Sherman, Set The Wayback Machine For . . . 1980!

In what I hope to make a recurring feature, I thought it would be interesting to profile Cubs seasons of the past.  My first choice was the 1980 season.  Why 1980?  Well, a few reasons:  The team posted a 64-98 record that season—no Cubs team has posted more losses since.  The team was in it’s last year of ownership by the Wrigley family; it would be sold to the Chicago Tribune during the 1981 season.  In many ways, it was nearing the end of an era . . . actually, in several ways, the Cubs were behind the times at that point.  Mostly, though, I figured that rather than picking a pennant contender, I thought it would be interesting to take a season purely at random.

Without further adieu, let’s look at the vitals:

1980 in a Box
Record:  64-98 (6th in NL East, 12th in NL)
Runs Scored:  614 (9th in NL); Runs Allowed:  728 (12th in NL)—Pythagorean Record:  68-94
Home Record:  37-44; Road Record:  27-54
Park Factor:  107 Batting / 109 Pitching—with it’s limited foul territory and short power alleys, Wrigley Field was the best hitters park in the NL, if not MLB

Owner:  William Wrigley
General Manager:  Bob Kennedy
Managers:  Preston Gomez (38-52) and Joey Amalfitano (26-46)

Attendance:  1,206,776 (8th in NL)—14,898/gm
It should be noted that across town, the 4th place White Sox drew roughly the same number—1,200,365.

How Was the Ballpark Different?—The major differences would be the lack of lights or luxury boxes.  In that day, the press box hung under the upper deck behind home plate, and the park also had an auxiliary press box under the upper deck along the 3rd base line (both spaces are now luxury boxes).  Another major difference was with the clubhouses—they were quite small for each team and were not accessible from the dugouts.  Players and coaches would walk down the LF or RF lines to enter the clubhouse entrances in the LF or RF corners.  In addition, there was no electronic message boards, nor was there a restaurant under the 1B stands.  Of course, there was no added capacity in the bleachers (nor a “knothole"), nor was there all the rooftop construction that exists now.  Folks would watch the games from the roofs, but they were more likely to be just a few residents hanging out with their lawn chairs and Weber grills.  The team had not retired any numbers yet, nor did the park have a Walk of Fame (or Harry Caray statue).  Finally, the Chicago Sting played half of their home games at Wrigley—occasionally lines from the soccer field were visible when the Cubs later played.

Uniform Style

Turning Point:  If it wasn’t during the prior offseason, I’d point to May 4, when they were swept by the Reds in a doubleheader.

Come From Behind Wins:  33
Blown Leads:  37
Record When Leading After 7 Innings:  49-8
Record When Tied After 7 Innings:  8-14
Record When Losing After 7 Innings:  7-75
One Run Games:  21-29; Extra Innings:  4-13
Largest Win Streak:  4 games (April 17-22 and September 25-28)
Largest Loss Streak:  7 games (August 19-25)

Nemesis:  Houston Astros (the Cubs went 1-11 against the Astros that season, winning only the final game of their season series)

What Went Right:  Not a whole lot, but the bullpen was generally good
What Went Wrong:  Lack of talent, particularly hitting, and key injuries.  The defense was also atrocious, easily the worst in the NL.

Youngsters (25 or under)—5 semi-regulars (Scot Thompson, Jesus Figueroa, Jim Tracy, Bill Caudill, Willie Hernandez)
Prime (26-29)—9 semi-regulars
Past-Prime (30-33)—10 semi-regulars
Old Timers (34+)—1 semi-regular (Larry Biitner)
Top Prospect—Karl Pagel
All-Stars— Dave Kingman, Bruce Sutter
Hall of Famers—Sutter

Most Runs Created:  Bill Buckner, 94
Highest Batting Average:  Buckner, .324 (1st in NL and career best)
Lowest Batting Average:  Thompson, .212 (in limited duty, Mick Kelleher hit .146)
Most Home Runs:  Jerry Martin, 26
Most RBI:  Martin, 73
Most Stolen Bases:  Ivan DeJesus, 44 (10th in NL)

Best Position Player:  Bill Buckner
Worst Position Player:  Mike Tyson (in a tough race)
Boom or Bust Award:  Jerry Martin—who had 23 HRs and 73 RBI to lead the team, yet hit only .227/.281/.419 in the process

Most Wins:  Lynn McGlothen, 12
Most Losses:  Mike Krukow, 15 (3rd in NL)
Most Saves: Sutter, 28 (1st in NL)
Best ERA:  Bill Caudill, 2.19
Worst ERA:  Dennis Lamp, 5.20
Most Innings:  Rick Reuschel, 257.0 (4th in NL)—Though the Cubs rotation of Reuschel, Lamp, Krukow, and McGlothen was not outstanding in performance, it was outstanding in resilience.  The foursome started 136 of the team’s 162 games (84%), the most of any team’s foursome in the NL.

Best Pitcher:  Either Rick Reuschel or Bruce Sutter.  Sutter had the better component stats and led the NL in saves, but I would give the nod to Reuschel, who anchored the staff with a 10-13, 3.40 record
Worst Pitcher:  Dennis Lamp

Career Best Seasons:  Tim Blackwell, Jim Tracy, Dick Tidrow
Career Worst Season:  Lamp

Heaviest Player:  Reuschel was listed as 6’3”, 235#, but I think Barry Foote had to be heavier than that
Lightest Player:  Figueroa, 5’10”, 160#

Most Admirable:  Buckner
Least Admirable:  Kingman (though he had some competition)
Nicknames:  Billy Buck (Buckner), Kong (Kingman), Big Daddy (Reuschel), Dirt (Tidrow)

Tragedies:  Lynn McGlothen, who died in a fire at a friend’s mobile home on August 14, 1984

In 1979, the Cubs mired themselves in mediocrity with a 80-82 record, good for 5th in the NL East, 18 games behind the “We Are Family” Pirates.  In the last week of the season, manager Herman Franks resigned, leaving 3B coach Joey Amalfitano to manage on an interim basis.  The ‘79 team had holes, particularly at 2B—the team had traded popular 2B Manny Trillo, along with OF Greg Gross and C Dave Rader to the Phillies for C Barry Foote, 2B Ted Sizemore, OF Jerry Martin, P Derek Botelho, and Henry Mack (a minor leaguer).  Not only did Sizemore prove thoroughly inadequate, but—more importantly—he proved himself to be a problem child to Cubs management when he criticized Cubs management for, among other things, not paying for his wine bill when going to a Montreal restaurant.  Sizemore’s behavior got him traded to the Red Sox soon thereafter.  At the very least, the Cubs needed to find a new manager and a new 2Bman just to stay mediocre.

That’s essentially what they did.  With the press and even the players themselves saying the team needed a disciplinarian, GM Bob Kennedy hired Preston Gomez just a week into the offseason.  Hiring Gomez was viewed as maintaining the status quo, as Gomez was generally a conservative, mild mannered fellow and a friend of Kennedy’s.  This was not the only thing about the decision that drew criticism, however; Gomez had just over five seasons of managerial experience with the Padres and Astros . . . escaping last place just once.  In defending the Gomez hire, Kennedy said:  “In most instances, it’s not the manager’s fault.  It’s the fault of the general manager wo didn’t give him enough talent.” (Meanwhile, just a week later, White Sox owner Bill Veeck had hired his own manager, removing the “interim” label off a man by the name of Tony LaRussa.)

Kennedy’s words were quite prophetic.  As much as most of us have complained about Jim Hendry’s flaws and the ownership failings of Tribune management, I don’t believe anyone would trade the Cubs situation today for the situation in the late 70s, particularly after Phil Wrigley died and left the team to his son.  Mired in financial difficulties when both his parents passed away in 1977 within two months of each other, Bill Wrigley wasn’t exactly loaded with cash—he owed the IRS millions in estate taxes.  As for his devotion to the baseball team . . . let’s just say that he wasn’t exactly Mark Cuban.  More than a few people complained that he was rarely at the ballpark and even the players observed that they would only meet him in Spring Training. 

Not only did this lead to frequent calls for him to sell the team, but it often put his GM Kennedy between a rock and a hard place—though it could also be said that Kennedy didn’t exactly do much to avoid this.  In the offseason before the 1980 season, Kennedy filled the 2B hole by trading reliever Donnie Moore to the Cardinals for Mike Tyson, but openly stated that he saw “no chance” of making a trade during the Winter Meetings or really doing anything other than try to resign C Barry Foote.  (It was reported, however, that Kennedy turned down an offer by the Phillies of P Larry Christenson, OF Greg Luzinski, and P Tug McGraw for Bruce Sutter.)

Off the field, there was one more notable change:  WGN announced that longtime announcer Jack Brickhouse would be retiring after 1980, and announced the hiring of Milo Hamilton to be his eventual successor.  For the 1980 season, both would share the booth (with help from Lou Boudreau), before Hamilton was to take it over in 1981.

Meanwhile, no fewer than seven Cubs could charitably be described as “disgruntled,” either because they sought long-term contracts (Barry Foote, Jerry Martin, Mike Vail), a different role with the team (Mick Kelleher, Willie Hernandez), or just because they wanted better management (Bruce Sutter, Dave Kingman).  Sutter, the reigning Cy Young award winner, had sought a long term contract and when the Cubs refused to negotiate, filed for arbitration.  Sutter’s award of $700,000 was twice what the Cubs offered and, at the time, the largest contract in Cub history and the largest deal ever awarded in arbitration.  This outcome didn’t exactly bring Sutter into a close relationship with Kennedy or Wrigley.

The most bitter of these relationships, however, was with Jerry Martin, the incumbent CF.  In coming to the Cubs in the Manny Trillo deal, Martin claimed that Kennedy promised him that if he proved himself to be a regular CFer, Kennedy would give him a 5 year contract.  Martin played 140 games in CF for the Cubs that year, and claimed that Kennedy reneged on his promise.  On January 9, 1980, Martin launched into this notable tirade:

I want to be traded, I want to get away from the Cubs, and I want it right away.  I never thought I would feel this way, because I love the City of Chicago and the fans, and last year was the first time in the major leagues that I really had a chance to play regularly. 

But I can’t stand the Cubs’ organization anymore.  The whole situation stinks.  They are in the Dark Ages, and they are never going to win anything unless they change.  If the season started tomorrow, the Cubs would finish the same way they did last year—fifth place.  If the Mets weren’t so bad, the Cubs would finish sixth.

And the saddest thing is the organization doesn’t care.  The players on the Cubs want to win, but the organization doesn’t care.  As long as they draw people into the ballpark, it didn’t matter whether we won or lost last year.  had heard what Ted Sizemore had said about the franchise, and what Bill Madlock said, but I was always willing to give the Cubs the benefit of the doubt.

But no more.  Everything they said was right.  All the organization wants is for its players to show up every day.  Then the crowds come and that’s it.  They’re happy.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  When I was in Philadelphia, everybody from the clubhouse man to the owner wanted to win.  With the Cubs, you see the owner once in spring training and you never see him again.  Then all they do is sit back while the other clubs in the division try to improve themselves.  What have the Cubs done since the season ended?  They acquired one player, Mike Tyson.  Well, they have to make more moves than that, and I hope that I’m in one of them.  I want out.

Kennedy responded by saying that Martin is “not even a center fielder.  He’s a left fielder playing center.” Martin played 140 games in CF in 1979, after Kennedy had traded for him to specifically fill that role.  Kennedy added that because Martin had a prior knee injury, the Cubs couldn’t get insurance for a long-term contract, but vowed that 1980 would be Martin’s last year with the Cubs.  Kennedy also frequently observed that no team wanted to trade for Martin.  As for the Cubs lack of activity in the offseason, Kennedy purchased IF Len Randle from the Mariners—who was best known for punching his manager, Frank Lucchesi, when Lucchesi took away from him the Rangers 2B job in 1977.

This was not the only turmoil.  Shortly before Spring Training, new manager Preston Gomez evaluated the team—by saying that the infield leaks, the outfield is shaky at best, and the base-running doesn’t measure up to the competition.  He added that when he was the Dodgers 3B coach, he would always have his runners take the extra base on the Cubs outfield, other than Dave Kingman.

All this led to a pretty dismal attitude leading up to Opening Day 1980, not only by the players, but by the fans and media as well.  Did I mention that in Spring Training, Dave Kingman threw a bucket of ice over the head of a Daily Herald reporter?

Despite all this, the season started out well for the Cubs, mainly due to taking 5 of 7 from the Mets.  After April 25, the team found itself in the lead in the NL East with a 7-4 record, led in large part to Dave Kingman’s 6 HRs.  The April 19 game was particularly noteworthy—trailing the Mets 9-1 going into the bottom of the 6th, the Cubs scored 4 in the 6th (with a Kingman 2-run homer) and rallied for 7 in the 8th (keyed by a Kingman grand slam) to win, 12-9.  The April 22 game against the Cardinals was particularly exciting, with the Cubs overcoming 6-2 and 12-6 deficits to win 16-12, Ivan DeJesus hitting for the cycle before the dust settled on the 5th inning!  Though the Cubs briefly slipped out of first place at the end of the month, they moved back into a first place on May 3 after Mike Krukow pitched a 1-run, 4-hit masterpiece.

It was the next day that things started to go south.  In the first game of that day’s doubleheader against the Reds (a scheduled one!), the Cubs started the top of the 6th of a scoreless game by putting the first two batters on base off rookie Charlie Liebrandt, with Bill Buckner and Dave Kingman coming up.  Buckner grounded out, moving the runners along to 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Electing to pitch to Kingman, Liebrandt was rewarded with a harmless popfly to CF and after walking Jerry Martin intentionally, Liebrandt got Barry Foote to ground to 3B, squandering the Cubs opportunity.  The Reds then went on to plate two in the bottom of the frame and stave off two Cub rallies to win a 3-2 squeaker. 

In the second game, the Cubs looked to split the doubleheader by breaking out for two in the first inning and pushing the lead to 4-0 going into the bottom of the 6th.  At that point, Dennis Lamp fell apart, giving up a run and leaving the bases loaded with only one out.  His replacement, Bill Caudill, induced a popfly, then watched as Reds (and later Cubs) utility player Junior Kennedy pounce on a Caudill fastball and drive it into the plaza section in Riverfront’s left field stands—a grand slam and only the second homer of Kennedy’s career.  (Kennedy would later hit 2 more for the Cubs in ‘82 to finish his career with 4 home runs.) The Reds then held on to preserve a 5-4 victory and a sweep of the doubleheader, knocking the Cubs back to 2nd place.

Four days later, the Cubs faced off at Wrigley against the Padres, in 2nd place, 2.5 games behind the Pirates.  The Cubs not only lost the game, 9-6, but they lost something far more important:  In the bottom of the 6th, attempting to score on a Jerry Martin double, Dave Kingman tumbled over Padre catcher Bill Fahey, landing awkwardly on his shoulder.  Kingman’s injury would not just take him out of the next four games, but it would cause him to miss action through much of the remaining season and, even when Kingman played, would rob him of much of his power.  After leading the team with 48 dingers in 1979, Kingman would tally only 18 in 1980.

For the rest of the season, the Cubs scrambled to try to fill the offensive void, but to no effect.  With a weak hitting Mike Tyson (.238/.273/.337) and a injury-impaired sophomore season by OF Scot Thompson (.212/.301/.292), the team struggled to put runs on the board.  In addition, Barry Foote missed much of the season with an ailing back, with Tim Blackwell picking up the slack.  The team tumbled to 3rd place on May 16, 4th place on May 18, and 5th place on June 10.

Rumors, arguments, and disagreements continued about how to improve the team.  As the June 15 trade deadline approached, Preston Gomez maintained that the team needed help with the infield, not only at the plate, but in the field as well.  Bob Kennedy, meanwhile, blamed Cub pitching.  Meanwhile, the Cubs continued to play like zombies, with even Preston Gomez observing that there was an “uneasy feeling” around the club.  Kennedy denied rumors that he turned down an offer of Dave Winfield for Dave Kingman, adding that Kingman is signed more cheaply through 1982 and that he would prefer Kingman to Winfield anyway.

In the end, the Cubs did make a trade at the deadline, dealing their top prospect, position-challenged Karl Pagel to the Indians for DH Cliff Johnson.  Yes, I said DH—Johnson hadn’t spent more than 22 games in the field in three years, when he played OF/1B for the Astros and Yankees.  The Cubs cleared roster space for Johnson by dealing their 3B of the past 3 years, Steve Ontiveros, to the Saibu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League.  With the Cubs, Johnson spent most of his time manning 1B, with Bill Buckner agreeing to move his chronically bad ankles to the outfield.  (Buckner would play 54 games in the outfield in 1980, the last season in which he spent significant time in the OF.)

Unfortunately, though Gomez looked forward at the All-Star break to penciling in a lineup that included Buckner, Kingman, and Johnson, injuries and spotty play didn’t allow it to happen all that often—just 7 times the rest of the season.  At the time, the team stood at 34-43, in 5th place, 8 games behind the Expos.  Bob Kennedy chose to find the bright side, observing on July 19 that “[t]he way we’ve been playing this season, we should be 25 games out of first place.  Instead, we’re only 10 or 11 games out.” (They were 12.)

Kennedy also denied rumors that he was going to fire Preston Gomez, saying “Preston can’t be blamed for the injuries that have killed us.” Six days later, Gomez was fired, Kennedy explaining that he did it to shake up the club, retaining 3B coach Joey Amalfitano for the rest of the season. 

To most, including the players, this was merely arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  As Bruce Sutter commented:  “Three months ago, Preston knew everything about baseball.  And now he doesn’t?” Another anonymous player said “that’s why Preston was an idiot for taking this job in the first place.”

As for Amalfitano, upon taking over, he observed that the team had far too little power, sorely lacking in speed (DeJesus being the only stolen base threat), and that “the Cubs don’t have a single bona fide hit-and-run man.  The season proceeded largely as could be expected at that point.

1980 was a tumultuous season for the team, largely a train wreck in every way.  Soon, however, things would change.  Though 1981 would prove to be equally disastrous, Bill Wrigley’s eventual sale of the team led to incoming GM Dallas Green making wholesale changes in the team as well as the farm system, leading to more exciting times in the rest of the decade.