100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (15 page)

42. The Rise and Fall of Hack Wilson

The homers kept piling up, the runs kept being driven in, and by the time the 1930 season was over, Hack Wilson had put together the greatest year in National League history.

It’s not hard to argue the entirety of his .356 average, 56 homers, and 191 RBIs still stands as the best, considering the only comparable campaigns have come from modern players closely linked to steroids. No, Wilson didn’t need steroids to bulk up his short but powerful 5'6" frame. The vice that did him in was alcohol, which drove him from the Cubs and from baseball.

“I never played drunk,” Wilson once said. “Hung over? Yes, but never drunk.”

In 1948, not 20 years after his most memorable season, Wilson was far removed from his day in the sun. He was discovered—alone, forgotten, and destitute
—working as a towel boy at a community pool in Baltimore. Shortly afterward, Wilson suffered a fall at his home and died from complications related to the fall, ending the spectacular, colorful, and troubled life of one of the Cubs’ greatest sluggers.

Lewis Robert “Hack” Wilson was born on April 26, 1900, and grew up in a small Pennsylvania steel town. A newspaper account during his early playing days said of Wilson that of all the rubes, “He is the rubiest of them all.”

Wilson, whose nickname was derived from his physical similarities to Georg Hackenschmidt, a popular pro wrestler of the era, made it to the majors in 1923 with the New York Giants but never cracked the starting lineup for a sustained period. By the time the Cubs snatched him from the Giants in baseball’s annual minor league draft of unprotected players, he had hit a respectable but hardly awe-inspiring 16 home runs in 573 career at-bats.

Thus began one of the most remarkable five-year runs by any player in Cubs history. Wilson hit .331 with 177 home runs and 708 RBIs during that span, culminating with his masterful 1930 season. It didn’t take long before Wilson’s love of the bottle made itself known to the Cubs, as he was arrested at a prohibition-era speakeasy a few weeks after joining the team.

Actually, the Cubs might have known about Wilson’s proclivities and tried some tough love with him as a wire service story following the arrest claimed, “The place was raided, it was learned, on complaint of the Cubs’ management.”

Some of the most memorable moments of Wilson’s career had nothing to do with his prodigious power. On June 20, 1928, after grounding out in the bottom of the ninth while the Cubs were trailing St. Louis 6–1, Wilson decided he had heard enough of a rather vociferous fan. Instead of going back to the dugout, he headed after the fan and proceeded to pound him into submission, igniting a melee in the stands.

The following season, he attacked a Reds player in their dugout and later that night, when the two teams ran into each other at the train station while heading out of town, Wilson got into a scrap with Reds pitcher Pete Donohue and decked him, as well.

But those were minor contrivances compared to what happened during the 1929 World Series. The Cubs had lost the first two games to the Philadelphia Athletics but took Game 3 and were primed to tie the series after taking an 8–0
lead in Game 4. However, Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun during a disastrous seventh inning, including one that resulted in a three-run inside-the-park home run, as the A’s scored 10 times and went on to win 10–8.

Wilson was devastated but was able to put it behind him and launched into his 1930 season with a fervor, hitting long balls at such a pace that for a time he threatened to break Babe Ruth’s newly minted home run record. Despite not breaking Ruth’s mark, Wilson’s 191 RBIs is still a major league record that few think will ever be broken.

There wasn’t much joy for Wilson after that season. His rise to fame led to even more nights out and more drinking, and in early September he and pitcher Pat Malone punched out a pair of sportswriters. That was the end. Wilson was suspended, kicked out of the clubhouse, and never played again for the Cubs. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in the off-season for pitcher Burleigh Grimes.

The Cardinals were forced to dump off Wilson on the Brooklyn Dodgers a month later after they couldn’t agree on a contract, and he actually put together a decent season in 1932 as he hit .297 with 23 homers and 123 RBIs. But in 1933 his demise accelerated. Wilson hit only nine homers for the Dodgers that season, and he played his final game on August 25, 1934, for the Philadelphia Phillies. He was 34.

Wilson’s death 14 years later came as a shock to the baseball world, which had lost track of him. Informed that Wilson’s own son wouldn’t claim the body, National League President Ford Frick sent money for a proper burial.

43. Kid K

Here’s the thing to know about Kerry Wood: He’s as big a Cubs fan, if not bigger, than you are.

The boy from Grand Prairie, Texas, who came to Wrigley Field in 1998 as a 20-year-old with a blazing fastball and just a wisp of facial hair is also now a full-time Chicagoan. Whether he finishes his career in a Cubs uniform remains to be seen, but where he and his family spend the rest of their lives seems to be a done deal. It’s why he left millions on the table to re-sign with the Cubs in 2011 after a two-year stint with Cleveland and the New York Yankees.

“It’s about being here at Wrigley, which is home for me,” Wood said during a press conference to announce his return. “My wife grew up here. We have family here obviously…we really feel that’s where we belong, where I belong.”

Players like Wood, who embody the franchise, come around rarely in sports, and Wood’s struggle to stay healthy made it even less likely he’d become one of the most beloved Cubs of all-time, on par with Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Andre Dawson, and Ryne Sandberg.

Think about the way many Chicago fans turned on Mark Prior when his injuries derailed his career or how Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was vilified after leaving the 2010 NFC title game with a knee injury. Wood had to deal with a lot of fans questioning his skill, but nobody ever questioned his heart during any of his 15 stints on the disabled list.

His role as a modern-day Mr. Cub certainly began with the 20-strikeout game on May 6, 1998
, in Wood’s fifth career start, but it started to cement when he risked his shaky right elbow to start Game 3 of the 1998 National League Divisional Series against Atlanta. Wood gave the Cubs five strong innings that day in what would be his last start for 19 months.

He blew out his elbow the following spring and underwent Tommy John surgery to replace the torn ligament. In his first game back on May 2, 2000, he thrilled the Wrigley Field crowd by not only pitching three-hit ball over six innings in a win over Houston but by homering in his first at-bat.

As expected, he struggled in his first season back and went 8–7 with a 4.80 ERA, his worst as a starter. But in 2001 he began a three-year stretch where he went 38–28 with a 3.41 ERA and made 93 starts while throwing 599 innings, capping it off with the 2003 playoffs and the highs and lows that came with it.

It was Wood who started Game 7 of the 2003 National League Championship Series against Florida, and despite hitting a game-tying two-run homer in the second inning to make up for a three-run first, he couldn’t stop the Marlins. He gave up seven runs in 5⅔ innings and when facing the media afterward it was hard for him to even speak.

“You’ve got to understand,” he said. “About 30 minutes ago, I choked.”

That wasn’t Wood feeling sorry for himself, it was a deep understanding of what the loss and not making it to the World Series would mean to generations of hopeful Cubs fans. In that sense, he was feeling sorry for himself. Because Wood, like you, is a Cubs fan.

Kerry Wood throws during batting practice at the Cubs’ spring training facility on Monday, February 21, 2011, in Mesa, Arizona. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

The switch from starting to relieving came in 2007 after three injury-plagued seasons in which it became clear his right shoulder couldn’t withstand the toll of throwing 100 pitches every outing. Wood embraced the move once it was clear he had no choice, and in 2008 he became the Cubs closer, finishing with 34 saves.

Wood had a very close relationship with former Cubs general manager
Jim Hendry, who joined the Cubs in 1995 as an assistant GM a few months before Wood was drafted fourth overall. Hendry encouraged Wood to seek other offers following the 2008 season, knowing he couldn’t match other offers or ask Wood to take a hometown discount of around $15 million.

So Wood signed with the Indians for $20 million over two years then was traded to the Yankees for their annual playoff push. When the Hot Stove League got underway before 2011, Wood was a free agent and he was mentioned as a possibility to return to the Cubs. But Hendry’s hands were tied by a tight budget, and Wood didn’t seem affordable.

That is, until the two had a heart-to-heart talk following Ron Santo’s funeral. Whether it was the emotion of Santo’s funeral or they just both knew it was right, Hendry and Wood agreed a return to Chicago was the right thing and he was signed to a one-year, $1.5 million deal that was well below market value but came with a priceless result.

Wood was home.

44. 23 Homers in 26 Games

The final numbers say Mark McGwire topped Sammy Sosa in the Great Home Run Race of 1998, and of course McGwire did end that incredible summer with 70 homers to Sosa’s 66.

But if McGwire won the marathon, it was Sosa who won the sprint.

A lot of attention has been rightfully paid to Sosa’s record-setting June, in which he hit 20 homers to break Rudy York’s record of 18 set in August 1937. That mark was set over 27 games, a tremendous feat to be sure, but not equal to the 23 homers he hit over 26 games from May 25 to June 25.

As late as May 24, Sosa only had nine home runs. He not only trailed far behind McGwire, who had 24 homers at that point in the season, he was also lagging behind one of his own teammates. Left-fielder Henry Rodriguez, one of the nicer guys to ever play the game, was leading the Cubs with 10 home runs.

Cubs hitting coach Jeff Pentland had been preaching patience, and Sosa was listening. He was drawing more walks and instead of trying to pull everything, Sosa was going to right field when pitchers tried to get him to chase bad balls off the plate.

This wasn’t the Sosa of old, and on May 25 the new Sosa began to fully bloom. He hit a pair of homers in a 9–5 loss at Atlanta, a game marred by a bench-clearing brawl, and then two more two days later in a loss to Philadelphia back at Wrigley Field.

Cubs fans know that not all home runs are created equal, and not only did both of those multi-homer games come in losses, the two against the Phillies came in the eighth and ninth innings when the game was out of reach.

After sitting out three games with a sore right hand, Sosa returned on June 1 and the homers started to matter a whole lot more. Over a seven-game stretch, Sosa hit seven homers and had a streak of five games in a row. What’s more, the Cubs won every game, including three by one run.

During these 26 games, Sosa went homerless in just 10 games and his longest stretch without going long was three games. From June 13 to June 25, Sosa hit 12 homers in just 13 games with a dinger against the Tigers on June 25, giving him 19 in June to break York’s record. This also gave him 23 over his last 26 games, a feat not bound by the calendar but even more remarkable.

“Maybe 10, 20 years from now there could be another Sammy Sosa,” he said after breaking York’s record. “I’m there at the right time. In
’37, the guy who broke the record was ‘the man.’ Tomorrow there could be another guy.”

Well, there was and there wasn’t, depending on how you look at it. Barry Bonds hit 23 homers over a 30-game stretch during his 73-homer season in 2001 when he was getting walked a lot more than Sosa, often intentionally. McGwire hit 17 homers in a 21-game stretch in 1999, an enormous amount over a short yet substantial period of time.

But 23 homers in 26 games? Nobody’s ever done that before or since, and chances are nobody ever will again.

45. Horrible Playoff Collapses, Part 2: 2003

If we’re going to rank Cubs’ playoff collapses—and with a dearth of playoff comebacks it’s really our only option—the 2003 version is slightly more vomit-inducing than 1984. After taking a 3–1 series lead, there was simply no way the Cubs would lose three straight games. Consider the following:

They had their best three starters ready in Carlos Zambrano, Mark Prior, and Kerry Wood.

The Cubs hadn’t lost three straight since mid-August.

Florida’s ace, Josh Beckett, would at best only be available to start one more game.

Game 6 and 7 were scheduled to be played at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs were a team of Dustiny.

Okay, so that last one wasn’t quantifiable, but ever since Cubs manager Dusty Baker arrived in Chicago and asked, “Why not us?” at his introductory news conference, it became a far more preferable mantra than the typical Cubs lament of, “Why us?”

Nobody knows why; all we know now
are who, what, and where. And given what came later, it’s easy to forget the biggest lead the Cubs blew in the 2003 National League Championship Series actually came all the way back in Game 1.

Beckett, who had given up more than four earned runs in a game just twice all season, allowed four runs in the first inning alone on an RBI triple by Mark Grudzielanek, a two-run homer by Moises Alou, and an RBI double by Alex Gonzalez. This was the best the Marlins could offer up?

Well, it wasn’t. Beckett settled down and in the top of the third inning Zambrano allowed three home runs in the span of four batters. Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez hit a three-run shot, and after Derrek Lee struck out, Miguel Cabrera and Juan Encarnacion hit solo homers to give Florida a 5–4 lead.

By the time the ninth rolled around, the Marlins led 8–6
and things looked bleak. Even with Kenny Lofton’s double, the Cubs were down to their last out with Sammy Sosa coming up. This was the same Sosa who had a lifetime .161 postseason average (5-for-31) with no homers. Even with first base open, it wasn’t a shock that Florida manager Jack McKeon chose to pitch to him.

Big mistake. Sosa turned on a 1–1 pitch from Ugueth Urbina and sent it flying toward Waveland Avenue to tie the game and turn Wrigley Field into a madhouse. The delirium was short-lived, however, as the Marlins’ Mike Lowell hit an 11
th
inning home run off Mark Guthrie and the Cubs went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

Games 2 and 4 were, incredibly, drama-free in the Cubs’ favor—both blowouts that an anxious fan base needed after the tense series in Atlanta. Game 3 was similar to the NLCS opener, a see-saw affair that went into extras, but this one was won by the Cubs 5
–4 thanks to Doug Glanville’s RBI triple in the 11
th
inning.

Beckett completely shut down the Cubs in Game 5, striking out 11 and tossing a two-hit shutout. That set up Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 at Wrigley Field.

Game 6 is not a myth, it actually happened. The Cubs really did lead 3–0 with one out in the eighth and Prior pitching flawlessly. There really is a fan named Steve Bartman who touched a foul ball that could have—
could have
—been the second out of the inning.

And the Marlins really did go on to score eight runs in the inning and walk away with an 8–3 victory, further destroying the fragile psyche of a fan base that knew playing Game 7 was a waste of time. It was over.

Sure, the fans, players, and broadcasters showed up and the game was played, but it was more to see the extent of the car wreck rather than to see if the driver was still alive. Even with Wood, who had pitched so brilliantly in the decisive Game 5 of the National League Divisional Series against Atlanta, the Cubs were overwhelmed by their past.

Wood played like he didn’t know whether he should be the hero or the goat. He gave up three runs in the first inning then hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second to tie it. The Cubs actually went up 5
–3 on Moises Alou’s two-run blast in the third, but in the fifth the Marlins tallied three runs and went on to win 9–6 and advance to the World Series.

Eleven months earlier, Dusty Baker had asked, “Why not us?”

Finally, he had his answer.

The Ex-Marlin Factor

There were at least five and as many as seven past or future ex-Cubs on the 2003 Florida Marlins, depending on your definition of what makes someone an ex-Cub.

The five who actually played in a big-league game for the Cubs were pitcher Chad Fox (2005, 2008–09), utility man Lenny Harris (2003), outfielder Todd Hollandsworth (2004–05), first baseman Derrek Lee (2004–10), and outfielder Juan Pierre (2006).

In Game 6, Fox was the winning pitcher while Pierre, Lee, and Hollandsworth went a combined 3-for-3 with a walk, three RBIs, and three runs scored in the pivotal eight-run eighth inning. Harris started the 2003 season with the Cubs but was released in early August then signed by the Marlins on August 11, making him eligible for the playoff roster.

Two members of the Marlins were in the Cubs organization but never played for the big league club: starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis, an eighth-round draft pick in 2000 who was traded away in 2002 as part of the deal that brought Antonio Alfonseca and Matt Clement to the Cubs; and reliever Braden Looper, who came to training camp with the Cubs in 2011 but retired after being cut a week before Opening Day.