My Favorite Cubs Teams – 1989

Looking back on my favorite Cubs teams of my lifetime.

Here are previous entries in this series:
Part 1 (2003) – My Favorite Cubs Teams – Part 1
Part 2a (1998) – My Favorite Cubs Teams – Part 2a – 1998

It had been 5 long years since the playoff run of 1984, and very little of that team remained. Jim Frey had moved to a GM role and Don Zimmer was the manager. Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutcliffe were still around, but the rest of the roster had turned over.

Several of the Cubs were young, home grown talents:
-24-year-old Greg Maddux
-25-year-old Mark Grace
-26-year-old Shawon Dunston
-23-year-old Jerome Walton
-25-year-old Dwight Smith
-25-year old Damon Berryhill
-23-year-old Jeff Pico
-27-year-old Les Lancaster

And other were acquired via free agency or trade:
–Andre Dawson
–Vance Law
–Mike Bielecki
–Mitch Williams
–Scott Sanderson

With this strong foundation of youth, hopes were high that this was only the start of things to come for the Cubs. But for many of the young Cubs, this was the best they’d ever do for the team, and none would be around in 1998 when the Cubs would next make the playoffs.

The Rookies

Rarely has a team had two players finish 1st and 2nd in Rookie of the Year Voting, but this happened in 1989 for the Cubs. And looking back on their numbers, the wrong man may have won.

The big difference between Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith is that Walton played every day in centerfield, while Smith platooned with Lloyd McClendon in left. But Smith’s numbers, especially offensively, were much better.
Smith: 381 PAs .324/.382/.493, 9 HR, 52 RBI, 52 R, 9 SB, 2.3 WAR
Walton: 515 PAs .293/.335/.385, 5 HR, 46 RBI, 64R, 24 SB, 1.9 WAR

Walton was better defensively, at a much more important position, so it could be argued that he deserved the award. but it was close. Another big difference was that Walton had a 30-game hitting streak.

Unfortunately, for both players, their rookie season were the highest WAR each would have in their careers. Smith played 4 more seasons with the Cubs, never playing in more than 117 games. He did get a 1.9 WAR in 1993, but had a negative WAR in both 1990 and 1991. He joined the Angels as a free agent, was traded to Baltimore, before moving on to Atlanta for the final 2 years of his career. He got a few postseason at bats with the Braves, and won a World Series with them in 1996. Smith passed away in 2022 at the age of 58.

One of his biggest hits of the season, was in a hige comeback against the Astros:

Walton had a similar career path, with 3 more seasons in Chicago, with an aggregate WAR of -0.3. He had a brief resurgence in 1995 with the Reds, but his number dwindled until his last season in Tampa in 1998.

The pitching staff

While the Cubs had good hitters in 1989, the real was the pitching staff, primarily the top 3 of the starting rotation and a couple members of the bullpen.

Greg Maddux had a brief call-up in 1986, and then a rough rookie season in ’87 (5.61 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, -0.4 WAR). But he hit his stride in 1988, as a 22-year-old, registering a 5.2 WAR and going to the all-star game.

He continued this success in 1989, finishing 3rd in the Cy Young voting, with a higher WAR (5.0) than the two pitchers who finished above him — although, to be fair, the 4th place finisher Orel Hershiser really deserved to win that year. He had a 2.95 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

Rick Sutcliffe put together a solid year, with 229 IP, a 3.66 ERA and 3.3 WAR.

But the real find was right-hander Mike Bielecki, who came out of nowhere with a 3.14 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and 4.3 WAR. He also had an 18-7 record, if you are interested in that sort of thing, and finished 9th in the Cy Young voting.

He was acquired before the 1988 from Pittsburgh for a minor-leaguer named Mike Curtis, and had a decent season that year with a 3.35 ERA in 19 games — 5 of them starts.

But 1989 turned out to be an extreme outlier for his career. The highest WAR for the rest of his career was 1.9 in 1996 with the Braves, primarily as a reliever, with only one other year with a WAR over 1.0 (in 1992, also with the Braves). He only spent another year and a half with the Cubs before being traded with Damon Berryhill for Yorkis Perez and Turk Wendell.

Scott Sanderson – the human rain delay – provided a decent 4th starter, with a 1.1 WAR and 3.94 ERA. Paul Kilgus, who we will get to later, had most of the other starts, with 23, and was mediocre, with a -0.8 WAR and a 4.39 ERA.

One player in the bullpen really stood out. Lester “Les” Lancaster (how many MLB players can you remember who were named Lester), had a magnificent season as a reliever. He pitched 72.2 innings in 42 appearances, with a 1.36 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 4.0 WAR.

But like many others on that team, his WAR was 2 points higher than any other WAR in his career.

The Trade

Coming out of the 1988 season, the Cubs had 1 too many 1st basemen. There were also rumors that one of those first-basement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Palmeiro) had an affair with the wife of Ryne Sandberg. The other first baseman, Mark Grace, was viewed as the future face of the Cubs.

The Cubs were in need of a closer, so they traded Rafael Palmeiro along with Jamie Moyer and Drew Hall for Mitch Williams along with Steve Wilson, Paul Kilgus, Curtis Wilkerson and 2 minor leaguers.

Many point to this trade as being one of the worst in Cubs history, which it was. Although, some mention including Moyer as why it was so bad, which is misleading. Moyer was not great for the Rangers over 2 seasons, with a 4.74 ERA and -0.5 WAR, and was released. After another bad season with St. Louis in 1991, he was released again and was briefly with the Chicago Cubs that off-season. Bu, they decided he was not worth the roster spot and was set free. Moyer had one good season with Baltimore in 1994 but really did not hit his stride until he moved to Seattle in 1996, which kicked off 6 excellent seasons over 7 years.

However, the trade was still horrible, simply for losing Palmeiro alone. He had 5 seasons with the Rangers before leaving as a free agent, compiling a 23.7 WAR, 107 HRs and 431 RBIs. And that was just the tip of the iceberg, as he compiled an additional 45.5 WAR, 437 HRs and 1309 RBIs, bouncing back and forth between Baltimore, back to Texas and then back to Baltimore to finish his career. Shockingly, he only made it to the playoffs 3 times and never played in a World Series.

Of course there were the steroid rumors, testimony and ban which has clouded his career. One item I had forgotten is that he had the opportunity to return to the Cubs in 2003 at the end of his career, and chose not to: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story?id=1593608

While Palmeiro went off to a stellar career, Mitch Williams – the original “Wild Thing” burned brightly for a very short time with the Cubs, before moving on to other major moments.

Williams certainly helped the Cubs win the division in 1998, finishing 9th in Cy Young award voting, and 10th in MVP voting, as well as making the All-Star Team. But his numbers do not look that great in review: 2.76 ERA, but a massive 1.51 WHIP, 1.29 SO/BB ratio and 4.28 FIP. And only a 2.3 WAR. So, he got very lucky.

He was on the mound for the clinching out of 1989:

But again, this was Williams only good for season with the Cubs. His WHIP jumped up to 1.66 in 1990, and his ERA went up to 3.93. He was then traded for Bob Scanlan and Chuck McElroy, two decent relievers. He had the best season of his career with the Phillies in 1991, with a 2.34 ERA and 2.9 WAR, but his season ended ignominiously against another player with Cubs ties:

Playoff Memories: Will Clark, Mark Grace, and Jason Verduzco?

Without reviewing the summary on Wikipedia or youtube videos, I have 3 primary memories of the 1989 playoff series between the Cubs and Giants.
-I remember Will Clark destroying the Cubs in the series.
-I remember Mark Grace being the only Cubs hitter to have a great series.
-And I remember being absolutely upset that, after attending a University of Illinois football game — where the Illini trounced Ohio State 34-14, with Jason Verduzco being forced to replace an injured Jeff George — I was hanging out in the house of my grandparents’ friends and would miss the beginning of Game 1. A victory for Illinois over Ohio State was rare and should have been treasured, but I was much more excited about the possibility of seeing a Cubs game

OK…time to check my memory:
-Will Clark was otherworldly in that series with a .650/.682/1.200 slash line
-Mark Grace was almost as good with a .647/.682/1.118 slash line.
-The start time of Game one was 7:20pm, but I didn’t get home until about 8.

Game 1 and 2 were not very close, but 3, 4 and 5, all won by the Giants were all 1 or 2-run games.

In game 3, the Cubs had a 4-3 lead in the 7th after a Rick Sutcliffe double, an error, and a Ryne Sandberg sac fly. But Robby Thompson 2-run home run in the bottom of the 7th off of Les Lancaster. The Cubs had a big chance to score in the top of the 8th, but Mark Grace got doubled off trying to tag up on a long fly ball, and Lloyd McClendon flew out after two more runners had gotten on.

Game 4 was also close, with the Cubs trying it up at 4 in the top of the 5th, but the Giants getting 2 more in the bottom of that inning to finish the scoring at 6-4. Kelly Downs was the hero for San Francisco, with 4 shutout innings. Greg Maddux had his second awful start of the series, finishing with a 13.50 ERA over 7.1 innings.

Game 5 was also very close, with former Cub, Rick Reuschel pitched 8 strong innings only giving up 1 unearned run. Will Clark had a big 2-run single in the bottom of the 8th to break a 1-1 tie. The Cubs got a mini rally in the top of the 9th, with 3 straight singles to make it 3-2, but Ryne Sandberg ground out to 2nd to end the game.

The Giants went on to get swept by the Oakland A’s in the series best know for being interrupted by an earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_World_Series

Conclusion

After the euphoria of 1984, and 4 years of losing, 1989 seems like it was going to be the first of many years of success. But, as we all know, the next playoff drought would be until 1998, the longest in my Cub fandom.

It was nice to see Andre Dawson get to the playoffs, but it was a disappointing series for him with a .105/.227/.158 slash line. It was the final playoffs for Sandberg and Sutcliffe, the only holdovers from 1984. And it was the only playoff appearance with the Cubs for Greg Maddux, who would find playoff success with the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, pitching in 33 additional playoff games during his career – but only winning one championship in 1995.

Here is a longer form highlight film about the Cubs in 1989: