The Cubs are roaring through the regular season, and soon the moniker “best team in baseball” might sound oddly like a cliche.
Consider the context: The normal course of business for the club is made up of April rains, May malaise, June swoons and being “Completely Useless By September.”
But not in 2016. Now it’s four-game win streaks, no-hitters, wins by five or more runs or crushing the Reds 16-zip on a Thursday night.
Is there a full moon, or something in the water? Historically speaking, the Cubs may be less predictable, less run-of-the-mill than people think.
If the Cubs were a mutual fund, its current performance would be considered legendary, and everyone would be jumping in. To cynics, the good times would indicate insider trading or symptoms of a Ponzi scheme.
Yet if you look through history-economic or otherwise-the Cubs are anything but a dose of normal, boring baseball.
Tricky business?
You probably knew the day he was hired that manager Joe Maddon wasn’t your average, boring guy. To prove that, he called up new personnel to the dugout after a five-game losing streak in June 2015.
It wasn’t an arm or flashy new hitter from Triple-A. Instead, Las Vegas magician Simon Winthrop met the Cubs on a road trip in New York, performing tricks and illusions before their next game. Following Winthrop’s show the Cubs swept the Mets, with two shutouts and a 6-1 win.
Whether Maddon’s magician lifted a losing spell or simply the Cubs’ spirits is up to the audience to decide. Now if someone could just make the sting of that sweep in the NL Championship Series go away.
Wrigley wind or Philly physics?
Baseball fans know Wrigley Field is no stranger to brisk winds. Then again, maybe the Philadelphia Phillies bring a zephyr of attitude or a feisty East Coast draft that gets the ball jumping.
Either way, the Windy City lived up to its nickname on May 17, 1979, when the Cubs-Phillies matchup produced a showstopper with 50 total hits and 45 runs. The day’s tally included 11 home runs, including two by Philly Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and three by Cubs outfielder Dave Kingman.
Named “the holy grail of high scoring games” by the New York Times, this weird, windy game went 10 innings and ended with Philadelphia grabbing a 23-22 win.
That game is rivaled only by a Cubs-Phillies matchup in August 1922. That game went to the Cubs, 26-23, after 51 hits and nine errors. It’s also the major league record for combined runs scored in one game.
Seriously, that’s how you got hurt?
Strange doesn’t stop at the baseline or even in fans’ long-tormented hearts. Sure, sports injuries come in all forms, but the Cubs stars have a knack for the peculiar.
In 2004, outfielder Sammy Sosa once got put on the disabled list after sneezing. Sosa’s sneezure resulted in a sprained ligament in his back.
However, pitchers lead the way. Odd off-field injuries include Kyle Farnsworth’s knee after he kicked an electric fan out of frustration (also in 2004), and Kerry Wood slipping while getting out of a hot tub and landing on his chest and stomach (in 2007). And don’t forget Carlos Zambrano’s elbow injury from too much computer time (in 2005).
No, don’t get up
Likewise, the Cubs have as much luck with chairs as they do with billy goats. Former Cubs left-hander Mike Remlinger was put on the disabled list in 2005 after breaking a finger because it got “stuck” between two recliners. Going for gusto, Derrek Lee tweaked his back after a clubhouse chair collapsed under him during spring training in 2010.
(In)famous fans
It could be our character, our taste in cheap beer or our coping skills, but the Cubs are also known for the goodness of their fans. Maybe not famous ones, though.
Arguably the Yankees’ most famous fan, Billy Crystal, has hosted the Oscars nine times and won six Emmys and a Tony award. Famed Astros fan George H.W. Bush was the nation’s 41st president.
Instead of sharing the mantle of celebrity with Crystal or Bush 41, the Cubs’ most famous fan, Steve Bartman, shares whereabouts unknown with the likes of Jimmy Hoffa and The Roanoke Colony.
What starts weird ends well
Some say success starts early in the preseason. Despite an underwhelming 11-19 record in the 2016 Cactus League, spring training had other highlights.
Besides usual, not-weird daily workouts, Cubs players were visited by baby bear cubs while also spending one warmup session serenaded by a solo electric guitarist. Also this March, one practice was led by mimes. Perhaps all the better for silencing critics.
Wood also spent a couple of weeks with the team at spring training. Despite leaving Mesa impressed, he said he’s still surprised with the Cubs’ start to the season.
“I think [Cubs manager] Joe Maddon is a genius,” Wood told the Tribune recently. “The way he keeps these guys loose but still continues to get quality work in every day in spring training is amazing.
“I had never been a part of a spring training like that, and I sure wish I had.”
Better management = better returns
If you think it’s weird that the Cubs are winning, are in first place by a comfortable margin or have a 100-plus run differential, get used to it. Maybe it’s no anomaly, just a new methodology.
Back to that mutual fund analogy. My old finance professor used to say, “Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.” Same goes for baseball, perhaps. Read your prospectus, and enjoy the daily numbers.
Andy Frye is a RedEye contributor. @mysportscomplex
