My Favorite Cubs Teams – 1998

As I finished up part 1 of this series of my 5 favorite Cubs Teams, which I originally intended to be one long post, I realized I had 6 teams (not 5) that I wanted to cover.

So, I’ve decided to have teams 4a and 4b. It’s my blog…I can do what I want.

So that brings us to one of my 4th favorite teams, the 1998 Cubs.

The 1998 did not actually win a true playoff game, as there was only one Wildcard team at the time. They did have to win a 1-game, regular season playoff to capture that Wildcard.

One reason I remember this team so fondly is that it was the end of the longest stretch of missing the playoffs in my fandom – and still is.

Cubs Playoff Droughts since 1984:
1989-1998: 7 seasons (it was really 8, but the playoffs were canceled in one of those years)
2008-2015: 6 seasons
1984-1989: 4 seasons
1998-2003: 4 seasons
2020-current: 4 seasons
2003-2007: 3 seasons
2018-2020: 1 season

In my personal opinion, the catalyst for this long stretch of losing was the failure to sign Greg Maddux as a free agent. He had help the Cubs win a division in 1989, and had the signs of being one of the best pitchers in the league. He won the Cy Young with the Cubs in 1992, but the team suffered 3 straight losing seasons, unable to match the success of their best player.

Some GMs might have worked on re-signing the best pitcher in baseball, and strengthening the team around him. But instead, Larry Himes got into a war with Maddux’s agent, Scott Boras, and pivoted to signing a bunch of other players: Jose Guzman, Candy Maldanado, Randy Myers and Dan Plesac.

It was kind of Moneyball before Moneyball. Instead of replacing the player, try to replace the production provided by that player – at a similar or lower cost. Shocking for none, it was a disaster. There is no guarantee that the CUbs would have made it back to the playoffs earlier if Himes and the team had just paid Maddux, but things could not have gone much worse.

In 1993, the team did have a winning record for the first time in a while but here is the production of the Maddux replacements:
Guzman 0.4 WAR
Maldanado: -1.3 WAR
Myers: 1.4 WAR
Pleasac -0.7 WAR
Total: -0.2 WAR

Maddux had a 5.8 WAR

So, an argument could be made that if the Cubs had been able to sign Maddux and Myers, or another competent closer, they could have been a playoff team in 1993, plus had the best pitcher in baseball to build around for years to come.

Sigh. On to better things. So 1998 came along…

With the benefit of hindsight, the 1998 baseball season is very complex to think about. At the time, the great home race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was exhilarating, and breathed life into a sport that seemed to need it. But the subsequent shadow of the steroid era has sapped much of the joy that I felt about that competition.

I’m not going to air all of my thoughts about the steroid era, and how we continue to think about it. But, I would say that some of the numbers from that era are still impressive, as we have to assume that many of the pitchers were also using performance enhancing drugs.

Sammy Sosa’s numbers that year were amazing — in addition to his 66 HRs, he led the league in runs scored, RBIs and strikeouts. He had an ops over 1000, and was named MVP in the NL. And all this with a supporting cast of hitters where only Mark Grace is memorable.

The rest of the lineup was a bunch of later in their career, none of whom were drafted by the Cubs:
C – Scott Servais, 31, traded with Luis Gonzalez from the Astros for Rick Wilkens
2B – Mickey Morandini, 32, traded from the Phillies for Doug Glanville
SS – Jeff Blauser, 32, signed as a free agent
3B – Jose Hernandez, 28, traded from the Indians for Heathcliff Slocumb
LF – Henry Rodriguez, 30, signed as a free agent
CF – Lance Johnson, 34, traded with Mark Clark and Manny Alexander from the Mets for Brian McRae, Mel Rojas and Turk Wendell

In addition to the historic year of Sosa (if history books will still record it), the other most memorable player/moment from 1998 was the Kerry Wood game. I was at work, and unable to watch the game, but I was trying to follow it online. The fact that I can type in “Kerry Wood game boxscore” and this is the first thing that comes up is pretty incredible:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199805060.shtml

9 IP, 1H, 1HBP, 0 BB, 20 SO. It was the highest gamescore in a 9-inning game in history. The only “hit” was a grounder that Kevin Orie really should have fielded:

And all this by a rookie!

Cubs fans we envisioning the next Nolan Ryan. A big, strong right hander from Texas who could bring the heat. He was 13-6 with a 3.40 ERA and a 3.9 WAR in his rookie season, and won Rookie of the Year.

Unfortunately, injuries limited him to only 5 really good seasons before he had to go to the bullpen. He did have a fantastic year in 2003, but never reached the same heights as the 20k game — but then again no one else ever has.

The rest of the rotation in 1998 was solid, but not spectacular:
Kevin Tapani: 4.85 ERA, 90 ERA+, 2.1 WAR
Mark Clark: 4.84 ERA, 90 ERA+, 1.9 WAR
Steve Trachsel: 4.46 ERA, 98 ERA+, 2.9 WAR
Geremi Gonzalez: 5.32 ERA, 82 ERA+, -0.3 WAR

Not exactly a pitching staff that would inspire fear in any opponents.

The bullpen was also solid, but not great:
Rod Beck the closer: 3.02 ERA, 145 ERA+, 1.6 WAR and 51 saves with a mediocre 1.32 WHIP
Terry Mulholland, 2.89 ERA, 151 ERA+, 1.8 WAR
Rounded out by Terry Adams, Marc Pisciotta, Bob Patterson, Dave Stevens, Don Wengert, Matt Karchner, Amaury Telemaco and Felix Heredia.

They were 3rd in the NL in runs scored but only 11th in Runs allowed, so the offense really drove the success they had. It was also a “lucky” season, as they outperformed their expected win/loss by 5 wins, which was just barely enough to sneak into a one game playoff against the Giants (who were -2).

Another small note: this was the first year where there were 6 teams in the NL Central. 1994 brought the realignment that put Houston into the Central, and left only 4 teams in the NL and AL West.

The addition of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to the AL East and the Arizona Diamondbacks to the NL West moved Detroit to the AL Central and Milwaukee to the NL Central (yuck). There was no Interleague play, so there had to be an even number of teams in each league.

In a league where the division winner got an automatic playoff birth, having 6 teams in 1 division and 4 teams in another was inherently unfair. But this would continue until 2013, where interleague play allowed Houston to be moved over to the AL West.

But, the Wild Card did provide teams in tough divisions with a chance to make the playoffs. The Cubs finished well below the Astros in the NL Central, but we fighting with the Giants and Mets for the wild card.

On September 17th, the Cubs were 87-67, and has a 1-game lead over the Mets and a 5-game lead over the Giants. A three game sweep at home at the hands of the Reds, put things in jeopardy, and they proceed to lose 3 of their next 5, including the Brant Brown error game, where a dropped catch allowed three runs to score including the game winner.

In the final scheduled game of the regular season, the Cubs game the ball to Terry Mulholland, for only his 6th start that year – after spending most of the season in the pen. He proceeded to throw 7 innings of one-run ball, and the Cubs led 3-1. He was brought back out for the 8th, and gave up a run on a double, a ground out and a single, After getting a strikeout for the 2nd out, Sean Berry got a bloop single to center. Then Rod Beck shut down the Astros for two innings, with the Cubs failing to score. A 1-out triple by Carl Everett led to a sac fly to centerfield by Richard Hidalgo to give the Astros the win.

But the Cubs had some luck that day, with both the Mets (who were 1 game back) and the Giants (who were tied) also losing. This led to a one game playoff with the Giants to see who would go the the Wild Card.

Wrigley field was hopping on a Monday night, with ESPN showing the game. Gary Gaetti, who had been signed after being released by the Cardinals on August 14th, hit a 2-run home run off Mark Gardner in the 5th to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Matt Mieske, pinch hitting for Henry Rodriguez, had a 2-run single to make it 4-0 in the 6th. Steve Trachsel had pitched into the 7th allowing no runs. With 2 on and 1 out, he was replaced by Matt Karchner, who got a foul out but then gave up a pinch hit infield single to Shawon Dunston. With the bases load, Felix Heredia got Barry Bonds to ground out to first base to end the threat.

Normally a starter, Kevin Tapani, came in for the 8th and worked around a two-out triple to keep the Giants scoreless. Sammy Sosa scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 8th to make it 5-0, and the Cubs looked to be headed to the playoffs. After pitching almost 3 innings the previous day, the Cubs did not go to their closer, Rod Beck, staying with Tapani. After 2 consecutive singles to lead off the inning, Jim Riggleman decided to go to Terry Mulholland, who had pitched 8 innings the previous day. The Giants got an RBI single and a walk to load the bases, and then a sac fly to deep right, making it 5-2 with a runners on 1st and 3rd and only one out. At that point Riggleman brought tin Beck, who gave up an RBI groundout with a force play at 2nd, leaving a runner on 1st with the typing run — former Cub minor leaguer Joe Carter — at the plate. Carter popped out to 1st on a 2-2 count to end the game and send the Cubs to the playoffs.

In my memory, the less said about the 1998 playoffs for the Cubs, the better. The Braves were prohibitive favorites, and as I remember, they did not disappoint. But looking more closely at the box scores and game logs, despite being swept, the Cubs kept things close in the 3 games, with late home runs in all 3 being the big difference makers.

The Cubs got a whole day off, and traveled to Atlanta for game 1. Mark Clark, who I only have faint memories of, was the starter for the Cubs, While John Smoltz went for the Braves. A 2-run home run by Michael Tucker in the 2nd was all that the Braves would need, but a grand slam by Ryan Klesko in the 7th off of Matt Karchner was the final blow. A solo home run by Tyler Houston in the 8th was all the offense the Cubs could muster.

Game 2 was a different story, with Kevin Tapani holding his own against Tom Glavine. An RBI groundout by Lance Johnson gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the 6th. But Riggleman decided to stick with Tapani into the 9th and a home run by Javy Lopez with 1 out tied things up. Terry Mulholland gave up a 1-out walk to Walt Weiss in the bottom of the 10, and then made a error on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Tony Graffanino, to allow runner at 1st and 2nd. Chipper Jones singled to left to bring in Weiss and end the game.

The past met the future at Wrigley in Game 3, with Greg Maddux going against Keyy Wood. A passed ball in the 3rd gave the Braves a 1-0 lead, but Wood had an otherwise solid outing depite some wildness, going 5 innings giving up 3 hits and 4 walks, with 5 strikeouts. Terry Mulholland came in and had 1-2-3 inning sin the 6th and 7th, keeping the Cubs in the game. This all went wrong in the 8th, as Mulholland started the inning with a single and a walk before giving way to Rod Beck. Beck got a flyball out, but then gave up an RBI single to Gerald Williams to make it 2-0. Williams advanced to 2nd on an errant throw, putting runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1-out. The Cubs intentionally walked Andrew Jones to get to Eddie Perez, and hopefully induce a double play. But Perez had other ideas, and launched a grand slam, sealing the Cubs fate for that game and the season. The Cubs loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8th of Maddux, and the Braves brought in Kerry Ligtenberg. A sac fly, strikeout and RBI single bu Mark Grace made the score 6-2, but Henry Rodriguez lined out to end the inning. A 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th finished up the game.

So, overall 1998 stood out at the time as a return from a long playoff drought, the year Sammy Sosa broke the home run record but still finished 2nd in the race, and the introduction of a phenom pitcher. Now that time has passed, it mostly stands out for overcoming a crushing late loss in the regular season and winning a one game playoff to give this Cubs fan something to care about in October after years of disappointment.