EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

5. Chicago Cubs

With a proven hand at the helm, better things are in store (knock on Wood)

By Tom Verducci

Offense Defense Starting Pitching Bullpen Manager First year 1999 Record 67-95 (sixth in NL Central) Batting Order 2B Eric Young SS Ricky Gutierrez RF Sammy Sosa 2B Mark Grace LF Henry Rodriguez 3B Shane Andrews CF Damon Buford C Joe Girardi Bench OF Glenallen Hill IF Willie Greene C Jeff Reed IF Jeff Huson IF Jose Nieves Starters RH Ismael Valdes RH Jon Lieber RH Kevin Tapani RH Kerry Wood RH Kyle Farnsworth Bullpen RH Rick Aguilera RH Matt Karchner LH Felix Heredia RH Greg McMichael RH Brian Williams LH Andrew Lorraine Next Up... Only two years ago Corey Patterson was playing ball for Harrison High in Kennesaw, Ga., which is why the cautious Cubs didn't intend to invite him to spring training this year -- until manager Don Baylor requested it. Though he looks like a leadoff man -- he's 5'10" with superior speed -- the lefthanded hitting Patterson has the kind of power to be Chicago's No. 3 hitter for years to come. The only question is how long the Cubs can resist keeping him out of the big leagues, especially when the only centerfielder on their roster is journeyman Damon Buford. According to one member of the Chicago hierarchy, you can bet Patterson will be at Wrigley before his 21st birthday in August. The Book An opposing team's scout sizes up the Cubs "Last year the Cubs were old, slow and awful up the middle. Manager Jim Riggleman paid the price.... Now they're slightly better, and new manager Don Baylor will help. He's good at getting guys ready to play, and he comes to the park expecting to win. But are the Cubs good enough to contend? No. They have a chance to contend for .500. I can see them making a 10-game improvement on last season.... I like what they've done up the middle. Their double-play combination is more stable and has more speed. Eric Young is a decent second baseman who'll give them offense and speed. He's better than Mickey Morandini, who had no range. And Ricky Gutierrez is an upgrade over Jeff Blauser at short.... Catcher Joe Girardi is a great addition. He'll hit .230 to .250, but he moves runners and his greatest value is how he handles a staff. Pitchers rave about the guy. He was born to catch.... The Cubs need pitching. Starters Kevin Tapani and Jon Lieber are battlers, and every once in a while they can shut someone down, but stuffwise they're both a little short."

Even if Don Baylor hadn't known what he was getting himself into (though, in fact, he says he took the Cubs' managership because Chicago was a toxic mess in 1999) he found out on the first day of full workouts in training camp. Sammy Sosa wasn't there, but fellow outfielder Henry Rodriguez was, lurking near the last row of players during morning calisthenics in a line unto himself.

"The Sammy Sosa line," Baylor said after the workout. "He won't be there tomorrow. He'll be up front." He was.

Such a mess were last year's Cubs that they deserve to show up on a list of Superfund cleanup sites. They ran their loss total to 95 games in the most heinous of ways: They quit. Eight games out of first place in the Central Division and one game under .500 on July 22, they mailed in a 52-game stretch in which they won only 11 times and failed to put together so many as two victories in a row. That surrender cost manager Jim Riggleman his job.

The Cubs' fragile starting rotation will get a big boost if Wood continues to show the progress he evinced this spring.Ronald C. Modra

"Riggs was a nice guy," says one veteran Cub, which is becoming a redundant identifier. "Probably too nice of a guy. Guys took advantage of him. There were some guys who would walk in and say, 'I don't feel like playing today.' It was ugly. We'll find out how Baylor handles it. His biggest job is how he handles Sammy. There was some tension in the clubhouse last year with Sammy, so we'll see."

Sosa's 129 home runs over the past two seasons are the most in baseball history this side of Mark McGwire. Sosa has also missed just four of Chicago's 487 games over the past three seasons. Last year, however, the once multidimensional Sosa played the outfield erratically and stole fewer bases (seven) than the Phillies' lumbering Rico Brogna (eight), while getting caught one more time than he arrived safely. His affection for home runs and even the volume of his clubhouse boom box raised eyebrows on a team wary of Sosa's becoming self-satisfied and self-absorbed. "I'm aware of it, and I know it's a challenge," Baylor says. "I knew it when I took the job, and I welcome the challenge. In all my years in baseball I never went to spring training before with a team that finished in last place. Things will change here."

Baylor's disinfectant job began with laying down rules of decorum: no cutoffs or gym shorts at the ballpark, no unkempt facial hair, no caps worn backward and mandatory attendance on the top step of the dugout for the national anthem. Each violation carries a $50 fine.

Left unsaid by Baylor is that getting his players to make an attitude adjustment is a more realistic goal than that of getting the Cubs into the race for the division title. Chicago has replaced six starters (including pitcher Steve Trachsel) from its Opening Day lineup of a year ago without getting much better. In fact the Cubs' profile hasn't changed much: They're still a high-strikeout, old-legged team with a shallow pitching staff.

Chicago can, however, make a significant leap if righthander Kerry Wood regains his electric stuff one year after undergoing elbow surgery. The Cubs liked what they saw from Wood in spring training, but they will bring him back slowly, with no plans to expose him to early-season cold weather.

"It's a fragile team," concedes club president Andy MacPhail. Righthander Kevin Tapani is 36 and coming off a season cut short by back pain. Fellow starter Jon Lieber staggered to a 2-8 finish while throwing a career-high 203 1/3 innings. Ismael Valdes, acquired in a winter trade with the Dodgers, is 30-35 over the past three seasons despite what scouts consider superior stuff. The bullpen is weak.

Still, even a half season from Wood and a typically underachieving year from Valdes will improve what was the worst pitching staff in the 124 years of Chicago National League baseball. Ah, but it's a tribute to the charm of Wrigley Field, not to mention that of consuming cold alcoholic beverages alfresco, that more people than ever before in franchise history, 2,813,854, paid to see those miserable Cubs. Such devotion is a big reason that Baylor, who had his pick of several off-season managerial openings, wanted to come to Chicago. "I knew about the fan support, but I really experienced it during the winter when we did our promotional caravan," Baylor says. "I had two ladies come up to me and tell me they've been Cubs fans all their lives. There was a 92-year-old lady who said she'd been a Cubs fan for 70 years. And there was a 93-year-old lady. Seventy years a Cubs fan! My dad's 72! It was amazing. It just blew me away."

Of course, the Cubs haven't won a World Series since those ladies were in diapers (1908) and have gone 0-10 in postseason series since. The Angels, the Brewers, the Orioles and the Tigers, who also had managerial vacancies, offered no such daunting challenge to Baylor. He chose a place where he could make the biggest impact, even if at first he'll have to do so with a mop and pail.

Issue date: March 27, 2000

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