Jake Arrieta and the 2015 Cubs

Jake Arrieta’s second tour of duty with the Cubs recently ended with his unconditional release after a series of disastrous outings that gave club president Jed Hoyer no alternative but to pull the plug. But it wasn’t so long ago that Arrieta’s emergence as the best pitcher in baseball signalled that the Cubs’ infamous world championship drought was likely to end sooner rather than later.

Arrieta started the 2015 season at 4-4 before winning 18 of his last 20 starts. For good measure, he then won his first nine decisions in 2016. For almost exactly a year—June 4, 2015 to May 31, 2016—Arrieta went 27-2 with a 1.32 ERA, an 0.81 WHIP, and two no-hitters.

The passage below reviews the Cubs’ heady late-season run in 2015, for which Arrieta deserved much of the credit.   

 

  

JAKE ARRIETA

After 99 games, the 2015 Cubs were 52-47. What would happen next? Would they a) fade away as the pennant race heated up? b) continue to muddle along near the break-even mark? or c) prove to be genuine contenders?

The correct answer is “c.” The rebuilt Cubs were for real. They won 15 of their next 16 games, including a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants (one of their main rivals for a postseason berth) at Wrigley Field. They won more games after August 1 than any other team in either league. They ended up at 97-65, an amazing achievement for a club which featured four rookies (Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, and Jorge Soler) in the starting lineup and whose oldest regular (catcher Miguel Montero) was just 31.

The Cubs’ record was the third best in all of baseball—but also third in their own division, behind St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Therefore, they needed to win the National League wild-card game vs. the Pirates in order to go any further. Fortunately, the right man for the job was on hand; righthander Jake Arrieta was in the midst of one of the greatest stretches for any pitcher in history. Over his last 20 starts, he had gone 16-1 with an 0.86 earned run average and three shutouts, including a no-hitter at Los Angeles on August 30. He was soon to receive the Cy Young Award.

Arrieta remained true to form in the wild-card game. He went the distance in blanking the Pirates on five hits and no walks, while striking out eleven. Dexter Fowler scored three runs, Schwarber knocked in three, both homered, and the Cubs won 4-0. 

After the game, manager Joe Maddon was asked if he’d had a maximum pitch count in mind for his ace. “Yes, I did,” he replied. “Infinity.”

Next, the Cubs dispatched the arch-rival Cardinals in the National League Division Series. After dropping the first game 4-0, the Cubs bludgeoned St. Louis pitchers for 20 runs in the next three games, all victories. They also pounded ten home runs, including a monumental shot by Schwarber that landed atop the new video board behind the right-field bleachers at Wrigley.

The Cubs advanced to their first National League Championship Series since 2003 with high hopes and growing respect from all quarters. Alas, they ran into the proverbial buzzsaw in the form of the New York Mets’ outstanding starting rotation. The Cubs were swept out of the postseason in four games.

It was a disappointing end to a thrilling season, but in truth the Cubs had been playing with house money. The rebuild was ahead of schedule, and its ultimate objective was just a year away.

Check out our book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports on Amazon. 

 

 

 

Tony Esposito, 1943 - 2021

Tony Esposito was one of the greatest of the greats in hockey history. A pioneer of the “butterfly” style of goaltending, he played 873 regular-season games and 99 playoff games for the Blackhawks. He ranks as the franchise’s all-time leader in wins (418) and shutouts (74). It was his propensity for shutouts, of course, that earned him the unforgettable nickname “Tony O.”

Esposito won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1969-70 and the Vezina Trophy as outstanding goalie three times. He was a five-time All-Star and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988, his first year of eligibility. Hockey-Reference.com ranks him as the greatest player (not just the greatest goalie) in the Blackhawks’ illustrious history.

The Hawks acquired Esposito from Montreal after the 1968-69 season in the greatest waiver deal in NHL history. The Canadiens stuck with the two goalies who had just carried them to the Stanley Cup championship, future Hall of Famers Gump Worsley and Rogie Vachon, while letting another future Hall of Famer get away.

 

The passage below is a look back at Tony O’s sensational 1969-70 season.    

 

TONY ESPOSITO

 

When the Blackhawks visited Montreal’s Forum to play the Canadiens on October 25, 1969, they were winless in six games for the young season and seemed destined for a second straight last-place finish, while the Canadiens were heavy favorites to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup.

 The Hawks had gone one game over .500 in 1968-69, but had nonetheless finished sixth and last in the NHL’s powerful Eastern Division, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1958. They entered the next season with more questions than answers. First, Ken Wharram, the plucky winger who was one of the club’s veteran leaders, suffered a heart attack that left him in critical condition for a time (he recovered, but his playing career was over). Then superstar Bobby Hull walked out of training camp, charging that the Hawks had reneged on certain promises made during his contract negotiations the year before. The goalie position was unsettled, with coach Billy Reay torn between Denis DeJordy, who had disappointed since replacing the great Glenn Hall two years earlier, and Tony Esposito, whose entire NHL experience consisted of 13 games with Montreal the season before.   

     With seven rookies (including Esposito and future mainstays Keith Magnuson and Cliff Koroll) in the lineup, the Hawks were bombed 7-2 in the season opener at St. Louis. Then they lost four more games before managing a tie at New York. “It may take 30 or 35 games before we play the kind of hockey I believe we are capable of playing,” Reay said, “but I am not discouraged.”

 The game in Montreal was the first portent of better things to come. Esposito, who had looked so bad in the opening-night debacle, was brilliant as the Hawks won 5-0. It was the Canadiens’ first loss of the season and their first on home ice in 25 games dating back to the previous January. “I decided to go with Tony,” said Reay, “in the hopes that he’d be fired up against the team that let him go, and it worked. I can’t remember winning that decisively too often in Montreal.”

     

The Hawks were a different team after Esposito’s shutout of the Canadiens. They lost their next game, then reeled off a 10-game unbeaten streak of eight wins and two ties. Esposito played every minute of the streak and allowed a total of 10 goals. Two of the games were shutouts, one of them a 1-0 decision over Montreal at the Stadium.

     Beginning with the game in Montreal on October 25, the Hawks went 45-17-8 for the rest of the season. For the last 12 weeks, they were 30-7-4.  

     Although their record of 38-22-16 would have easily won the Western Division (home of the six three-year-old expansion teams), the Canadiens were out of the playoffs for the first time since 1948. For the first time ever, the postseason would not include either Montreal or Toronto. 

     “Tony’s the guy who made the difference,” center Pit Martin said after the Hawks thrashed the Canadiens 10-2 in the regular-season finale. “He has made stops nobody could believe in game after game. He is the guy we’ve rallied around. I don’t think there ever has been a goaltender with a season like the one he’s had.”   

     Esposito’s season for the ages carried the Hawks from last place to first and earned him the Vezina Trophy as outstanding goalie and the Calder as rookie of the year (he finished second to Boston’s Bobby Orr in the MVP balloting). He played 63 games, allowing just one goal in 15 of them and setting a record with 15 shutouts. 

     As quick to refuse credit as he was to accept blame, Esposito was matter-of-fact about his feats. “All the guys worked so hard for me,” he said. “They have all year. I kept thinking, ‘Don’t ease up; you don’t want to let them down.’”

 

 

Check out our book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports on Amazon.