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The Chicago Cubs are a Major League Baseball team that plays at Wrigley Field in the North Side Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs are part of the National League. They are one of two clubs in Chicago, the other being the Chicago White Sox of the American League. Both are charter franchises of their respective leagues. The Cubs are affectionately referred to by the media and fans as "The Cubbies", and are also nicknamed "The North Siders" in contrast to the White Sox, who play on the city's South Side.
Franchise historyWhite StockingsThe success and fame of the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first openly all-professional team, led to a minor explosion of openly professional teams in 1870, each with the singular goal of defeating the Red Stockings. A number of them adopted variants on that name and color, and it happens that Chicago adopted white as their primary color. After a summer of individually arranged contests among the various teams, the time was right for the organization of the first professional league, the National Association, in 1871. The Chicago White Stockings were close contenders all summer, but disaster struck in October 1871 with the Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed the club's ballpark, uniforms, and other possessions. The club completed its schedule with borrowed uniforms, finishing second in the National Association, just 2 games behind, but it was compelled to drop out of the league during the city's recovery period until being revived in 1874. After the 1875 season, Chicago acquired several key players, including pitcher Albert Spalding of the Boston Red Stockings, and first baseman Adrian "Cap" Anson of the Philadelphia Athletics. While this was going on, behind the scenes the club President, William Hulbert, was leading the formation of a new and stronger organization, the National League.
By then, Spalding had retired to start his sporting goods company. The length of the season was such that a team could get by with two main starters, and the team had a couple of powerhouse pitchers in Larry Corcoran and Fred Goldsmith. Those two were fading by mid-decade, and were replaced by other strong pitchers, notably John Clarkson. Much has been written about Old Hoss Radbourn's 60 victories for the Providence Grays of 1884, but Clarkson also had a fair year in 1885, winning 53 games as Chicago won the pennant. A second major league called the American Association came along in 1882, and Chicago met the American Association's champions three times in that era's version of the World Series. Twice they faced the St. Louis Browns in lively and controversial Series action. That St. Louis franchise, which went on to join the National League in 1892 after the American Association folded, would later be renamed the St. Louis Cardinals and continues to be a perennial rival of the Cubs. Throughout all of this, and for the better part of twenty seasons, the team was captained and managed by first baseman Cap Anson. Anson was one of the most famous and arguably the best player in baseball in his day. He was the first ballplayer to reach 3,000 hits. However, the Hall of Famer is chiefly remembered today for his racist views (which he stated in print, in his autobiography, lest there be any doubt) and thus his prominent role in establishing baseball's color line, rather than for his great playing and managing skills. After Chicago's great run during the 1880s, the on-field fortunes of Anson's team (by then often called "Anson's Colts" or just "Colts") dwindled during the 1890s, awaiting revival under new leadership. The Cubs are the only team to play continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876. The other surviving charter member of the National League, the Braves, has played in three cities: Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. "Tinker to Evers to Chance"Joe Tinker (shortstop), Johnny Evers (second baseman) and Frank Chance (first baseman) were three legendary Cubs infielders, who played together from 1903–1910, and sporadically over the following two years. They, along with third baseman Harry Steinfeldt, formed the nucleus of one of the most dominant baseball teams of all time. After Chance took over as manager for the ailing Frank Selee in 1905, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span. Their record of 116 victories in 1906 (in a 154-game season) has not been broken, though it was tied by the Seattle Mariners in 2001, in a 162-game season. As with 1880, extrapolating is statistically questionable, but the Cubs' 116-36 percentage of 1906 equates to 123 wins in 162 games. Curiously, both of those teams were so far in front that they seemingly lost their edge, and fell in the post-season. The Cubs again relied on dominant pitching during this period, featuring hurlers such as Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Jack Taylor, Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfiester and Orval Overall, who posted a record for lowest staff earned run average that still stands today. Reulbach threw a one-hitter in the 1906 World Series, one of a small handful of twirlers to pitch low-hit games in the post-season (another was Claude Passeau of the Cubs' 1945 squad). Brown acquired his unique and indelicate nickname from having lost most of his index finger in farm machinery when he was a youngster. This gave him the ability to put a natural extra spin on his pitches, which often frustrated opposing batters. However, the infield also attained fame. After turning a critical double play against the New York Giants in a July 1910 game, the trio was immortalized in Franklin P. Adams' poem Baseball's Sad Lexicon, which first appeared in the July 18, 1910, edition of the New York Evening Mail:
At that time, the Giants and the Cubs were two of the league's strongest teams. "Gonfalon" is a poetic way of referring to the league championship pennant that both clubs were symbolically fighting for. The expression "Tinker to Evers to Chance" is still used today, and means a well-oiled routine or a "sure thing". People sometimes tend to add an "s" to Tinker. They also typically pronounce Evers' name as "EH-verz". According to baseball historian and biographer Lee Allen (in The National League Story, p.107), the proper pronunciation was "EE-verz", as in the proper British long-E pronunciation of "Mt. Everest". Tinker and Evers reportedly could not stand each other, and rarely spoke off the field. Evers, a high-strung, argumentative man, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1911 and rarely played that year. Chance suffered a near-fatal beaning the same year. The trio played together little after that. In 1913, Chance went to manage the New York Yankees and Tinker went to Cincinnati to manage the Reds, and that was the end of one of the most notable infields in baseball. They were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together in 1946. Tinker and Evers reportedly became amicable in their old age, with the baseball wars far behind them. Every three yearsThe Cubs fell into a lengthy doldrum after their early 1900s Glory Years, broken only by their pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918. Around that time, chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley obtained majority ownership of the Cubs, and things started to turn around, especially after they acquired the services of astute baseball man William Veeck, Sr.. With Wrigley's money and Veeck's savvy, the Cubs were soon back in business in the National League, the front office having built a team that would be strong contenders for the next decade. During that stretch, they achieved the unusual accomplishment of winning a pennant every three years - 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1938 - sometimes in thrilling fashion, such as 1935 when they won a record 21 games in a row in September, and 1938 when they won a crucial late-season game with a game ending home run by Gabby Hartnett, known in baseball lore as the "Homer in the Gloamin'." Unfortunately, their success did not extend to the post-season, as they fell to their American League rivals each time, often in humiliating fashion. Since their last World Series win in 1908, the Cubs have now appeared in seven World Series, and have lost all of them. By the late 1930s, the double-Bills (Wrigley and Veeck), were both dead. As the decade wound down, the front office under P.K. Wrigley was unable to rekindle the kind of success that P.K.'s father had created, and the Cubs slipped into mediocrity. The Cubs enjoyed one more pennant, at the close of another World War. Due to the wartime travel restrictions, the first three games were played in Detroit, where the Cubs won two of them, and the last four were to be played at Wrigley. In game 4 of 1945 World Series, the Curse of the Billy Goat was laid upon the Cubs when Mr. Wrigley ejected Mr. Sianis, who had come to game 4 with two tickets, one for him and one for his goat. Upon his ejection, Mr. Sianis uttered, "the Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs lost game 4, lost the 1945 World Series, and have not been back since then, at least through the 2006 season. Championship dry spellThe Cubs have the longest dry spell between championships in all of the four major U.S. sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), having failed to win a World Series since 1908. The Cubs have not been to the World Series since 1945, and they finished in the second division, or bottom half, of the National League for 20 consecutive years beginning in 1947. The long history of the Cubs is a trichotomy. For their first 80 years, prior to and including 1945, the Cubs were generally assumed to be contenders, playing well and winning the occasional pennant. For the next 38 years, the Cubs were the driest team in baseball, never making the playoffs once. Since 1984, the "baseball gods" have granted the Cubs just an occasional glimmer of hope. Even a few years into the post-World War II era, astute observers of the game began to suspect that something had gone wrong with the Cubs franchise, and that it might take them a long time to recover. In his 1950 book The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, LaMont Buchanan wrote the following prose next to photos of Wrigley (apparently taken during the 1945 World Series) and of their newly-hired manager: "From the sublime to last place! Wrigley Field, the ivy of its walls still whispering of past greatness, watches its Cubs grow less ferocious in '47, '48, '49. New doctor of the cure is smiling Frank Frisch, veteran of previous baseball transfusions who thinks, 'It's nice to have the fans with you.' Chicago has a great baseball tradition. The fans remember glorious yesterdays as they wait for brighter tomorrows. And eventually their Cubs will bite again." Little did anyone realize how long "eventually" might turn out to be. What may be the least known, but possibly the most telling, statistic of futility for the Cubs, though, is that their first back-to-back winning seasons since 1973 came in 2003 and 2004. Nonetheless, they remain one of the best-loved and best-attended teams in the league, with attendance figures consistently in the top 10, despite the 3rd smallest stadium in Major League Baseball. As with the Boston Red Sox (prior to their astonishing 2004 post-season triumph), the Cubs of recent generations have seemed to be a team that "bad things happen to." Although there is a tendency to compare the Cubs and the Red Sox, there is a stark difference. Since World War II, the Red Sox have been frequent contenders and frequent visitors to the post-season, including five trips to the World Series. They have had more of a reputation as "chokers" than as "losers", the tag that the Cubs bear. Despite their image as "Lovable Losers" during the post-World War II era, the club's longevity combined with their earlier successes add up to a major league record 9,756 victories (for a franchise in a single city) through the 2004 season. In other years the Cubs have shown they can win, or at least contend, when their pitching is superior. Outstanding pitching has been a major factor in every one of their winning seasons since World War II. But although there is no substitute for front-office savvy and on-the-field excellence, the venerable ballpark itself has to be considered a factor in the team's failures to go farther than they have. When the bleachers were extended into left field in 1937, it shortened the true power alley from a posted distance of 372 feet to about 350 feet, which is too short for major league standards, especially for a left field. Most batters are right-handed, so their natural power alley is left-center. Thus most asymmetric ballparks have their short field in right. Not so with Wrigley. This allows more left-center field home runs than the average ballpark would. Pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, upon being traded to the Texas Rangers after a successful though home-run prone career with the Cubs, bitterly complained that "Wrigley Field is a bad ballpark!" Recent heartbreakWhile the Cubs haven't won a World Series championship since 1908, the past 40 years have seen some good seasons come to agonizing conclusions. In 1969, the Cubs had a substantial lead in August, led by Hall Of Famers Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins and Billy Williams. At mid-month they led by 8½ games over the Cardinals and 9½ games over the Mets, but they wilted under pressure, lost key games against those surprising New York Mets, and floundered a shot at the postseason by 8 games (92-70). Many superstitious fans attribute this collapse to an incident at Shea Stadium when a fan released a black cat onto the field, thereby cursing the club. Others have stated that all the day games that the Cubs had to play contributed them to their collapse. (Lights for night games were not installed in Wrigley Field until 1988.) Chicago's summers are quite humid (85-90 degrees Fahrenheit on average), and playing in this heat day after day might have taken its toll (although the average temperature that summer was 71.8 degrees, about the mean[1]). From August 14 through the end of the season, the Mets went 39-11 (23-7 in September alone)[2], while the Cubs went 18-27 (8-17 in September)[3]. In the 1984 NLCS, the Cubs, the champions of the NL East Division (their first postseason appearance since 1945). won the first two games at Wrigley Field against the San Diego Padres. The Western Division champion held home field advantage in 1984, however. Games 3, 4, and 5 would be played in San Diego. The Cubs needed to win only one game of the next three in San Diego to make it into the World Series. After being soundly beaten in game 3, the Cubs lost a heartbreaker when closer Lee Smith allowed a game-winning home run to Steve Garvey in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4. Game 5 was just as bad - the Cubs took a 3-0 lead to the 6th inning, and a 3-2 lead into the 7th with 1984 Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe on the mound. But Sutcliffe tired, and a critical error by Leon Durham helped the San Diego Padres win the game and head to the World Series. In 1989, the Cubs were in the NLCS with the San Francisco Giants. After splitting the first two games at Wrigley Field, the Cubs headed to the Bay Area. Despite holding the lead at some point in each of the next three games, bullpen and managerial blunders ultimately led to three straight losses and the team's exit from the postseason. 2003 comebackThe Cubs won their first division title in 14 years in 2003, and their NLDS victory over the Atlanta Braves was the team's first postseason series win since 1908. The Cubs then took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Florida Marlins, and it appeared they would reach the World Series for the first time in 58 seasons. However, Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett shut out the Cubs in Game 5. Game 6 saw the Cubs take a 3-0 lead to the 8th inning, when the now-infamous incident in which a fan, Steve Bartman, attempted to catch a ball in foul territory rattled the team and opened the door to 8 Florida runs and a Marlin victory. The Cubs were unable to win Game 7, despite sending Kerry Wood to the mound, and once again were left on the outside of the World Series looking in.(To historians of the game, the incident in game 6 of the 2003 NLCS echoed another Cubs disaster, Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, in which the Cubs yielded 10 runs to the Philadelphia Athletics in the seventh inning. A key play in that inning was center fielder Hack Wilson losing a fly ball in the sun, resulting in a 3-run inside-the-park home run.) Refusal to realignAfter the 1992 season, then-commissioner Fay Vincent thought the addition of the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies was the perfect time to realign the National League to make the Western and Eastern divisions more geographically accurate. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds were to move to the Eastern Division while the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were to go to the West. Many thought this plan would be beneficial to the league as a whole, especially by building a regional rivalry between the new franchise in Miami and the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs, however, opposed the move, suggesting that fans in the Central Time Zone would be forced to watch more games originating on the West Coast with later broadcast times (had the realignment included the use of a balanced schedule, the Cubs would have actually played more games against teams outside their division). Partially due to the complications of a two-division system, a three-division structure was born in 1994. In 1998, the Cubs made it into the playoffs as a wild card team on the strength of a 60+ HR season from Sammy Sosa and Kerry Wood's Rookie of the Year pitching performance. Their playoff opponent was the Atlanta Braves. But the Cubs performed poorly against the Braves, scoring only four runs as they were swept in 3 straight games. A return to futility and disappointmentIn 2004, misfortune struck the Cubs again. Having the Wild Card lead by a game and a half on September 24, the Cubs proceeded to drop 7 of their last 9 games, mostly to teams with sub .500 records, and relinquished the Wild Card to the then red-hot Houston Astros. This time, the fallout was decidedly unlovable, as the Cubs traded superstar Sammy Sosa in the off-season, after he had left the final game early and then attempted to lie about it publicly. Sosa, already a controversial figure in the clubhouse, alienated much of his fan base (and the few team members who still were on good terms with him) with this incident, leaving his place in Cubs' lore possibly tarnished for years to come. The disappointing season also led to the departure of popular commentator Steve Stone, who became increasingly critical of management toward season's end. Inconsistency struck the Cubs for their 2005 season, as the team finished in fourth place in the NL Central and, at 79-83, under .500 for the first time since 2002. Injuries to pitchers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, as well as to starting shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, robbed the team of players expected before the season started to make major contributions. Despite the mediocre overall team performance, the team witnessed a career year from first baseman Derrek Lee (.335 batting average, 46 home runs, 107 RBIs) and the rise of closer Ryan Dempster (33 saves in 35 save opportunities). After posting a below-.500 record for the first time since 2002, the Cubs retooled for the 2006 campaign. During the 2005 offseason, the Cubs revamped their outfield, acquiring speedy center fielder Juan Pierre from the Florida Marlins for three young pitchers (including Sergio Mitre and Ricky Nolasco). The Cubs also signed free agent outfielder Jacque Jones to a 3-year deal to fill a hole in right field. Veterans Bob Howry and Scott Eyre were both brought in to shore up the bullpen - each received a 3-year contract. Former blue-chip prospect Corey Patterson, who despite short flashes of brilliance never showed the ability to play well consistently at the big league level, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for two minor leaguers. The Cubs also saw shortstop Nomar Garciaparra depart via free agency to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Starting pitcher Wade Miller, formerly of the Red Sox and Astros, was also signed, getting a 1 year, $1 million contract, and he made his Cubs debut in September. The Cubs came out of the gate hot in 2006, but an injury to All-Star first baseman Derrek Lee sent the team into a tailspin of historic proportions. In early May, the team set a franchise record for offensive futility by scoring only 13 runs in 11 games. On two separate occasions within a month, the Cubs tied a team record by allowing 8 home runs in a single game. On July 16, the Cubs had a 5-2 lead over the National League record leading New York Mets before giving up an 11 run rally to them in the sixth inning, 8 of which were scored on grand slams by Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran, the first time the Cubs have ever given up two grand slams in a single inning. The 11 runs were the largest amount of runs ever scored in a single inning by a Mets team. The Cubs finished the season 66-96; they have now decreased their win total each year by at least 10 each year beginning in 2004. See also: Curse of the Billy Goat, Steve Bartman, Grant DePorter, Major League Baseball franchise post-season droughts, Lee Elia tirade Cubs for saleOn April 2, 2007, Tribune Company announced that they will be selling the Cubs at the end of the 2007 MLB Season. Analysts have estimated the team could be sold for over $600 million (Tribune spent only $20.5 million for the team in 1981). Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Phoenix sports executive Jerry Colangelo and actor Bill Murray have all been reported or rumored to have expressed interest in purchasing the team [4]. Season records
No-hitters throughout team history
Cy Young Award winnersOpening day starting pitchers
Baseball Hall of Famers
Retired numbers
Active roster25-man roster
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