Chicago Cubs: The all-time tournament

A tournament pitting the eight greatest teams in Chicago Cubs history against one another. The format involves seven performance measures.

The history of the Chicago Cubs franchise is not only the longest among major league teams –dating to the founding of the National League in 1876 – it’s also one of the most uneven.

For most of the club’s existence, the Cubs have produced baseball that ranged from bad to dreadful. Just to pick one stretch, between 1947 and 1997 – a span of 51 seasons – Cubs fans enjoyed plus-.500 records only 11 times.

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And although the franchise performance has certainly improved under new ownership – the Cubs have a .504 winning percentage since being purchased by the Ricketts family – it’s also true that the last owner before Tom Ricketts to produce a career winning record was William Wrigley, who died in 1931.

Still on those too-few occasions when the Cubs have been good they have often risen to greatness. For nearly a full century – from 1906 until 2001 – the Cubs held the unchallenged record for most victories in a single season with 116. At .763, that same team still holds the post-1900 record for the highest single-season winning percentage.

That, in turn, means that a hypothetical “tournament” featuring the greatest teams in franchise history still pits some strong entrants against one another. It also encompasses the expanse of professional baseball history in this country.

Among the eight best teams ever to take the field for the Cubs, one did so all the way back in the 1880s – when the team wasn’t even yet known as the Cubs. Yet an equally valid case can be made that the best Cubs team in history represented the North Side just a handful of years ago, during that once-in-a-lifetime 2016 championship season.

What follows is one vision of what an all-time Chicago Cubs franchise tournament might look like.  Each series is decided on the basis of seven criteria: you can think of each as a ‘game.’ Here are the seven:

Game 1: Regular season winning percentage.

Game 2: Post-season winning percentage

Game 3: Team OPS+

Game 4: Team ERA+

Game 5 (if necessary): Team WAR

Game 6 (if necessary): Defensive runs saved or, if unavailable, fielding percentage.

Game 7 (if necessary): Hall of Famers or likely future Hall of Famers.

Chicago Cubs: The All-Time Tournament

1906 Cubs vs. 1969 Cubs

By record, at least, the best Chicago Cubs team in history was the famous Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance aggregation of 1906.

That was the club that compiled the remarkable 116-36-2 record, winning the National League pennant by 20 games. And as famous as the double play combination made the team’s regulars, any assessment of the 1906 bunch has to begin with that pitching staff.

Chicago led the National League in all the meaningful categories, and not be close margins. The staff’s ERA was 1.75. Even in a dead-ball era, let that roll around for a while. The team allowed 2.46 runs per game in a league where the average was 3.56.

Collectively they allowed 1,018 hits, nearly 15 percent (200) fewer than the runner-up.  In modern parlance, the team’s ERA+ was 151. That’s not the ace; that’s the entire staff.

Between them, Mordecai Brown, Jack Pfeister, Ed Reulbach, Jack Taylor and Orval Overall made 129 starts, and every one of those five arms produced a sub 2.00 ERA. Brown led the team at 1.04, allowing just 32 earned runs in 277 innings.

By the standards of the day, the offense was also excellent. Chicago led the National League in batting average, slugging average and OPS. Player-manager Frank Chance batted .319, third baseman Harry Steinfeldt led the team at .327 and catcher Johnny Kling batted .312.

Against that formidable a team, the 1969 club would have had little chance. Inclusion of the 1969 club is something of a sentimental pick since the team surrendered its season-long lead during a prolonged September fade, eventually finishing eight games behind the New York Mets in the NL East.

Selection of the 1969 group – over division winners such as the 2003, 2007 and 2008 teams – is obviously arguable.

But the team is worth remembering if only for the substantial bouquet of stars who populated it. Erie Banks was on that team, as were Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, and Ken Holtzman.

Winner: 1906 Cubs in four.

Chicago Cubs: The All-Time Tournament

1929 Cubs vs. 1885 Cubs

During the first decade of baseball’s existence, the Chicago White Stockings – direct linear ancestors of the Chicago Cubs –were baseball’s dominant team. Between 1876 and 1885, the White Stockings won six pennants. Of those six, the 1885 group was probably the best.

The legendary figures who populated that team include Cap Anson, among the 19th Century’s greatest stars. The first player to amass 3,000 hits, Anson batted .310 in 1885 and drove in 108 runs – not bad considering the season only consisted of 112 games.

Anson’s equal in popularity was catcher-outfielder Michael ‘King’ Kelly, who hit .288 with 75 RBIs.

Again, though, the heart of the team was its pitching. The White Stockings had two aces. John Clarkson started 70 games, winning 53 of them against just 16 losses. Clarkson delivered 623 innings of work, being removed from the mound only twice all season.

Jim McCormick added a 20-4 record in 24 starts. No wonder the 1885 unit outlasted New York by two games in a thrilling pennant race, finishing at 87-25, a .777 winning percentage.

The No. 5 seed is the 1929 team, one of the most powerful lineups ever to grace the North Side. Under Joe McCarthy, that team went 98-54 and won the pennant by 10 and one-half games before losing the World Series to Philadelphia’s Athletics in five games.

League-wide, 1929 was an offensive-oriented season, and the Cubs more than held their own. How’s this for an outfield? Left fielder Riggs Stephenson batted .362 with 110 RBIs. Right fielder Kiki Cuyler hit .360 with 102 RBIs. Center fielder Hack Wilson batted .345 yet trailed both of the men on his flanks. Wilson made up for it with 39 home runs and 159 RBIs.

By the way, at second base Chicago had Rogers Hornsby, who hit .380 with 39 homers and 149 RBIs.

Against the great 1885 team, however, none of that mattered.

Winner: 1885 Cubs in four.

Chicago Cubs: The All-Time Tournament

2016 Cubs vs. 1984 Cubs

When it rallied from a three-games to one deficit to win the World Series, the 2016 Chicago Cubs carved out a permanent place in the hearts of generations of their fans. For many of those fans, the performance of that team was literally the realization of a lifetime of hopes and often-delayed but never-abandoned dreams.

The 2016  team won 103 games – more than any Cubs team since 1910 – so according to it a second seed is no mere sentimental gesture. Kris Bryant drove in 102 runs and won the National League MVP. Anthony Rizzo added 109 RBIs. And although the team lacked a standout average hitter, its collective .343 on-base average led the National League.

But as is often the case with great Cubs teams, pitching proved to be the key. The staff’s 3.15 ERA was the National League’s best, a full point below the 4.16 league average. Those pitchers allowed 1,125 hits, again the NL’s best and well below the league average of 1,399.

Jon Lester went 19-5 with a 2.44 ERA, Jake Arrieta added a 1-8 record and 3.10 ERA, and Kyle Hendricks delivered a 16-8 record and 2.13 ERA.

The No. 7 seed goes to the 1984 team, the first since World War II to qualify for post-season play. That club went 96-65 to take the NL East by six and one-half games over the Mets.

Rick Sutcliffe, acquired in an early-season trade, made 20 starts, won 16 of them, lost just one, and picked up the Cy Young Award.

The offense was led by MVP Ryne Sandberg (.314, 19 homers, 84 RBIs). But after winning the first two games of the NLCS in Chicago, that team was swept by the Padres in San Diego and denied the first World Series visit in the lifetimes of many of their fans.

The 1984 team is a good one, but not good enough to win the big series. As for the 2016 team, that’s another story.

Winner: 2016  Cubs in four

Chicago Cubs: The All-Time Tournament

1907 Cubs vs. 1935 Cubs

The 1906 Chicago Cubs may have compiled an exceptional regular-season record, but the 1907 club – nearly matched it and added a World Series win to ratify its reputation. That’s good enough to earn the 1907 aggregation the No. 3 seed

With virtually the same personnel cast, that 1907  club won 107 games, lost just 45 (.704), finished 17 games ahead of the runner-up Pirates, then dismissed the American League champion Detroit Tigers in four straight, one game ending in a tie.

As in 1906, it was mostly about pitching. This time the staff’s 1.73 ERA again comfortably led the league, as did its total of 1,054 hits allowed – 140 fewer than the league average.

Orval Overall went 23-7 and Mordecai Brown was 20-6. Among the five most frequently used pitchers – Overall, Brown, Pfeister, Reulbach and Carl Lundgren – the highest ERA was Reulbach’s 1.69.

The No. 6 seed goes to the 1935 Cubs, who staged one of the game’s great comebacks to claim the pennant with 100 victories and a .649 percentage.

Consider that on the morning of Sept. 4, that team stood second, trailing the St. Louis Cardinals by two and one-half games. Larry French beat Philadelphia that afternoon, and the Cubs didn’t lose again for three solid weeks – by which time they had clinched the pennant.

At 21 straight, it’s the longest September winning streak in history by a team that started outside first place and went on to win.

Although easy to overlook, this was a superb cast. Gabby Hartnett, Phil Cavaretta and Stan Hack all played pivotal parts. Hartnett batted .344 with a team-high 91 RBIs. Billy Herman hit .341, Hack was at .311 and outfielder Augie Galan hit .314.

No wonder the team led the National League in batting at .288.

On the mound, Lon Warneke and Bill Lee both won 20 games, and French added 17. At 3.26, the staff ERA was the National League’s best.

In the World Series the Cubs fell to Detroit in six games.

Winner: 1907 Cubs in seven

Chicago Cubs: The All-Time Tournament

1906 Cubs vs. 1907 Cubs

Game 1: The 1906 Cubs, at .763, are unbeatable, even against the 1907 Cubs (.704). The 1906 team went 116-36-2, the 1907 club’s regular-season record was 107-45.

Game 2: This one goes to the 1907 Cubs (1.000) over the 1906 Cubs (.333). The 1907 Cubs beat Detroit four straight with one game ending in a tie. The 1906 club lost one of the great upsets in sports history, falling in six games to the heavy underdog Chicago White Sox.

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Game 3: The 1906 Cubs (103-92 OPS+) had the superior offense. Chance (158) and Steinfeldt (151) both delivered OPS+ in excess of 150.

Game 4: Nobody touches the 1906 champions in staff ERA+. With Brown at a sky-high 253, and Pfeister and Reulbach both topping 150, the staff ERA+ plus checks in at 151. The 1907 team loses despite a 143 staff ERA+.

Game 5: In team WAR, the edge goes to the 1906 team by a margin of 56-5-48.1. Brown (7.4) and Chance (7.3) are the leaders, although the real key is depth. The 1906 Cubs rostered 10 players whose combined batting and pitching WARS exceeded +3.0, but only two with negative WARs. Those two, a couple of reserve pitchers, worked a combined 142 innings all season.

That gives the all-time Chicago Cubs tournament bracket championship to the 1906 team in five games.

For the record, the 1906 club also slightly out-fielded the 1907 team .967-.964. (Defensive runs saved have not been retroactively calculated for either team.)

On the matter of Hall of Famers, both clubs have the identical four: Chance, Evers, Tinker and Brown.