By Jeremy Harris
With the Cubs vying for their first World Series berth since 1945, the National League Championship Series will pit the Cubs’ cast of young sluggers Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Jorge Soler and Kyle Schwarber against the Mets’ stable of young pitchers Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob DeGrom.
While these clubs have been in different divisions since the 1994 season, they spent 25 seasons (1969-1993) as rivals of the original National League East. And many of the Mets’ and Cubs’ greatest triumphs and most painful defeats are as intertwined as strikes and balls.
Today, we add some spice to the NLCS stew by revisiting the rivalry’s five most memorable seasons.
1) 1969 (“The Mets surge past the Cubs”)
For much of the 1969 season, it appeared that the core of Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ferguson Jenkins and Randy Hundley, among others, was finally going to secure an elusive playoff appearance in manager Leo Durocher’s fourth year at the helm. The Cubs were tied for or alone in first place from Opening Day until losing a game at Philadelphia on September 10. However, the pixy dust surrounding this Cubs’ season began dissipating well before then.
On August 16, the Cubs held what appeared to be an insurmountable nine-game lead over the Mets. The Cubs then scuffled to a 9-12 mark over their next 21 games while the Mets countered with a 16-6 record, setting up a two game series in New York starting on September 8 with the Cubs clinging to a 2.5 game lead.
In the first game of the series, the teams were tied at two when one of the most agonizing plays in Cubs history occurred. Mets outfielder Tommie Agee led off the inning with a double. Third baseman Wayne Garrett followed with a single to right field scooped up by Cubs’ outfielder Jim Hickman, who threw a laser to home plate . In a bang-bang play, it appeared that catcher Randy Hundley swipe tagged a sliding Agee.
Home plate umpire Satch Davidson ruled him safe. For a moment, Hundley stood surveying the field under the misapprehension that Agee had been called out. When he realized that Davidson had called him safe, Hundley became incensed, red-faced and flailing, chest-to chest with Davidson. Agee’s run proved decisive in the Mets 3-2 victory.
The Cubs were belted 7-1 the following day and limped out of Shea Stadium with a .5 game lead. The Cubs wilted, and The Amazing Mets surged, finishing eight games ahead of the 92-70 Cubs en route to a playoff berth and World Series title.
2) 1973 (“1969 all over again”): While there were no black cats or controversial home plate calls, the 1973 season mirrored the 1969 campaign in many respects. The Cubs were alone in first place from May 1 until July 21, their lead at one point swelling to 8.5 games and their record a high-water mark of 50-35.
However, a 5-27 stretch from July 11 to August 16 sent the Cubs spiraling out of contention and eight games under .500.
The Mets were still in a pitched battle with the St. Louis Cardinals for the division crown entering the season’s final week, and the Cubs were were perfectly positioned to exact revenge on the Mets and foil their playoff hopes. The Cardinals’ season ended on September 30 with an 81-81 record, and the Mets, after losing the first game of a doubleheader to the Cubs, were 80-79 and needed to win two of the next three games at Wrigley Field to avoid a one-game playoff with St. Louis.
The Mets won the second game of the doubleheader 9-2 behind a complete-game from LHP Jerry Koosman and clinched the division the next day with a 6-4 victory spearheaded by Hall of Fame RHP Tom Seaver’s 19th win. The manager of the Mets, who lost in the World Series to Oakland, was the inimitable Yogi Berra.
Twice in five seasons the Cubs had frittered away commanding division leads and watched the Mets bask in postseason glory.
3) 1984 (“Revenge of the Cubs”): Between 1974 and 1983, The Cubs recorded nine losing seasons. The Mets finished with seven consecutive losing seasons between 1976 and 1983, including six seasons with more than 90 losses.
Yet 1984 was the dawning of a new day for both organizations. The Mets were flush with a stable of homegrown prospects, including teenage sensation RHP Dwight Gooden and 1983 Rookie of the Year Darryl Strawberry. The Cubs were bolstered by a mixture of youngsters such as Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith Jody Davis and Leon Durham and veterans like Larry Bowa, Rick Sutcliffe, Dennis Eckersley, Keith Moreland, Ron Cey and Gary Mathews.
The two teams played cat and mouse with the division lead most of the season. After losing to Gooden and the Mets 2-1 on July 27 in the first of a four-game series at Shea Stadium, however, the Cubs fell a season-high 4.5 games behind New York. All that was missing, it seemed, was the black cat that wandered in front of the Cubs dugout at Shea Stadium in 1969 as the team was in a free fall.
But the Cubs responded imperviously to their past failures, winning the next three games by a combined score of 18-6 to close the deficit to 1.5 game. They overtook the Mets in the standings on August 1 and built their lead to 3.5 games with a doubleheader sweep of the Mets at Wrigley Field on August 7.
The movie Ghostbusters was playing in the theatres that summer, and apparently the Cubs were determined to follow the script. The ghosts of 1969 and 1973 would be vanquished.
While the Mets crept to within 1.5 games on August 17, they would get no closer. The Cubs finished with 96 wins and the Mets 90, and the Cubs broke a 39-year playoff drought.
4) 1989 (“1984 all over again”): Unfortunately, the Cubs success in 1984 was fleeting. A rash of injuries to their pitching staff spoiled a great start to the 1985 season, and the Cubs had recorded four consecutive losing seasons entering 1989.
Meanwhile, the Mets entered the season having ripped off five straight winnings seasons, claimed division titles in 1986 and 1988 and won the World Series in 1986. Between 1984 and 1988, the Mets treated the Cubs like Second City castoffs, compiling a 44-28 record against Chicago.
That all changed in 1989. The Cubs, buoyed by Sandberg, Sutcliffe, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux, Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston, Mitch Williams and rookies Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith, jockeyed with the Mets, Cardinals and Montreal Expos for first place most of the season.
The Cubs were managed by Don Zimmer, who was selected by the Mets in the 1961 expansion draft after the infielder was an All-Star for the Cubs the previous season. Mets skipper, Davey Johnson, had ended his playing career with the Cubs in 1978.
With both clubs nipping at the Expos’ heels, they met for a critical three-game series at Wrigley Field July 28-30. In the first game, the Cubs trailed the Mets 5-2 in the bottom of the 7th when they mounted a dramatic rally off dominant Mets relief pitcher Rick Aguilera. Sandberg’s two-out, run-scoring single cut the deficit to 5-4, and then Dwight Smith stepped to the plate.
With a 1-0 count, Smith knifed a long fly ball into a stiff wind. Right fielder Strawberry retreated to the vines and then took a step or two forward, briefly creating the illusion that he had a bead on Smith’s drive. But the ball sailed over the right-fielder’s head and into the stands, giving the Cubs a 6-5 lead.
But the drama was not over. With one out in the top of the ninth and Met Juan Samuel at first base, Howard Johnson hit a flare to left centerfield. Dunston raced after the ball, his back to the infield, made a magnificent over-the-shoulder catch, whirled and doubled up a surprised Samuel, who had taken off running for second, with a one-hop throw to first base brilliantly dug out by Mark Grace.
The Cubs won the next day to push 3.5 games ahead of the Mets and then capped off the series in dramatic fashion. With the score tied at four in the bottom of the ninth, Jerome Walton reached on an infield single.
With two outs, Johnson turned to his left-handed closer, Randy Myers, to try to force the game into extra innings. Grace had different ideas, however, and cranked a game-winning, walk-off homer to right-field.
Manager Johnson and Mets catcher Gary Carter could be seen chirping at each other about Carter’s pitch selection to Grace as Carter stalked back to the dugout.
The Mets limped out of Wrigley Field six games behind the Expos, the Cubs 1.5. A three-game sweep of the Expos at Wrigley Field August 7-9 propelled the Cubs to the top of the division, and despite a late August threat by the Mets and early September challenge by the Cardinals, The Boys of Zimmer never relinquished the division lead.
5) 1998 (“Three’s a crowd”): While no longer division foes, the Mets and Cubs, along with the San Francisco Giants, waged a spirited battle for the National League wildcard berth. Entering the final weekend of the season, the Mets and Cubs were tied with 88-71 records and the Giants trailed by one game with an 87-72 mark. The Giants won two of three games at Colorado and the Cubs one of three at Houston, leaving both teams with 89 wins. The Mets, meanwhile, needed only one win in a three game series at Atlanta to force a quixotic three-game playoff for the wildcard berth, two wins to claim the wildcard outright. But the Mets were swept by the Braves, with former Cub Greg Maddux getting the win in the season finale.
The Cubs defeated the Giants the following evening to claim the wildcard berth.
This season’s NLCS represents the latest incarnation of a rivalry defined by intertwined fates.