By Jeremy Harris
The Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants might not be the fiercest of rivals, but when the two squads meet, the bizarre becomes normal and truth becomes stranger than fiction. With the Cubs starting a three-game series at San Francisco tonight, and the Giants trying to chase down the Cubs for a Wildcard berth, let’s revisit some of the most memorable moments in this rivalry.
1. May 13, 1986 (“Candy is bad for the Cubs”): Neither team would compete for a post-season berth this season, but their matchup at Wrigley Field had World Series-like drama. The Cubs trailed 4-0 entering the bottom of the 8th inning when, spurred by ex-Giant Gary Mathews’ two-run homer, the Cubs rallied for a 5-4 lead.
The Giants’ Candy Maldonado then broke the hearts of the Cubs’ partisans when he deposited a hanging slider from closer Lee Smith into the left-field bleachers with one aboard in the top of the ninth, giving the Giants a 6-5 victory. Maldonado would join the Cubs for a brief stint in 1993, but he would never inflict the same heartache on Cubs’ opponents that he did seven years earlier on the Cubs.
2. May 7, 1988 (“Living large like Big Daddy is the best revenge”): RHP Rick “Big Daddy” Reuschel’s second stint with the Cubs ended in 1984 when he was controversially left off the division-winning team’s playoff roster. In parts of 12 seasons as a Cub, Big Daddy had won 135 games, still ranking among the team’s career leaders in wins. After a brief detour to Pittsburgh, where he began resurrecting his career as a finesse pitcher, Big Daddy joined the Giants in a midseason trade in 1987.
In a nationally televised Saturday matinee at Wrigley Field, Reuschel tossed 7.1 innings of one-run ball. Yet his Giants trailed 1-0 heading into the top of the 8th when shortstop Jose Uribe belted a two-run homer, one of only 19 the diminutive Uribe hit in his ten-year career covering 3,369 plate appearances. Former Cub Craig Lefferts then pitched 1.1 scoreless innings of relief before handing the baton to Giants closer Don Robinson for the final out. The Giants won 2-1.
3. 1989 NLCS (“Big Daddy” adds insult to injury): The Cubs and Giants met the following year in the National League Championship Series, won by the Giants 4-1. To add insult to injury, Big Daddy, who was an All-Star that season, won the clincher at Candlestick Park, pitching eight innings of one run ball in a 3-2 Giants’ victory.
The manager of that Cubs squad was former Giants’ third-base coach Don Zimmer.
4. July 20, 1989 (“The Les Lancaster game”): The Cubs welcomed the Giants to Chicago for a four game series preceding the ’89 NLCS. In the opener, the Giants surged to a 3-0 lead, only to see the Cubs rally against one of the era’s best closers, Steve Bedrosian, with three runs in the bottom of the ninth.
The Cubs had a chance to end the affair in the bottom of the tenth against Rich Gossage, who had flamed out as the Cubs’ closer the previous season. After the Cubs put two runners on base against the ineffective Gossage, Giants manager Roger Craig summoned RHP Randy McCarment, who wriggled out of trouble unscathed, prolonging the game.
Cubs’ RHP Les Lancaster tossed his second consecutive inning of scoreless relief in the top of the 11th. In the bottom half, with Cubs’ infielder Curtis Wilkerson on first, with two outs and the Cubs out of position players, Zimmer was forced to bat Lancaster.
Lancaster, a career .098 hitter, became one of the unlikeliest offensive heroes in team history, stroking a line drive just inside the third base line. Wilkerson scampered all the way from first to score the walk-off run. Lancaster achieved the rarest of feats for a pitcher, notching a win and a walk-off game-winning hit in the same game.
5. July 4, 1986 (“The Bochy” did it): Bruce Bochy is best known for managing the Giants to three World Series championships since 2010. But before he became the game’s most successful manager of the decade, Bochy was a backup catcher for nine seasons, including five with the San Diego Padres (1983-87).
On July 4, 1986, the Cubs and Bochy’s Padres engaged in a pitcher’s duel at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium.
Ex-Giant Gary Mathews hit a sacrifice fly in the top of eight to tie the score. In the bottom of the ninth, Bochy hit one of his 26 career homers off of Cubs’ reliever Ray Fontenot, giving the Padres a 2-1 win and further demoralizing a Cubs’ team careening toward a 90 loss season. (While the Giants weren’t involved in this game, the hero of this contest is a Giants’ icon).
6. Beanball karma 22 years later: In the Cubs’ opening Spring Training game of 1993, Giants’ pitcher Mike Jackson plunked Ryne Sandberg, breaking a bone in Sandberg’s hand and sidelining him until April 30th at Cincinnati.
Exactly 22 years to the day this March, Cubs’ farmhand Corey Black struck Giants’ outfielder Hunter Pence with a pitch in a Spring Training game, fracturing Pence’s forearm. Pence did not make his regular season debut until May 16, also at Cincinnati.
7. September 28, 1998 (“Rod Beck’s revenge”) The Cubs and Giants each finished the regular season with 89-73 records, leading to a one-game playoff at Wrigley Field on a brisk Monday evening. Managing the Giants was future Cubs’ skipper Dusty Baker.
The Cubs took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, when the Giants scratched across a run. Burly ex-Giants’ closer Rod Beck, whose 199 career saves were the most in Giants’ history at the time, closed it out by inducing a pop out to first base by ex-Cub Joe Carter.
Ex-Cubs’ Shawon Dunston and Rey Sanchez were members of the Giants; ex-Giant LHP Terry Mulholland a member of the Cubs.
Today
If form holds, look for former Cubs Marlon Byrd, just acquired in a trade from Cincinnati, and Angel Pagan, assuming he is activated from the disabled list, to play a key role for the Giants in the 2015 iteration of this rivalry. History suggests that the Giants and Cubs should deliver some zany dramatics this week.