Joe Girardi of the Chicago Cubs at bat at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Jonathan Daniel /Allsport
After having a terrible 2000 season, the Cubs got off to a good start in 2001 and by late May were in first place. This run to the top was highlighted by a 12-game winning streak from May 19 through June 2; that still stands as the team's longest winning streak since their last pennant. In fact, the Cubs have won 10 or more in a row only four times since 1945 -- 10 straight in 1953 and 1998, 11 in a row in 1970 and the 2001 12-game streak.
They extended the lead to as many as six games in June, and after a 16-10 July had a 4½ game lead in the NL Central going into August. Hopes were high for another unexpected playoff spot.
On August 7, the Cubs began a homestand with a Tuesday night matchup with the Colorado Rockies. (For amusement, check out who led off for the Rockies that night.)
They won the game. But that wasn't the biggest story of the night.
Now, at last, I think I might have seen everything possible at a major league ballpark.
Of course, that isn't likely literally true; there are surely things to come that I haven't seen before at Wrigley Field, including (hopefully) a Cubs World Series title, maybe even this year.
But I do not think I will ever again see an umpire eject someone whose role was to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.
Yes, that's right, and if you don't believe me, watch this:
Former Bears defensive lineman Steve "Mongo" McMichael, in the press box to be the "guest conductor" (and isn't it time, after three years of this, to ditch it?), apparently took exception to the call that plate umpire Angel Hernandez made in the bottom of the sixth. If you missed it, Ron Coomer, who had doubled and advanced to third on a Gary Matthews Jr. sac bunt, took off for the plate when a Denny Neagle pitch bounced off Rockies catcher Adam Melhuse's glove. Melhuse managed to pick it up and flip it to Neagle, who tagged Coomer. He looked safe (the tag was late) to everyone in the sellout crowd of 40,266, and replays confirmed this. But Hernandez called him out.
Hernandez, as you see in the video, glared at McMichael and then, according to later reports, had crew chief Randy Marsh call the press box and throw McMichael out of the ballpark.
Umpires can do that, but I dunno. McMichael was expressing the views of most of the 40,266 in attendance. Should Marsh and Hernandez have thrown all of us out, too? (That would have been amusing, finishing the last two innings in front of an empty ballpark.)
Hernandez has been around for 10 years. He should have a thicker skin, I think.
Oh, right, there was a game, too. It probably didn't help matters any that it was really sticky and hot tonight, with a game-time temperature of 92 degrees. Neagle and Kevin Tapani battled in a close game through six; had Coomer's run counted, that would have tied the game 2-2. The Cubs made it moot, so we thought, with a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh; maybe McMichael's rant inspired them. Coomer drove in the last of the runs with a sac fly. That gave the Cubs a 4-2 lead, but David Weathers coughed it right back in the eighth.
And as if all the McMichael foofaraw wasn't enough, the way the Cubs wound up winning the game was nothing short of bizarre. Ricky Gutierrez and Sammy Sosa led off the inning with singles, putting runners on first and second. After Fred McGriff struck out, Joe Girardi hit Justin Speier's second pitch into left field, breaking his bat in the process. Gutierrez rounded third and tripped and fell.
So Cub-like, right? But then the Rockies did a Cub-like thing. As Gutierrez scrambled to get back to third, Girardi smartly took off for second. As the Rox caught Girardi in a rundown, Gutierrez raced for the plate and scored the winning run, and the Cubs beat the Rockies 5-4.
Wacky doesn't begin to describe that, nor this improbable year. The Rockies aren't very good this year -- we ought to thank them for giving us Don Baylor, who has managed this team expertly this season, maybe en route to the postseason. Tomorrow afternoon, Jason Bere faces the Rox' John Thomson as the Cubs will try to pad their 2½ game lead over the second-place Astros.
0 recs | 16 comments
The audio to the walk off is on YouTube!
Link
GateCity, VA Cubs Fan - February 12, 2012
Excellent find.
Thanks for the link.
Al Yellon - February 12, 2012
Great game
I remember watching this game live on WGN and thinking the Cubs definately had luck on their side in 2001.
DanvilleCubs - February 12, 2012 via mobile
The 2001 team still amazes me.
Eighty-eight wins — the same regular-season total the Cubs had in 2003 — sandwiched between two teams that lost 90-plus games?
Obviously, Sosa and Lieber had great years, and Wood was very good. But Hundley was a complete bust, Tapani, Bere and Tavarez weren’t exactly stellar and Ricky Guitierrez ranked second on the team in RBI (with a whopping 66).
Granted, Gutierrez and Young both were pretty decent, there were some guys (Rondell White, Bill Mueller) who did well around some injuries and Fred McGriff was actually pretty freaking good after he finally approved the trade (though the Cubs didn’t play that well in the final month while he was on the team). But around them were guys like Ron Coomer, Matt Stairs and Gary Matthews Jr. Hardly world beaters.
Did this team have an incredible record in 1-run games?
Maybe the issue was that the 2002 team underachieved so much and fell off a cliff when Gordon and Lieber got hurt and when Sosa came back to earth.
elgato - February 12, 2012
I think you're right about the 2002 team.
In 2001, the record in one run games was 26-24, good but not outstanding.
Sosa had his best overall season in 2001, a 1.174 OPS and 160 RBI. Jon Lieber won 20 games.
Actually, Coomer, Stairs and Matthews Jr. were decent role players. In fact, in August, MacPhail — for some inexplicable reason — waived Matthews and Miguel Cairo. Both were useful. Cubs started losing after that — not saying it was cause and effect, but that was just a strange thing to do.
Cairo is still active 11 years later.
Al Yellon - February 12, 2012
Near anarchy
I was at the game that night. I feared Hernandez would be physically attacked. Or at least trashed with debris, like in the old days. It was wild.
FrostyMalt - February 12, 2012
I think Stormy Weathers career is over.
mrcubsfan - February 12, 2012
disapointed to see baylor fired ....
i thought he was a good manager .
walterj - February 12, 2012
What was the story behind the firing of Oscar Acosta at the end of 2001?
From all appearances he got good results working with Lieber, Wood, and Farnsworth, not to mention rookies like Juan Cruz and Z. Apparently he didn’t get along with Baylor, and perhaps Acosta’s surprising dismissal contributed to Baylor’s exit at mid-season 2002.
ernaga - February 12, 2012
The pitchers really liked Acosta, too.
I recall Wood in particular saying Acosta helped him. I am not sure why he was fired.
Al Yellon - February 12, 2012
I was there...and wrote about the events in my journal a week later
Thanks, Al, for bringing up this game. I went to see 16 games at Wrigley that year, including Big Z’s miserable debut against the Brewers a couple of weeks after this one. It remains one of my fondest memories of The “Friendly” Confines…
Here’s what I wrote on August 14, 2001:
“Last week I was privileged to see a charged-up, fight-to-the-finish Cubs game. It was packed, so packed that I had trouble finding a decent SRO space to watch from, but I managed. We were playing the Rockies, the beginning of an important homestand, and found it difficult to believe they’d jumped out by a couple heading into the bottom of the sixth. Third baseman Ron Coomer led off with a double, and advanced to third on a groundout, but when he tried to score on a wild pitch, umpire Angel Hernandez called him out on the play. It sure looked like the tag had been late to me and the other 40,000-plus fans in attendance, and a chorus of boos showered upon Hernandez, and further WGN replays on the monitors throughout the stadium sure made it look like he made the wrong call.
“From then on any called strike or ball not in the Cubs’ favor netted more boos. For the seventh-inning stretch, former Bear Steve "Mongo" McMichael did something I’ve never heard anyone do at a game: taunt the ump from the press box, which encouraged another eruption of boos. McMichael said a couple other things that earned him an ejection after he led the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," which I have since learned may be the first time in major league history anyone has gotten ejected from the press box. The fired-up crowd really got into it the rest of the way as the Cubs rallied with three runs on newly-acquired Fred McGriff’s clutch hit. The bullpen surprisingly let the Rockies tie the game back up in the eighth, when meant an exciting finish.
“In the bottom of the ninth, shortstop Ricky Gutierrez and Sammy Sosa reached on consecutive base hits before McGriff struck out swinging. Veteran catcher Joe Girardi came on to pinch-hit, with just the one out, and hit a sharp hit to center that looked like an easy RBI single. But one problem: Gutierrez slipped rounding third and would’ve been a dead duck if he hadn’t scrambled back toward the bag. The Rockies catcher fired to second and nearly nailed Sammy sliding headfirst into the base; Girardi was now certainly caught up in a pickle. But he didn’t give easily, forcing them to chase him down—meanwhile, Gutierrez alertly scampered to the plate. With a rifled throw, it was closer than it should have been, but Hernandez had no choice but to call Gutierrez safe with the winning run. A deafening roar of elation ensued from the crowd. I was slapping fives with many others, whom I only knew in that thrilling moment. As the throngs poured out onto Sheffield and Addison, the sentiment was that this was the Cubs’ year, and I felt proud to be a part of it.”
It was a fun year, with all the wins Liebs racked up and the numbers Sammy piled up, and I think the combo of EY and Gutierrez did a better job of setting the table than nearly anybody else since (maybe Lofton-Grudzielanek at the end of 2003?).
brywilson102 - February 12, 2012
Mongo should have been on-call for any of the last three Cubs playoff series...
…Remember the emotional exclamation point he put on Buddy Ryan’s pre-game meeting with the Bears’ defense before the ’85-’86 Super Bowl? Imagine what he could have done to fire-up the 2008 Cubs.
ernaga - February 12, 2012
If there ever is a Cubs television network...
They should air classic Cubs games from the past, and this game should be one of them. I remember watching this game on TV and after the Cubs won, there was a shot of the bleachers and people were so excited they were throwing whatever they had left as a beverage up in the air.
I’ve been recording all the Cubs games since 2007. I wish I had been recording Cubs games back in 2001. I would love to go back and watch it again.
#1 iowan cubs fan - February 12, 2012
Cubs Over D-Backs in NLCS, Beat Mariners In World Series
The Cubs are going to shut up Mark Grace by beating Gracie’s Diamondbacks in the NLCS. Then, the Cubs are going to beat the “so-called” greatest team of all-time, Sweet Lou’s Seattle Mariners, in the World Series.
memphiscub - February 13, 2012
If only.
Al Yellon - February 13, 2012
Sammy Sosa posted a (BBREF) WAR of over 11 this season
And didn’t get the MVP. I’ll give you one guess as to who (justifiably) beat him in the voting…. :(
subtle - February 15, 2012
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