1998 Retrospective - The Luckiest Team Ever

Also, one other name you forgot on the 1998 team: Rod Beck, who had 51 saves and bailed that team out time and again. At that time it was tied for the third-highest save total in history.

And, Terry Mulholland did a fantastic job in long relief and spot starting.

WAR doesn’t tell the whole story.

That is not something this franchise has been very good at doing in the years since. I was pretty young at the time but I have strong memories of Rod Beck pitching what felt like every day, and it felt like every save happened with the tying run on second base. He was and still is one of my favorite Cubs of all time.

I still think the magic of that season can only be topped by when we finally win it all.

There were 3 things that if only that had happened would have made it special. Sammys 66 homers, the arrival of Kerry Wood and the wildcard race. BUt all 3 things at the same time made it really really special.

And of course the season long remembering Harry and then Jack.

Who else couldn’t sleep the night before the 1 game playoff? I remember that day at work everyone who was a Cubs fan could be identified easily by jumpiness and nerves.

HOw about Michael throwing out the first pitch that night?

I think we all knew we weren’t going to beat the Braves but the ride was incredible.

How many Cubs on the 1998 roster who were also ex-Cubs at the same time? Well the magic number of three (Glenallen Hill, Mike Morgan, Terry Mulholland)

Ex-Cubs Factor

At the time, I wasn’t a huge fan of my local neighborhood sports bar, as both the food and drinks were overpriced, but they had the games, dammit. So for the month of September, I sat in the same seat to watch every game I could after work. The seat was next to a low, dividing wall and on the inside of that wall, where very few people could see it, hung a framed copy of a Budweiser poster. It commemorated September 24, 1989 – Harry Caray Appreciation Day – with a picture (taken from behind) of Harry holding his mic out over the crowd. It’s a lovely picture and I just thought it was a shame that Harry couldn’t watch this amazing run. So I sat there and kept him company, occasionally tapping the top of the frame during tense moments.

When the bar closed down a decade later, I asked the GM for that poster. And got it. It’s still a lovely picture of Wrigley, but I mostly think of Slammin’ Sammy and the Shooter when I look at it now.

Come on! .309 BA and an .870 OPS. And somebody had to show Kerry Wood how to go out drinking at El Jardin.

First year I had season tickets, nights and weekends. My friends and I literally shuffled the tickets on the floor and dealt them out like cards. No picking tickets based on schedules or family stuff. Fun times.

hit a huge HR for the Rockies on the last Sunday against the Giants to force the playoff?

It’s funny, I actually look back more fondly on that season than the 97 win season a couple years ago. Sammy, Woody, it was awesome.

Maybe I’m alone here, but the memories of baseball from the mid to late 1990s have been tainted because of the “steroid era.” I know, I know. It wasn’t outlawed in baseball. But it still doesn’t change the fact that there were guys using substances which artificially inflated their numbers that had bearing on the season.

I look back at 1998 and it’s not so rosy. I prefer to remember 1984 and 1989.

and the Sammy Sosa “Season To Remember” one ..

Which one do you think I value more … ?

I was living in New York so I remember it well. Going into the final weekend it was the Mets who were in the drivers seat and they were facing the Braves who had already clinched the division. Most teams that have clinched rest a number of the starters at least for a bit and they also try to rest their top starters. The Braves did not, their regulars played and on the final day of the season when the Mets could have won and tied with the Cubs & Giants, the Braves used Maddux to snuff them out. They were under no obligation to play their regulars, but there was no love loss between the Mets & Braves. The Braves swept the Mets that weekend putting the final nail in their coffin. I loved living in New York and watching it.

Not as lucky as the 1908 Cubs….had there been no heads up play during the “Merkle Game”, the Cubs last WS Championship would be in 1907.

Kerry’s major league debut was Easter Sunday. I remember peeling potatoes for the potato dish I was making to bring to Easter dinner while watching it. It was in Montreal and I remember thinking he looked like he was 12. They lost 4-1.

Then his Wrigley debut the next Saturday. I switched shifts with someone worked a 12 hour day the day before and came in on Sunday to go to that game. (I was a supervisor at a call centerI think it was one of the largest walkup crowds in a long time as it was an absolutely gorgeous April day and everyone wanted to see the kid and he didn’t disappoint.

I had just moved to Florida after college that summer, so I spent the first half of that season here, then was in Florida for the stretch run. I watched the 1-game playoff from my apartment with some co-workers who were from different parts of the country, and had never known a real Cubs fan before me, which is surprising, but true. I remember them telling me later than watching me watch the game was more entertaining than the game itself. Remember going into the ninth inning up 5-0 and the Giants putting together a mini-rally, and we won 5-3 with the tying runs on base? (Would it have been any different with that team?) Wow.

Remember Game 2 of the playoffs? Kevin Tapani pitches a beautiful 1-0 game through eight innings. Then, the classic managerial conundrum. They haven’t touched him all night, and his pitch count is OK so do you let your starter finish? Or do you pull him and go with your closer who has 51 saves, but always puts the tying run(s) on base? Riggleman went with option A, and in the bottom of the ninth Javy Lopez hits a game-tying, solo home run, and of course, the Cubs lose in extra innings. Sigh.

The Cubs threw Kerry Wood in Game 3 at home in what was pretty much a lost cause at that point. But had they hung on in Game 2 and come home tied a 1 game apiece? And with momentum? They probably would not have beaten Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz and Co. but you never know. Those Braves teams always found a way to lose in the playoffs even with that rotation. It’s possible anyway.