Chicago Cubs: 11,000 wins, A franchise standard
By Bill Felber
To reach the 1-spot, the Chicago Cubs will have to surpass the San Francisco Giants, 11,180.
The Giants took until 1966 to catch the Cubs in franchise wins only because they got a late start. The franchise did not become part of MLB until 1883, by which point Chicago had a 332-win head start.
A succession of stars gradually reversed that deficit. Like the Cubs, the Giants were a force during the first decade of the 20th Century, winning two pennants and finishing second four times thanks to stars of the magnitude of Christy Mathewson and manager John McGraw.
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New York added four more pennants in the teens and four more in succession between 1921 and 1924.
The difference was that when the cubs faded after World War II, the Giants maintained their pace. Credit Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and a passel of other stars for that. During that 1966 season, when San Francisco succeeded Chicago as the franchise leader, the 93-68 Giants picked up 34 games on the 59-103 Cubs. San Francisco entered that season with seven fewer franchise wins than Chicago, and by season’s end the Giants held a 28-game advantage.
Despite the three World Series wins since 2010, the Giants have not done much to extend their advantage. They’ve averaged 74.4 victories since 2011, a dozen less than, for example, the Dodgers and 1.5 fewer than the Cubs.
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But that 180-win franchise margin remains imposing. Even assuming the Dodge continued to average a dozen more wins per season than the Giants, it would still take them 15 seasons to supplant San Francisco in the top spot.