History of the Cubs

The Cubs are a tradition. They’re three guys named Tinker, Evers and Chance turning a poetic double play. They’re Hack Wilson hitting the ball and then the bottle. They’re Gabby Hartnett, old “Tomato Face,” socking a homer in the dark to win a pennant. They’re Ernie Banks flicking his wrists with a glint in his eyes.

The Cubs perform in a ballpark where the grass is not plastic. There is no dome. There are no lights, no exploding scoreboards, no gaudy uniforms, no gimmicks. Just an ivy-covered tradition.

The Cubs are the oldest franchise in major league baseball. They trace their existence to 1876, the only team in the National League in continuous membership since the league’s inception.

As charter members, the Cubs have won the most games. In all they have captured 16 pennants to rank among the game’s elite, although the flag hasn’t flown over Wrigley Field since 1945.

Led by pitcher-manager Albert Spalding and first baseman Cap Anson, the Cubs were known as the White Stockings when they won their first pennant in 1876. Spalding won 40 games and second baseman Ross Barnes hit the team’s first homer on May 2, 1876, and also took the first batting title, hitting .404.

Anson soon became manager and the club won pennants in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885, and 1886. Stars of that club were King Kelly, whose good looks and handlebar mustache inspired the song, “Slide, Kelly, Slide”; Larry Corcoran, who pitched three no-hitters; Fred Goldsmith, who invented the curveball;John Clarkson, winner of 53 games in one season, and Ed Williamson, whose record of 27 homers in a season was broken by Babe Ruth.

But the biggest hero was Anson, who served 22 years as an active player and hit .300 in 20 of them. He won four batting titles, compiled a lifetime batting average of .339 and was the first player to reach a career 3,000 hits.

In Anson’s day, the Cubs first home field was at 23rd and State. Later they moved to Randolph and Michigan, then to Congress and Loomis, and in 1893 to Lincoln St. (now Wolcott) and Polk, the historic West Side Grounds where Tinker to Evers to Chance raised some dust.

It was first baseman Frank Chance who was most responsible for the Cubs’ next golden era. As player-manager, Chance led the Cubs to National League championships in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910, winning the World Series in 1907 and 1908.

The Peerless Leader hooked up with shortstop Joe Tinker and second baseman Johnny Evers and they became baseball’s most storied double play combination.

It was an era unmatched in major league history. The 1906 team won 116 games, a mark never again approached. During the five year period from 1906 through 1910, the Cubs won 530 games and lost 235 for a remarkable .693 percentage.

While Tinker to Evers to Chance became synonymous with victory, there were other great stars such as pitchers Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, who won 20 games six years in a row, and Ed Reulbach who pitched a double shutout; slugger Wildfire Schulte, who hit four grand slam homers in one season, and Johnny Kling, called by many the smartest catcher in the game.

The team moved north to Clark and Addison in 1916 and in 1918 chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. purchased the team. They won the pennant that year behind pitcher Hippo Vaughn, who a season earlier took part in the greatest pitching duel in history against Fred Toney of the Reds — a double no-hit game on May 2, 1917.

Wrigley then hired William Veeck, Sr. as team president and they assembled a nucleus of winners that included Hartnett, Charlie Grimm, Riggs Stephenson, and Charlie Root. They brought in little-known Joe McCarthy as manager and drafted Wilson from the minors. They obtained Kiki Cuyler and Rogers Hornsby and the 1929 team smashed its way to the top.

Wilson, at 5-6 and 190 pounds, was built like a mini-blacksmith. He had a brief but spectacular career. In 1930 he hit 56 homers and drove in 190 runs, the latter a record not even attained by Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig.

Following the 1929 season, the Cubs began a habit of winning the flag every three years. They won in 1932, when Grimm moved in as manager and the team added such names as Billy Herman, Billy Jurges, and Lon Warneke.

In 1935 the Cubs won again, staging a famous finish by winning 21 straight games in September. Added to the cast were Stan Hack, Phil Cavarretta, Augie Galan, Larry French, and Bill Lee.

Grimm resigned during the 1938 season and the team came to life under Hartnett who replaced Grimm after 81 games had been played. It was a dogfight between the Cubs and Pirates for first place honors. It all came down to the September 28 game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs and Pirates were tied 5-5 as darkness set in. Hartnett came to bat with two out in the ninth inning against Mace Brown. With two strikes against him, Hartnett hit his famous “Homer in the Gloamin” to win 6-5.

But it was the end of an era. From 1926 through 1939 the team never finished out of the first division but for the next half-decade the Cubs were never in contention. It took the return of Charlie Grimm to the manager’s role in 1945 to lift the club to the National League championship that year. Aided by the July deal that brought pitcher Hank Borowy from the Yankees, the Cubs took their 16th pennant in 1945. Borowy was 11-2 while Cavarretta won the batting title with a .355 average.

The Cubs then underwent a victory famine that lasted two decades. Hero-starved fans had little to cheer about except Hank Sauer, the lumbering “Mayor of Wrigley Field,” who was bombarded with packets of tobacco after every home run he hit. Mostly there was a parade of names like Roy Smalley, Harry Chiti, Frank Enargo, Moe Thacker and other forgettables, until the arrival of a skinny black shortstop named Ernie Banks. Banks immediately became Mr. Cub. Five times he hit more than 40 homers in a season and 12 times he hit grand slam homers with a record five during the 1955 season. He won two home run crowns and the Most Valuable Player award in 1958 and 1959 despite his team’s fifth place finish.

The Cubs soon added sluggers Billy Williams and Ron Santo and staged a brief revival under stormy Leo Durocher. The 1969 year was a joyous one — the Cubs were racing to a pennant. But, the big guns of August turned to September mourning when the team was overtaken by the New York Mets. Practically every season thereafter, the Cubs would make a false start toward the top only to fall back when the ivy on the walls turned brown.

There were a few players to hold the fans’ interest through the dull 1970s. Rick Reuschel was a whale of a pitcher; Jose Cardenal offered comic relief; Rick Monday rated a salute for rescuing a burning U. S. flag; Bill Madlock won back-to-back batting titles; Dave Kingman played long ball; Bruce Sutter and his split-fingered fastball spelled relief, and Bill Buckner limped through his line drives.

Then, after 64 years, the Wrigley family sold the team in June 1981 to the Tribune Co. for a reported $22 million. That started the so-called “New Tradition” with former Phillies’ manager Dallas Green at the controls, getting gamers for goners.

In 1984 the Cubs finally won another title — championship of the National League East. They faced the San Diego Padres, winners in the West, winning the first two games played in Chicago by scores of 13-0 and 4-2. But then they lost three straight in California and the hopes of Chicago fans were once again dashed.