With the final out of the 2022 regular season, the National League has completed 61 years of its Expansion Era, the same number as it did from the start of the Modern Era, 1901, through the final season with 8 teams, 1961.
Following is a look at some of the Cubs' numbers before and after the NL began its growth to its current 15 teams.
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WINS AND LOSSES
The Cubs were far more successful during the pre-expansion seasons.
During those decades, they had a winning percentage of .524, recording 4,868 victories, 4,411 losses and 88 ties.
Since Opening Day of 1962, their percentage is just .485, with 4,673 wins, 4,964 losses and 13 ties.
While playing 283 more games in the Expansion Era, the Cubs posted 195 fewer wins and a staggering 553 more losses than they did in the earlier era.
The Cubs' average record in 1901-61 was 80-72-1.
In 1962-2022, it is 77-83-0.
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RUNS SCORED AND ALLOWED
During the first era, the Cubs outscored their opponents by 2,053 runs, an average of just under 34 per year.
Since 1962, they have been outscored by 1,208 runs, slight less than 20 per year.
From 1901-61, the average score of their games was 4.38 to 4.17.
Since then, it has been 4.32 to 4.44.
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SLASH LINE
The Cubs had a higher batting before expansion than since, .266 to .255.
They had a higher on-base percentage, .328 to .321.
But their slugging percentage has been significantly higher since expansion, .396 to .375, resulting in a higher OPS, .717 to .703.
During the Dead Ball portion of the Modern Era, 1901-19, the Cubs slashed .253/.318/.336 -- 2 points, 3 points and 55 points lower than they have in the Expansion Era.
But from 1920-61, the later years before expansion, they slashed .269/.333/.392 -- 14 points higher, 2 points higher and 4 points lower.
So, their OPS was just .654 in 1901-19, 63 points lower than in 1962-2022.
In 1920-61, however, it was .725 -- 8 points higher!
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HITS
While their batting average is 11 points lower since new teams were added, the Cubs have made almost exactly the same number of hits as they did prior to expansion: 83,969, to 84,082, a difference of just 113, or less than 2 per season.
The actual averages are 1,378.4 per year in the earlier era and 1,376.5 in the later one.
As you would expect, the distribution of kinds of hits has changed substantially.
These are the percentages for each kind in each era, with 1901-61 shown first, then 1962-2022:
Singles: 73.9, 68.7
Doubles: 16.3, 18.0
Triples: 4.2, 2.4
Homers: 5.6, 10.9
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Singles have decreased since expansion by 4,523 and triples by 1,431, while doubles have increased by 1,377 and home runs by 4,464.
Basically, there has been 1 more home run for each "lost" single, and 1 more double for each lost triple.
The number of home runs since 1962 is nearly twice what it was before then: 9,142 to 4,678, a rise of 95 percent.
The number of triples fell by 41 percent, to 2,083 from 3,514.
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WALKS AND STRIKEOUTS
The Cubs have walked more than 2,000 more times in the Expansion Era than they did before it, 30,732 to 28,531. Those amount to 504 to 468 per year, a gain of 36.
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No one who has watched baseball for any length of time during the past 61 years should be shocked by the strikeout numbers:
1901-1961: 35,711, or 585 per year
1962-2022: 62,633, or 1,027 per year
That is an increase of 75 percent, and it just keeps growing.
In 2000-22, the Cubs averaged 1,221 strikeouts per year, 109 percent more than they did in 1901-61.
Before expansion, walks were 8 percent of all plate appearances and strikeouts were 10 percent.
Under expansion, walks have been 8.3 percent; strikeouts, 17 percent.
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STEALS
The Cubs stole 1,345 more bases in 1901-61 than they have in 1962-2022: 6,385 to 5,040.
And they were far better at stealing in the earlier era, having been thrown out 2,388 times, compared to 2,675 in the later era.
That makes success rates of 72.8 percent before expansion to 65.3 percent since it began.
Is it any wonder, given those percentages, that the Cubs tried to steal in excess of 1,000 more times than in the earlier era, 8,773 to 7,715?
The pre-expansion rate, of course, includes phenomenal numbers in the Dead Ball years at the start of the Modern Era: 3,734 steals, just 284 times caught stealing, for 93 percent.
From 1920-61, the numbers were starkly different; 2,651 steals, 2,104 times caught, for 55.8, nearly 10 points below the post-expansion percentage.
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MILESTONES
Incidentally, the Cubs have an opportunity next season to celebrate their 15,000th regular-season home run.
They have hit 14,818, so they need 182 more.
The Cubs hit only 159 in 2022, and have averaged 150 in the Expansion Era.
But in the 9 full seasons from 2013-22, they averaged 190, and had at least 182 in 4 of them.
With more homers from hoped-for new acquisitions, 182 seems feasible in 2023.
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Of less significance, the Cubs are 11 sacrifice bunts away from 13,000 since they first were recorded in 1893.
Their next sacrifice fly will be No. 2,800. They were not counted until 1954.
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In 2021, the Cubs became the first team to score 100,000 runs.
This year, they became the first to reach 750,000 at bats.
They are within 3,258 of becoming the first to make 200,000 hits. In the 9 full seasons since 2013, they have averaged 1,350, with a low of 1,255 and a high of 1,453, so they most likely will reach 200,000 sometime in 2025, their 150th National League season.
The Cubs have competition for the honor. The Cardinals are only 606 hits behind them, with 196,136 to the Cubs' 196,742.
No other teams is closer than 2,000 hits to the Cubs' total.
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The Cubs' 181st single next season will be their 120,000th of the entire Modern Era. They made 838 singles in 2022.
They are unlikely to reach 60,000 walks in the Modern Era next year, as that would require 737. Their season record is 656, set in 2016. They had 507 in 2022.
And fans must fervently hope the Cubs do not endure their 100,000th strikeout since 1901. They are 1,656 away from doing so, which sounds like a lot, but is only 60 more than the 1,596 they had in 2021, most by any team in a single season.
In 2022, they fanned 1,448 times.
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OTHER ERAS
Of course, Pre-Expansion and Expansion is just 1 way to divide the Modern Era into smaller spans.
Here is another division of the National League's entire history:
1876-1900 (Pre-Modern)
1901-1919 (Modern, Dead Ball)
1920-1961 (Modern, Live Ball, Pre-Expansion)
1962-1999 (Modern, Live Ball, Rest 1900s)
2000-2022 (Modern, 2000s)
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Here are the Cubs' slash lines for each of those eras:
1876-1900: .276/.331/.379 = OPS of .710
1901-1919: .254/.319/.336= .655
1920-1961: .269/.333/.390= .723
1962-1999: .256/.320/.397= .717
2000-2022: .254/.324/.415= .739
Note that the batting averages in 1901-19 and 2000-22 are identical, and that in 1962-99 is just 2 points higher.
The on-base percentage is only 5 points higher so far in this century than it was in the Dead Ball Era, and in 1962-99, it was a mere 1 point higher.
But since the dawn of the 20th Century, the slugging percentage has risen in each era, by a difference, from start to finish, of 79 points.
OPS in 1876-1900 was 7 points lower than in 1962-99. In 2000-22, it is 16 points higher than in any previous era.
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A few more eras and their slash lines:
1876-1919 (all before Live Ball): .266/.214/.358 = OPS of .683
1920-2022 (all Live Ball): .261/.326/.394= .720
1901-1999 (all 1900s): .261/.333/.379= .712
1901-2022 (all Modern Era): .260/.325/.386= .708
1876-2022 (all years): .262/.332/.385= .717
So, over all 147 seasons, the batting average is 2 points higher than it was in the Modern Era, while the on-base percentage is 7 points higher, but the slugging percentage is 1 point less, for a difference of 9 points higher in OPS.
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AVERAGE PLAYER
A previous post documented the statistics of the average batter among all Cubs who had at least 1 plate appearance from 1876 through 2022.
In 420 PA, including 376 at bats, the average batter scored 50 runs and made 98 hits: 70 singles, 17 doubles, 4 triples and 7 home runs.
His slash line was .261/.327/.382, for an OPS of .709.
Those counting numbers were calculated by taking the team totals for seasons and dividing by the 1,998 players who have come to the plate in a Cubs uniform.
The averages and percentages then were calculated in the usual way, using the counting numbers.
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Here is the data for the average player in other eras (the averages and percentages vary slightly from the team numbers due to rounding of individual items prior to calculations):
1876-1900 (220 batters)
515 PA, 473 AB
130 hits: 97 S, 20 D, 8 T, 5 HR
.275/.332/.381 = OPS of .713
1901-1919 (271 batters)
395 PA, 348 AB
88 hits: 68 S, 13 D, 5 T, 2 HR
.253/.318/.336 = .654
1920-1961 (541 batters)
463 PA, 413 AB
111 hits: 80 S, 19 D, 4 T, 8 HR
.269/.333/.392 = .725
1962-1999 (610 batters)
377 PA, 337 AB
86 hits: 62 , 14 D, 2 T, 8 HR
.255/.319/.380 = .699
2000-2022 (449 batters)
309 PA, 274 AB
70 hits: 46 D, 14 D, 2 T, 8 HR
.255/.326/.412 = .737
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1876-1919 (271 batters)
464 PA, 417 AB
111 hits: 85 S, 17 D, 6 T, 3 HR
.266/.326/.358 = .684
1920-2022 (1,546 batters)
400 PA, 357 AB
93 hits: 65 S, 16 D, 3 T, 9 HR
.261/.326/.391 = .717
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1901-1999 (1,370 batters)
429 PA, 382 AB
100 hits: 73 S, 16 D, 4 T, 7 HR
.262/.326/.380 = .706
1901-2022 (1,794 batters)
405 PA, 360 AB
94 hits: 67 S, 16 D, 3 T, 8 HR
.261/.326/.385 = .711
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1901-1961 (789 batters)
453 PA, 403 AB
107 hits: 80 S, 17 D, 4 T, 6 HR
.266/.328/.375 = .703
1962-2022 (1,034 batters)
357 PA, 318 AB
81 hits: 55 S, 15 D, 2 T, 9 HR
.255/.321/.396 = .717