The Cubs' 81st loss of the year Thursday at Philadelphia brought to an end their streak of 6 consecutive winning seasons.
That matched their 6 in a row in 1967-72, which was in turn their longest since 1901, a team-record 14 straight in 1926-39.
They had a run of 11 seasons in 1903-13.
The only other times they went even back-to-back seasons with a winning records were 1922-24, 2003-04 and 2007-09.
..........
ONLY 1 BETTER
From 2015-20, under managers Joe Maddon and David Ross, the Cubs had a winning percentage of .580, compared to .534 in 1967-72, under Leo Durocher.
How do those percentages compare to other spans of 6 seasons?
The Modern Era had 120 seasons before this one, so it can be divided evenly in 20 sets of 6 seasons, beginning with 1901-06, then 1907-12, and so on.
Using that method, the just-completed span was the second most successful of all, trailing only 1907-12, when the Cubs won at a .649 clip, equivalent to a 105-57 record over a full, modern, 162-game season.
The recent .580 equates to 94-68.
In 1907-12, the Cubs actually won 597 games, lost 320 and tied 14, for an average record of 100-51-2.
They were 505-365-1 in 2015-20, an average of 84-61-0.
Had they played a full schedule in 2020 and won at the same rate as they did in their 60 games, they would have finished 92-70, instead of 34-26, raising their 6-year total to 563-409-1 and their average to 94-68.
.............
.002, .003
The Cubs' .580 percentage during the last 6 seasons was just .002 more than the next-highest number, .578 in 1931-36.
It was just .003 better than their .577 in 1901-06.
That was the first of 8 consecutive 6-year spans in which the Cubs won more games that they lost. They barely kept that streak alive in the last span, 1943-48, with a percentage of .501: 462 wins, 460 loses and 9 ties.
Their percentage for the entire span was exactly .500 after they lost for a 10th straight time in Game 1 of a doubleheader at New York on Sept. 21, 1948. They won Game 2, swept 2 games the next day. Then they alternated losses and wins through 6 games.
The Cubs closed out the season Oct. 1-3 with 3 games at St. Louis. They lost the first, 6-4, and the second, 9-0, leaving them at 1 game over .500 again since the start of 1943.
In the season finale, Rube Walker homered in the second inning and Carmen Mauro smacked an inside-the-park homer in the fourth. They added 2 runs in the eighth, gave up 3 in the bottom of the inning and hung on to win, 4-3.
...........
AWFUL 18
In their next 3 spans of 6 years, encompassing 1949-66, the Cubs' winning percentages were just .426, .434 and .428.
That .426 was their lowest in any span of the Modern Era. They went 393-530-4, equivalent to 66-88 in each 154-game season. Over 162 games, it would be 69-93.
Their 393 wins were the fewest in any span by 7, over the next span, 1944-60, when they were 400-523-9.
They were 412-552-4 in 1961-66, equal to 69-93. The 552 losses were their most in any of the 6-year spans. The second most was 542, in 2009-14, when they won 429 games.
..........
5 MORE UNDER WATER
Following the Durocher upswing to .534 in 1967-72, they fell below .500 again for 5 spans in a row, 1973-2002. They had nearly identical marks of .467 and .463 in the first 2 spans, then .486 and .484 in the next 2, before tumbling to .457 in 1997-02.
The Cubs finally won more games than they lost over 6 years again in 2003-08, with a percentage of .519, 1 point higher than in the span of 90 years earlier, 1913-18.
Their .442 in 2009-14 was their lowest in any 6-year span since 1961-66, and their fourth lowest among all 20 spans.
The run of success that just came to an end was their 11th span with a winning record.
...
Over all 120 seasons, 1901-20, the Cubs' winning percentage was .505.
They exceeded that in 8 of the 20 spans and missed matching it by .001 in 1919-24.
By the way, the Cubs' best winning percentage in any 6 consecutive years was .675, in 1905-10, while winning 4 pennants and 2 World Series. Their record in those years: 622-296-13.
In 1906-11, they were 622-297-14 -- 1 more loss and 1 more tie -- for mere .674!
...........
WINNING PERCENTAGES
IN ALL 6-YEAR SPANS
Here are the Cubs' winning percentages in each 6-year span of the Modern Era, in chronological order, in groups of 10:
1901-06: .577
1907-12: .649
1913-18: .518
1919-24: .504
1925-30: .558
1931-36: .578
1937-42: .591
1943-48: .501
1949-54: .426
1955-60: .434
...
1961-66: .428
1967-72: .534
1973-78: .467
1979-84: .463
1985-90: .486
1991-96: .484
1997-02: .457
2003-08: .519
2009-14: .442
2015-20: .580
..........
WINNING PERCENTAGES IN
ALL 6-YEAR SPANS, RANKED
And here they are again, ranked from highest to lowest percentage, separated by above and below .500:
.649: 1907-12
.580: 2015-20
.578: 1931-36
.577: 1901-06
.558: 1925-30
.591: 1937-42
.534: 1967-72
.519, 2003-08
.518: 1913-18
.504: 1919-24
.501: 1943-48
...
.486: 1985-90
.484: 1991-96
.467: 1973-78
.463: 1979-84
.457, 1997-02
.442: 2009-14
.434: 1955-60
.428: 1961-66
.426, 1949-54