What If... History Weren't: The Chicago Cubs

Welcome to the first volume of the BallHype Spotlight Series: What If... History Weren't. Tortured franchises and athletes surround us. The blogdome's best imagine alternate histories for their rooting interests. Last week, Joey from Straight Bangin' brought you his re-imagination of life as a Knicks fan. Today, Al Yellon of Bleed Cubbie Blue takes a do-over of October 2003. Enjoy.

NEW YORK, October 26, 2003 – Curses and goats and dropped fly balls and pitching injuries and Colleges of Coaches, ninety-five years of failure – they’re all forgotten today, as the Chicago Cubs defeated the New York Yankees in Game Seven of the World Series, 6-5, with the latest hero being backup catcher Paul Bako, whose single off Roger Clemens in the 11^th inning drove in pinch-runner Doug Glanville with the winning run.

For a time, as you know, it didn’t even look as if the Cubs would get to the World Series this season, much less win it. With one out in the top of the eighth inning of Game Six of the NLCS against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field, Luis Castillo hit a short popup down the leftfield line which appeared to be touched by a Cubs fan wearing headphones, preventing Moises Alou from catching the ball. Alou slammed his glove down in anger and pitcher Mark Prior pointed toward the area; TV lipreaders could see Prior yelling, “Interference!”

Manager Dusty Baker came rushing out of the dugout to confront left field umpire Mike Everitt; after a short discussion with Baker, Everitt raced toward his five counterparts. They had a short conference and agreed with Baker’s fan-interference contention; Castillo was ruled out for the second out in the inning.

While all this was going on, Baker had pitching coach Larry Rothschild get closer Joe Borowski warmed up; Prior had cooled off during the 10-minute discussion and with only four outs to go to nail down a National League championship (and three days’ rest) for the Cubs, Baker felt his closer could go more than an inning. The next hitter, Ivan Rodriguez, singled off Borowski, driving in Juan Pierre, who had doubled with one out. Then Borowski got Miguel Cabrera to hit an easy ground ball to shortstop Alex Gonzalez; after a slight bobble, he threw Cabrera out easily to end the inning with the Cubs leading 3-1.

With the lead dwindling, Cubs hitters bore down on Marlins closer Ugueth Urbina. Aramis Ramirez led off the 8^th with a single, and the popular Eric Karros, who had hit for starting 1B Randall Simon in the sixth inning, smacked a two-run homer onto Waveland Avenue, into a cheering throng of several thousand people packing the street behind the bleachers.

Borowski finished the clinching of the Cubs’ first pennant since 1945 with a flourish. After getting Derrek Lee to pop up (and slam his bat down in frustration) and Mike Lowell to ground to Karros, he struck out pinch-hitter Todd Hollandsworth swinging to end it, as Wrigley Field – hosting a league-clinching game for the first time since 1938 – exploded in a riot of camera flashes, tears and a roar that might have been heard all through the North Side of Chicago.

Three days later, the Cubs headed to Yankee Stadium for game one of their first World Series in 58 years, and with a fresh Kerry Wood on the mound throwing perhaps his most efficient shutout since his famous 20-strikeout game five years ago, beat the Yankees 4-0. Prior, throwing on his usual four days’ rest the next day, wasn’t so lucky. The Yankees hit him early and often and tied the series at one with a 12-1 victory, the only Cub run coming on a Sammy Sosa HR deep into the monuments in the 8^th inning; even Yankee fans cheered that.

Returning to Wrigley Field for game three, Carlos Zambrano was determined to make up for the game five NLCS meltdown in which he stomped around the mound and had little control, and did; Derek Jeter’s two HR were the only runs off Z, and the Cubs won 4-2. The Yankees matched that score the next day off Matt Clement; Jeter homered again, a three-run job in the seventh off Clement that wiped out a 2-0 Cub lead.

Game Five, the last game at Wrigley Field in 2003, was one for the ages. Wood, back on the mound again, was magnificent – his September and October run will be remembered not only by Cubs fans, but by baseball fans, for decades to come. He was matched almost pitch-for-pitch by Andy Pettitte, and both starters went nine innings and the game went to extras scoreless. The bullpens were just as good – no one scored until the fourteenth inning, just short of 1 o’clock in the morning Chicago time, when Glanville repeated the heroics he’d had in Miami in game three of the NLCS; this time, his double off the wall, bouncing away from a scampering Hideki Matsui, drove in the not-fast Damian Miller from first base, Miller looking like a runaway train as he plowed into the plate with the winning run in the stunning 1-0 victory. Once again, one win away, and two chances – could the Cubs take the World Series in game six in New York?

Roger Clemens stepped up and said, “Not on my watch.” Striking out sixteen Cubs, the Yankees tied up the series at three games each with a 4-1 win over the not-sharp Prior, setting the stage for the dramatics of game seven.

It was Zambrano (batting in an AL park on his own insistence) who got the Cubs on the board first; in the second inning, after two men had reached, Z hit a towering home run into the upper deck off Mike Mussina. But Z gave it right back; Jorge Posada smacked a three-run job off him in the fourth. The 3-3 tie became 4-4 in the 7^th and 5-5 in the 8^th when Troy O’Leary – who hadn’t had an at-bat since game one – homered off Jeff Nelson.

The closers took over; with no baseball till spring the two managers let Borowski and Mariano Rivera duel for two innings each, and then in the 11^th, Rivera spent, Clemens offered (as Randy Johnson had in 2001) to pitch in relief, something he hadn’t done since 1984. And the Cubs met his challenge with the two last guys on the bench producing the go-ahead run.

Baker had used all his relievers; taking a cue from Clemens, Wood offered to throw the last of the 11^th, to save the World Series for the Cubs.

Two men made easy outs – and then Jeter, who had hit .727 in the Series up to that point, with three HR, stepped in against Wood.

Fast, faster and fastest were the three pitches the Cubs ace threw to the Yankee shortstop; they were clocked at 95, 96, and 99 MPH on the Yankee Stadium radar gun. Jeter never saw the first two, and swung and whiffed at the third, and the Cubs were World Champions.

Dusty Baker had done exactly what he’d said he’d do when he was hired a year ago to manage the Cubs – make them a winner, and he did so in only one year, taking a 95-loss sad-sack team to the heights of the baseball world. With the core of the team intact for 2004, there’s no reason why the Cubs can’t think about a possible dynasty in the making in the first decade of the 21^st Century, just as they had one hundred years ago.

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