OK, Father Time, when was the last time this happened?
Go ahead. Go ask your Grandpa George or your Great Uncle Earl. When was the last time both Chicago baseball teams entered September with a serious chance to make the playoffs?
They’ll try hard to give you an answer. They might remember something as recent as 1993 or ’72. Chances are, they’ll have to search even further, however.
What about ’67, when the White Sox were in that great four-team race and the Cubs were entering the era of close calls with Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo? Perhaps back in the late ’30s, when there were consistently good teams on both sides of town.
All of those seem like reasonable possibilities. But as you know, reason has little to do with the generational angst that is Chicago baseball.
What your grandfather should say is this: “Sorry, Junior, not in my lifetime.”
Unless, of course, he happens to be at least 95 years old.
Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House the last time both the White Sox and Cubs entered September within five games of first place. The best players in baseball were Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb. Babe Ruth was 10 years old.
The year was 1908.
Wow, no wonder this seems so unfamiliar.
There have been years when both the Cubs and Sox fielded better teams than they do this year. But there was almost always a powerhouse like the Yankees or Cardinals in their way. This year, it seems, they are looking at a wide-open highway into October.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What a September this could be for seamheads.
Beginning Monday, Chicago will be the site of 29 games in 28 days, including three on Tuesday. As long as the Cubs and White Sox continue to do their part, there will be a game with playoff implications at Wrigley Field or U.S. Cellular Field every day except Sept. 18 and 25, when both parks will be dark.
That’s OK. We’re going to have to catch our breath sometime.
Seventeen of these 29 September games in Chicago will involve two teams in the playoff hunt. St. Louis, Boston, Minnesota, Kansas City and the Yankees visit before the final weekend, when the Sox close with four games on the road against the Royals and the Cubs play host to Pittsburgh.
This is exciting stuff.
With the Sox resting on Labor Day, Jerry Manuel was advised to hit up his old friend, Dusty Baker, for tickets to Monday’s Cardinals-Cubs game, with Mark Prior pitching.
For that matter, if he really wanted to soak up the atmosphere, he could go to Wrigley on Tuesday for the first half of the day-night doubleheader against St. Louis before getting down to the business of playing Boston at U.S. Cellular, which has taken on a buzz of its own in recent days.
“Oh, boy,” Manuel said Sunday. “Just bring on the good weather. I think I’ll barbecue, but maybe I’ll listen to the [Cubs] game.”
Mayor Daley should send Bud Selig a thank-you note.
If not for the three-division alignment and expanded playoff format adopted for the 1994 season, this could have been just another disappointing season on both sides of town.
Consider this: At 69-66, the Cubs have the 10th-best record in the National League. That would have been good for fourth place in the old NL East, 3 1/2 games behind Philadelphia.
Not bad, considering their patchwork lineup ranks 13th in the league in runs scored, but not nearly as sweet as the current reality.
They have two possible avenues into playoffs, trailing St. Louis by 2 1/2 games in the Central and Philadelphia and Florida by 3 1/2 in the crowded wild-card race.
The White Sox should be especially thankful. At 73-64, they have the fifth-best record in the American League. It would have been good for third in the old AL West, nine games behind Oakland.
Instead they go to the final month 1 1/2 games up in a three-team battle with Kansas City and Minnesota. They play 14 of their final 25 games against those teams.
As WXRT’s Lin Brehmer reminds us every morning, it really is great to be alive, seldom more so than as we flip the calendar to September and find baseball still in the air and hope alive on both sides of town.
a–New York Highlanders; b–Boston Americans
Source: Retrosheet.org
