Every Cubs pennant race has a familiar ring to it, with wacky moments, unbelievable wins, heartbreaking losses and scenes that make you laugh out loud.
“Sometimes you shouldn’t bother trying to explain the moment,” left-hander Terry Mulholland said during a most bizarre wild-card race in 1998. “You just have to enjoy it.”
The 2007 race is the fifth I’ve been involved with on the North Side in 14 seasons of covering the Cubs as either the beat writer or the backup. It has also been one of the more interesting, with a neck-and-neck three-team race and 19 games to go.
Every Cubs race I’ve witnessed has three common characteristics — a wacky reliever moment, a classic Cubs-Cardinals game in September and a laugh-until-you-cry moment. Will this year be the same?
Wacky reliever moment
1989 Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams gets hit in the head by a liner off Jeff King’s bat in a 4-2 win over Pittsburgh on Aug. 5 at Three Rivers Stadium as the Cubs move into a first-place tie with Montreal. After writhing on the ground for a few minutes, Williams gets up and asks manager Don Zimmer to give him the ball to continue pitching. Zimmer declines. When I ask Williams afterward if he ever lost consciousness, he replies, “No, not that I know of.” He called the line drive “an ugly finder” and insisted it was “no big deal.”
1998
During the ninth inning of a 4-3 win in San Diego on Sept. 17, a ball caroms off Rod Beck’s rear end to shortstop Jose Hernandez, who picks it up and throws out Carlos Hernandez for the final out as the potential tying run is crossing home plate. “It’s a good thing ‘Shooter’ doesn’t shop at the petite-sophisticate department,” Jeff Blauser says.
2003
Antonio Alfonseca, who lost his closer’s job to Joe Borowski, gets ejected during the second game of a Sept. 2 doubleheader against St. Louis when he runs onto the field and belly-bumps umpire Justin Klemm while disputing a liner off Moises Alou’s bat that Klemm called foul. “That is the severest attack of an umpire I’ve seen in the big leagues, which is 27 years,” umpire Mike Reilly says. Manager Dusty Baker calls it “assault with a deadly belly.”
2004
With the Cubs in the wild-card lead, LaTroy Hawkins serves up a three-run home run to Victor Diaz with two on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth as the Mets tie the game on Sept. 25. Craig Brazell’s home run off Kent Mercker in the 11th inning wins it for the Mets, and the Cubs go on a downhill slide from there, blowing a playoff spot that was in their hands.
2007
Unless the Cubs bounce back and start winning consistently, Andre Either’s go-ahead home run in the ninth inning off Ryan Dempster in Thursday’s 7-4 loss to the Dodgers could come to be regarded as the turning point this season.
Classic Cubs-Cardinals game in September
1989
Sept. 9 at Wrigley: One day after blowing a 7-2 lead in the seventh and watching Pedro Guerrero go 4-for-4 with five RBIs in an 11-8 loss to the Cardinals, Luis Salazar rescues the Cubs with a game-tying single in the eighth and a game-winning double in the 10th.
1998
Sept. 8 at Busch: Mark McGwire hits his major-league-record 62nd home run off Steve Trachsel in a 6-3 win over the Cubs, on his way to 70. Sammy Sosa hugs him during the celebration.
2003
Sept. 3 at Wrigley: Baker sprinkles an unknown substance on the field. The Cubs come back from a 6-0 deficit to win 8-7, their biggest comeback win since 1999. Moises Alou goes 5-for-5 with four RBIs, with the go-ahead single coming off Woody Williams in the two-run eighth, one day after umpire Justin Klemm’s controversial call robs him of the hero’s role.
2004
Didn’t play Cardinals in September.
2007
Monday’s game at Wrigley wasn’t a classic, but there are four games left at Busch Stadium this weekend.
Laugh-until-you-cry moment
1989
Mitch Williams hits his first career homer against the Mets in a 10-6 victory on Sept. 18 at Wrigley. The Tribune photo of Williams’ curtain call is one of the best.
1998
Brant Brown drops Geoff Jenkins’ fly ball with two outs in the ninth in a stunning 8-7 loss at County Stadium on Sept. 23. The Cubs back into the wild-card tiebreaker, losing six of their final eight games. They wind up losing the final game in Houston to fall behind San Francisco in the wild-card race, but San Francisco loses to Colorado two minutes later on Neifi Perez’s home run, forcing Game 163, the wild-card tiebreaker between the Cubs and Baker’s Giants.
2003
In what becomes known as the Bermuda triangle game on Sept. 10 in Puerto Rico, the Cubs blow an eighth-inning lead against Montreal when Jose Macias’ pop fly drops among shortstop Alex Gonzalez, center fielder Kenny Lofton and left fielder Alou, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score. “It was a high popup out in the outfield, and I ran back and couldn’t hear anything because of the noise,” Gonzalez says afterward. “With the length of it going out, it was the outfielder’s ball.” It’s only a harbinger of ominous things to come for Gonzalez.
2004
In his Julius Caesar impression, announcer Steve Stone, involved in a feud with Cubs players, waves to the crowd from the broadcast booth as fans chant his name during the final game of a lost season. It turns out to be Stone’s final game as a Cubs announcer.
2007
Cubs fans boo Brewers announcer Bob Uecker on Aug. 28 at Wrigley as he sings “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” then sing their own rendition a cappella.
