When the Cubs’ three-game series against the Marlins in Florida was washed out by Hurricane Frances in early September, the Cubs found themselves in the eye of the storm. Though they led the National League wild-card race at the time, they’d been playing sputtering baseball. With a chance to put Houston out of its misery–the Cubs’ most feared rival going into the year had suffered through an erratic, injury-riddled campaign–they’d lost three straight at Wrigley Field to let the Astros back in the playoff hunt. Then they’d won two of three against the woeful Expos in Montreal, and that’s when Frances sat them down for four days. Would they return to the playoff race refocused or flat? The only thing clear when play resumed a week ago Monday with a series against the Expos at Wrigley was the September slant to the sun and the tinges of color in the ivy. The days were dwindling down to a precious few, and the Cubs’ season teetered on the brink. The pressure, reminiscent of last year’s playoffs, was both delicious and dreadful.
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Two of the three postponed games in Florida were rescheduled as a doubleheader on September 20, the Cubs’ last open date of the season. So last Thursday turned out to be their final day off, and the Cubs must have spent it with ears burning, for the fans had booed them mercilessly at the end of the previous night (those weren’t Alooos but boos when Moises Alou got doubled off second on a routine fly ball), and the newspapers and sports-talk radio were all full of comment about what an awful team they were with the fundamentals–a big reason for their 14-24 record in one-run games.
As Ernie Banks might have said, it was a beautiful day to play two. The sun shone down and the wind wafted from right to left, favoring right-handed batters. And with Wood on the mound, the Cubs played their worst game of the season. Spelling Alou, Tom Goodwin singled in the first, only to be picked off by catcher Paul Lo Duca on the next pitch–merely the latest in the team’s long line of base-running mistakes. Nomar Garciaparra lined the following pitch off the center-field wall for a double that would have scored Goodwin, but Garciaparra was stranded when Lee grounded out. Wood gave up a hit to pitcher Carl Pavano to lead off the third, and then Ramon Martinez, spelling Aramis Ramirez at third, committed two straight throwing errors on back-to-back bunts to load the bases with no outs. Wood coaxed Lo Duca to ground into a force-out at the plate, but then the Marlins’ brilliant Miguel Cabrera, who’s 21 and looks (and hits) like a fresh-faced Tony Perez, mashed a hanging slider into left field for a 2-0 lead.
The Giants would win later that night to stay even with the Cubs, but the center-field scoreboard showed that the Astros had already fallen to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. Lee, talking with reporters in the interview room afterward, echoed Baker when he admitted he was an unrepentant scoreboard watcher. “That’s what’s fun about it,” he said. “That’s what it’s about.”
