until the playoffs, I mean) turning down a chance to attend the “Sandberg game” because I had been out late the night before and didn’t feel like waiting in line for bleacher seats-a close friend of mine still likes to remind of that legendary lapse of judgement.

by bluekoolaide on Feb 2, 2009 10:43 AM CST reply actions

and 15 years prior to 1984 was

1969 . ..and the best Cubs team that should have won . . . now I feel “old” . . .
coming up on 40 years from the summer I remember most.

check out my blog: http://wait-til-next-year.blogspot.com

by jadip516 on Feb 2, 2009 1:36 PM CST reply actions

October 7, 1984

I was a senoir in high school! Never forget…Payton breaks Brown’s record vs. the Saints and then I KNEW that the Cubs were going to to win game 5. Game was on Ch. 7 and I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone when the unmentionable happened. When the final out was made…never forget…I cried and stayed in my room the rest of the night….I debated if I was going to go to school the next morning. Never felt as bad about the Cubs until Game 7 in the 2003…oh never mind.

by cubprofessor on Feb 2, 2009 1:39 PM CST reply actions