The Cubs in the 90s

as bad as they were, might have been a great decade but for one key event in the late ’80s, which altered the entire course of the franchise. And that was Dallas Green being forced out, and Gordy Goldsberry being shown the door shortly after that. If those two had just been allowed to do their thing, without the corporate interference, continue building the farm system, and build the Major League team around Sandberg, Dawson, Maddux, Grace, Dunston, et all, there is no doubt in my mind that the Cubs would have won a world championship, at least once, by now. No doubt whatsoever.

Having said that, with MacPhail playing the role of corporate bean counter from the GM’s office, and the farm system deteriorating into one of the worst, if not THE worst in all of baseball, the Cubs of the ‘90s really were no different than the state of the franchise in the 1950’s and early ’60s. It was a classic lesson in how not to run a Major League franchise, and how they managed even one playoff appearance, even with a team that overachieved big time, is beyond me.

First off, I think that Riggleman, and to an extent Jim Lefebvre were pretty decent managers.

I do agree 100% with your statement re MacPhail and Lynch. Lynch was a terrible hire and was allowed to go on too long as a GM. MacPhail was not allowed to simply come in and be the GM as they had to give him a promotion to get him away from the Twins. The critical mistake of the MacPhail era was not tearing down and starting from scratch, as he seemingly has done with the Orioles. I think the O’s could be a pretty solid team in the future, especially if they develop some pitching. They have some good position prospects. But MacPhail and Co arrived and the situation was horrible and they didn’t make the tough decision to build from the ground up.

The pre-MacPhail stuff, I think, gets overlooked with MacPhail’s term is considered. The organization was a complete joke, with bozos like Trebelhorn looking foolish. Stanton Cook and Don Grenesko absolutely gutted the organization. There were a lot of people who had not so kind things to say about the organization and one thing that MacPhail did was professionalize it. Aside from Mark Grace, I cannot recall an ex Cub who has left the organization in the last decade and had a bad thing to say. I heard a great interview with Barry Rozner, who was the Cubs beat reporter at the time and while he certainly pointed out the failures of MacPhail, and there were failures, he did a lot to modernize the franchise and the front office.

and, like most everybody, I was incredibly pumped that we finally had a baseball man being given “god-like power” over the ballclub. His success with Minnesota certainly made it look like he was the right guy to bring the Cubs out of their stasis.

Unfortunately, MacPhail was completely out of his element in trying to run a large market franchise. He consistently kept the budgets low and maintained one of the smallest scouting and front office staffs in baseball. He refused to do things like aggressively scout the pacific rim like so many other teams had started to do.

I’m currently reading George Castle’s book, “Sweet Lou and the Cubs” and there’s a line in there that other baseball GM’s referred to MacPhail’s office as “the place where new ideas go to die”.

I personally look at his tenure with the Cubs as a trainwreck that they’re only now starting to dig themselves out from.

……not to sign him. Remember very well the front office rationalization that they could get two good pitchers, for the price of one very good pitcher, and that made more sense.

That is a perfect example of the “thinking” of the Cub front office at the time, penny wise, pound foolish. I was one of so many at the time who saw the failure to sign Maddox as a huge mistake, and that was knowing “only” that Maddox was a great pitcher, one of the best the Cubs ever had or would ever have, and not knowing, at the time, that he was a future Hall of Famer who would rack up over 300 wins and be one of the five top pitchers in MLB in the 90s.

I forget now, and I am sure someone here does know and will post it, who the Cubs got to fill the loss of Maddox, but I do recall neither of them turned out to be anything more than journeymen pitchers who were at best, average, and not long with the Cubs.

That was a worse 10-year period for the Cubs with 9 losing seasons and only 1 .500 season in 1977. The Cubs would have finished over .500 in 1977 and 1979, if it hadn’t been for epic collapses at the end of those seasons.

rec’d

That was a lot of fun (if not painful). Great read.

I suppose I have to count them as a contending team. They finished 4 games out of a wild card spot. They were only 2 out with 2 to play. I never really thought that team had much of a chance to make it to the playoffs. They were only 73-71.

some success over the ’98 season was fun, but that play in game versus SF was amazing.

That brief, 48 hours(?), of joy before the first loss to the Braves almost made up for the preceding bad seasons.

The most over-hyped Cubs prospect ever.

Other 90s players to remember (or not); Doug Dascenzo (now managing in the Padres system), Julio Zuleta (remember him in the outfield searching for a ball while the batter completes an inside-the-park hr?), and or course Hector Villanova (as Harry called him). Hector actually was a pretty good receiver, couldn’t throw though. If I recall, Maddux liked throwing to him.

(although I’d defintely like to)…Dave Smith…signed as a free agent to be the Cubs closer in ’91. He did a great job…if you compare him to Mel Rojas…another Cubs free agent aquisition who is probably my own personal choice as our WORST CLOSER EVER.

And I’m surprised that nobody’s brought up Tuffy Rhodes…when he hit the three homers off of Dwight Gooden on opeing day ‘94, I remember telling my friend that we weren’t so much witnessing the beginning of one career as we were the ending of another (Gooden’s).

OMG those were some awful seasons! Grace, Sandberg, Dawson, Dunston, Maddux and a bunch of roster fill. Always hoping for an over-.500 finish, always hoping for kids like Gary Scott and Derrick May and Shawn Boskie to turn into big-league talent, always being let down.

At the time I wasn’t aware of the bureaucratic BS that was going down but no doubt it was the main reason why the Cubs stumbled during the 90s. First the Cook/Madigan/Grenesko crowd exploiting the team to turn a profit, then Andy “Fiscally Responsible” MacPhail putting principle over pennants. How it would gall me to hear him say “I just hate wasting a season” as he refused a wholesale rebuilding and opting for catching lightning in a bottle year after year. Phooey.

I’m SO glad John McDonough and Crane Kenney are running the club properly and ownership has loosened the pursestrings. Once Tom Ricketts takes full control and the seeds that Tim Wilken has sown begin bearing fruit, things will really be great!

That was a great lead in sentence, I nearly spewed my morning coffee on to my IMac screen, while reading those names.

I have to double check when I get home the math but early calculations for the Cubs to match the 1990-1999 winning percentage in 2000-2009 they only have to win 66 games.

I calculated out 1994 and 1995 based on winning percentages of the shortened seasons as to how they would have done in 162 games. 71 wins in 94 and 83 in 95.

Calculated out that means 761 wins in the 90s.

So far in the 00s the Cubs have won 724 games. So if they only win 37 this year they will equal that.

That was a bad decade all right. Larry Himes had to be the worst GM in the history of the Cubs, except maybe for Wid “Miksis will fix us” Mathews. Though I will admit that Lynch didnt do that much better. Riggleman doesnt get the recognition he deserves and Lefebvre was actually halfway decent. I actually stopped watching baseball in 1995 because I was pissed about the strike, but I came back when Sammy Sosa made his first run at the HR record in 1996 and the Cubs were actually in contention. I remember when Frank Castillo was considered one of their best pitchers(boy that was a bad year!) and when it looked like Jeremi Gonzalez was going to be a world beater. How about Chico Walker coming back a couple of times? Or the parade of 3rd Basemen(Steve Buechele, anyone?) But letting Dawson, Maddux and Sutcliffe all go was the lowest point of the decade.