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Hitting 66 homers might be easier for Sosa than overcoming team history: The Cubs haven't reached the postseason two years in a row since 1908. Stephen Green

Chicago Cubs

The loss of Kerry Wood cast a pall over an otherwise positive preseason

By Tom Verducci

Sitting on a table in the center of the Cubs' spring training clubhouse was a white box with a slot in the top and the label complaint box. It was empty. At his locker, newly fit first baseman Mark Grace belted out background vocals to a Bob Marley tune. Sammy Sosa chuckled about his new life as an action hero, in the Sammy Sosa comic book -- not to be confused with the Sammy Sosa animated movie, the Sammy Sosa CD (on which, mercifully, neither he nor Grace sings), the Sammy Sosa TV commercials for McDonald's or the Sammy Sosa biography. Kerry Wood laughed about being a pop star. (He's featured on cans of cola.) Yes, it seemed a very good time to be a Cub, seeing that every starting position player but .222-hitting catcher Scott Servais was back from the team that won the '98 National League wild card, only the third 90-win club the franchise has had since 1969.

Alas, these are the Cubs we're talking about, a team with an infamous history that dates back nearly as far as The Old Farmer's Almanac. On March 16 Chicago suddenly had itself one very large complaint: Wood will miss at least the entire season because of a torn elbow ligament. Despite the brave faces and words in the clubhouse, the injury changed everything about the Cubs' outlook. Replacing the excitement and bravado Wood brought them -- every fifth day they knew they had one of the game's most dominating pitchers going for them -- is a bigger blow than making up the 13 wins and 166 2/3 innings he gave them last year. In practical terms, it weakens the rotation as well as an already suspect bullpen, with 36-year-old lefthander Terry Mulholland likely to take Wood's spot in the rotation.

Manager Jim Riggleman (fifth season with Chicago) 1998 Record 90-73 (second in NL Central) Prediction fourth in NL Central Batting Order CF Lance Johnson 2B Mickey Morandini RF Sammy Sosa 1B Mark Grace LF Henry Rodriguez C Benito Santiago 3B Gary Gaetti SS Jose Hernandez Starters RH Kevin Tapani RH Steve Trachsel LH Terry Mulholland RH Jon Lieber RH Kurt Miller Bullpen RH Rod Beck RH Matt Karchner RH Terry Adams LH Felix Heredia RH Marc Pisciotta RH Jeremi Gonzalez

Next Up... Righthander Terry Adams is so eager to avoid further injuries that when a fan sent him an orthopedic pillow during spring training, Adams took it home to give it a go. "I'll try anything," the reliever says. Last season, partly because of an injured collarbone that resulted in pain in his right shoulder, Adams had such an awful second half that the Cubs briefly sent him to the minors. He walked 23 batters in his last 281Ú3 innings, continuing to frustrate Chicago with his inability to be effective for an entire season. (His career ERA before the All-Star break is 2.94, afterward it's 5.31.) Starting his fifth big league season, Adams is only 26, can throw 97 mph and can be a good power setup man.

Moreover, without the 21-year-old Wood, the biggest complaint about this team from outside the clubhouse looms even larger: These Cubs are so old they give new meaning to the term "senior circuit." Manager Jim Riggleman is understandably sensitive about this, preferring to dwell on recent performance rather than on birthdays. Fact is, how well a team with few pairs of young legs holds up while playing its usual daytime-dominated schedule will determine whether Wrigleyville stays a contented place.

When shortstop Jose Hernandez turns 30, on July 14, every one of the team's starting position players, its winningest starting pitcher in '98 and its closer will have reached that age or passed it. Every one of those geezers, except outfielders Sosa and Henry Rodriguez and closer Rod Beck, is eligible for free agency at the end of the season. The future of this team doesn't go beyond tonight's early-bird dinner special.

Says general manager Ed Lynch, "It's a two-sided coin with all the free agents. On the one hand, you don't have much cost certainty. On the other hand, it gives you tremendous flexibility."

Third baseman Gary Gaetti exemplifies the wrinkles in the Cubs' plans. After signing with Chicago on Aug. 19, his 40th birthday, he hit .320 the rest of the season to earn a contract for '99. Only one other fortysomething position player in Cubs history has started on Opening Day: Cap Anson, who last did so in 1895. (No, Gary doesn't recall playing against Cap.) Three other well-worn starters are returning from injury-plagued seasons: leftfielder Rodriguez, 31; centerfielder Lance Johnson, 35; and catcher Benito Santiago, 34.

Chicago's lineup plays something as close to American League baseball as you'll see in the National League. The Cubs, who banged a franchise-record 212 home runs last year, rely heavily on the long ball. They also strike out way too often (1,223 times; only Arizona whiffed more) and have almost no speed (65 stolen bases; only the Mets had fewer).

The Cubs scored more runs than any National League team but Houston and San Francisco last year, and they'll need similar production again to offset an unreliable bullpen that made Riggleman the league's most-watched manager. Although his starters ranked sixth in innings, Riggleman changed pitchers a league-high 449 times. Beck, who was found to have a protruding disk in his back in spring training after leading the league with a career-high 81 appearances last year, must be monitored closely.

Setup men Felix Heredia and Matt Karchner were major disappointments, combining for a 4.73 ERA after midseason trades to the Cubs. Heredia, 22, at least has youth on his side. Karchner has had such a mediocre career that he turns 32 in June having never thrown 65 innings in a major league season.

"We're counting on those guys," Riggleman said of his setup corps. "All I know is that when the phone rang this winter, everybody was asking for them. [Other teams] figured they could get them cheap because we might be down on them. We're not."

Chicago Cubs

The only factor more daunting than the Cubs' age is their infamous history. Chicago hasn't won 90 games two seasons in a row since 1930 and hasn't reached consecutive postseasons since 1908, the year of its last world championship. Their chances of repeating a season like last year's are worse than selling soda cans endorsed by a pitcher who can't pitch.

Issue date: March 29, 1999