Upon accepting my newly created role as senior Chicago Cubs losing streak expert back in early July, I had no idea how much work it would entail.
The Cubs lost their 11th straight game on my first day on the job, only three shy of the franchise record of 14 consecutive losses at the start of the 1997 season. That stretch of bad baseball led to the sell-off of stars, but not before they contributed to the start of a 12-game losing streak that included the final loss by Jake Arrieta as a Cub and his epitaph for the 2021 season: “I’d love for you to take your mask off.”
No sooner had we wrapped up that streak when Cubs historians reminded us the team also was on target to reach the franchise record of 12 consecutive home losses. This time the Cubs not only reached the record but surpassed it with 13 straight losses at Wrigley Field, their longest home skid in 105 years of playing at the corner of Clark and Addison.
This is the most streaking we’ve seen hereabouts since the 1970s, when streaking was a fad in which people exposed themselves in public and ran around aimlessly. It wasn’t all that much different than the 2021 Cubs, though the ‘70s streakers had much more fun.
Naturally, with all of this losing, a press-box debate raged last week over whether this Cubs team is the worst in franchise history. NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer, who has covered the Cubs since 2007, maintained it indeed is worthy of the dubious honor.
But as senior Cubs losing streak expert, I’m here to testify it definitely is not, at least not yet. Here are the six teams worse than the 2021 Cubs (so far), in descending order:
6. 1949: Failing upward
Four years after winning the National League pennant under Charlie Grimm, the Cubs finished 61-93 for a .396 winning percentage. Grimm was relieved of his managerial duties after 50 games, replaced by Frankie Frisch. Instead of leaving, Grimm was promoted to vice president of player operations, the de facto general manager.
The Cubs lost 35 games by five or more runs and on July 6 fell 23-4 to the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field in a game that still lasted only 2 hours, 45 minutes. In August Frisch ordered his team to take batting practice at Wrigley Field after a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, but fans swarmed the field going after balls, ending the idea.
Grimm quit the following January, saying, “These hands were never meant to carry a briefcase.” If only some future Cubs general managers heeded that advice.
5. 1962: College of Coaches
The second season of the ill-fated “College of Coaches” experiment didn’t work, and the Cubs lost a franchise-record 103 games. Charlie Metro, one of the coaches, recalled that another coach, Elvin Tappe, once changed his lineup without telling him.
“I tacked up my lineup and threw the other one in the (toilet),” Metro said. “Either Ron Santo or Ernie Banks, I don’t remember who it was, said, ‘Which lineup are we going to use?’ And I said, ‘The one that’s got my name on it.’ ”
As bad as the ‘62 Cubs were, at least they hit .253 as a team. The 2021 Cubs were hitting .231 entering Tuesday’s game in Minnesota.
4. 1966: ‘This ain’t an eighth-place club.’
Leo Durocher took over the Cubs at age 60 and made his famous declaration that they weren’t an eighth-place ballclub, pointing to the young talent in the clubhouse. He was right. The Cubs lost eight of their first nine games and finished 10th, tying the franchise record with 103 losses.
In late August Durocher was so flummoxed, he ripped the bullpen phone off the dugout wall at the Astrodome when the new-age scoreboard made fun of him in a cartoon. The saving grace was the Cubs now had a pitching nucleus with starters Fergie Jenkins and Ken Holtzman, who along with Banks, Santo, Billy Williams and others began a turnaround one year later.
3. 1981: Saved by the strike
Joey Amalfitano’s team never got a chance to realize its true lack of potential. The ‘81 season was interrupted by a players strike during the summer, so the Cubs played only 103 games, going 38-65. With a .369 winning percentage, they were on pace for 102 losses over a 162-game season.
The good news was owner Bill Wrigley finally sold the team that summer. The bad news was Tribune Co. — a media corporation run by executives who didn’t know much about baseball — bought it. That ensured the Cubs never would spend more than absolutely necessary to try to win.
“We have stockholders, and there is the idea that we’re up $8 million (in payroll) this year,” executive vice president James Dowdle told the Chicago Tribune in 1997. “Just because other teams have sort of lost economic sense doesn’t mean we have to jump off the bridge too. Beyond the $40 million (payroll), it’d be close to impossible to make money.”
2. 2013: Tanking 101
Though the 2012 team finished with 101 losses as the Cubs intentionally tanked in the first year of the rebuild, the following year’s edition was worse despite losing “only” 96 games. President Theo Epstein signed starting pitcher Edwin Jackson to a four-year, $52 million deal, then watched him go 8-18 with a 4.98 ERA in 2013 and 16-34 with a 5.37 ERA in three seasons. “We wouldn’t do it over again,” Epstein told a group of season ticket holders after the 2014 season, calling the signing a “mistake.”
The Cubs gave manager Dale Sveum nothing to work with, then fired him after the season, blaming him for the regression of shortstop Starlin Castro. The high point was the acquisition of Baltimore Orioles pitchers Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop, who would play key roles in the 2015 turnaround and 2016 championship.
1. 1999: Ed Lynch’s reckoning
General manager Ed Lynch made all the wrong moves after the Cubs made the postseason in ‘98 by winning a wild-card tiebreaker against the San Francisco Giants. That included re-signing 40-year-old third baseman Gary Gaetti. Kerry Wood blew out his arm in his first Cactus League game, and the magical ‘98 run was history. The ‘99 team started out well and featured another Sammy Sosa home-run binge, but it lost 95 games. The Cubs sank in early June and went through an abysmal 6-24 August on their way to a 26-51 second half.
A magician was invited into the clubhouse one day in May and proclaimed, while performing a card trick, “There are no aces here.” The irony was sublime. Cubs pitchers gave up 920 runs, breaking the 1930 franchise high of 870. The ‘99 record still stands. Former Cubs closer Lee Smith suggested the Cubs “trick” free-agent pitchers into signing by putting a Cleveland Indians emblem on the letterhead of the contract.
“And then when they sign it, you can rip it off and say, ‘No ... it’s the Cubs!’ ” Smith said.
Worst Cubs team ever? So far.
