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Bleacher Tickets Cubs

What Happened To The 1969 Chicago Cubs?

The summer of 1969 was filled with a number of firsts. I graduated high school. (Big deal.) Neal Armstrong took the first step on the moon. That was a big deal. And the Chicago Cubs were in first place. Sure you have to admit landing on the moon was a more significant event, but this was the Cubs. But to die hard Cubs fans being in first place was just as important. The Cubs had never been in first place in my life time, but then again at the time I was only 17 years old. Not only were they in first place, everyone and his brother were saying we had the best team in baseball at the time.

Chicago was in frenzy--a Cub's frenzy! They didn't know how to act. Everyone was talking about the Cubs. It many times was the lead story on WGN news. People were taking their radios to work to listen to the game. You have to remember the Cubs played all their homes games in the afternoon. Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau were household names as were Jack Brickhouse and Lloyd Pettit. The games were usually over by the time people got home from work so we would turn on the news for the highlights. This was pre-ESPN time. I was too young at the time but the neighborhood bars were all full.

Going to a game meant you had to go early. The only presold tickets at the time were box seats. Grandstand and bleacher seats were sold on game day only. It was the first time that I knew of there was something called standing room seating. Fans were hanging from the rafters.

I remember there was a game with the Mets before the great collapse. It was raining. We were in the upper deck because that is all we could get. It kept raining and the fans were getting rowdy. The rain would stop and they would take the tarp off. Then as soon as they got it off it would start raining again. We waited and waited. You could tell the players were frustrated. They would come out and throw the ball around just to keep loose. We waited all day. Everyone stuck around and didn't want to leave. They finally had to call the game knowing they would not get it in because it would get dark.

The season started out with a bang. Opening day extra inning 6-5 win over the Phillies highlighted by a walk off homer by Willie Smith. The Cubs went on by winning 11 out of 12 to start the season. They were in first place on the 4th of July. By mid August they had an 8 ½ game lead. Everything was going as planned. Each time they would win at home Ron Santo would run off the field toward the club house down the left field line jumping up and clicking his heels.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Ken Holtzman on August 19 threw a no hitter against the Atlanta Braves. Billy Williams saved the no hitter by catching a ball hit by Hank Aaron in the well against the wall.

But then September came. The Cubs started the month in first place but had lost some of their luster. They lost three straight to the Pirates, the first two weren't close. Then we lost the final in extra innings after losing the lead in the top of the ninth.

They headed to New York for two games with the Mets. They would lose both games to the Mets. It was also the time of the infamous black cat that strolled onto the field that some say was the down fall of the team. In any case they limped out of New York with only a ½ game lead. They had now lost 6 in a row.

Next up was Philadelphia, a team that would lose 99 games that year. But the Cubs couldn't win there either and were really looking tired. With those two loses the Cubs fell out of first place for the first time that year and the Mets were leading the division. 1969 was also the first year of division play. You could feel the air being let out of the balloon.

It didn't get any better the rest of September. In August we felt we had the division locked up. The Cubs only had to play 500 ball over the last 50 games to finish out the season and they would win the division. But as things turned out we finished the season a very respectable 92-70. But we went 21-29 the last 50 and a dismal 8-17 in September. The amazing Mets finished 39-11, 8 ½ games ahead of the Cubs. That is an incredible 17 game difference from the mid of August.

There were a lot of Monday morning quarterback debates that would go on for years talking about the 1969 season. Some say Durocher didn't give the regulars enough rest as they just got tired playing all those day games in hot humid Wrigley Field. Some say it was the infamous curse of the billy goat. It would be 15 years before we would win a division title, 1984. But that has a story of its own.

1969 was as fantastic year until September. The high that we all lived with was never higher. That just meant the low we felt when it all fell apart just that much worse. Some even called it a "Curse.

About the Author

Jay Sedlak has more information about the Chicago Cubs curse at www.chicago-cubs-fan.com