More Dollars Than Sense In Atlanta Makeup Game

For most of the first half, the Cubs gave us a season relatively free of neurosis and paranoia. Then the last two weeks of the first half happened. And all of a sudden, it was like the soundtrack to Wrigley Field’s pregame hype video changed from Imagine Dragons’ “Warriors” to the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

In fact, Anthony Rizzo’s rant to the media that “It’s July and you need stories to write about, and what better story to write about than ‘why are the Cubs struggling’” is really just a longer way of saying “I thought we were coo de la.”

As happens seemingly every year, this lengthy swoon caused a massive freakout amongst the fanbase and media, in large part because it followed the most basic principle of following this team: there isn’t anything the Cubs can do that’s so bad that it doesn’t immediately remind you of something worse they’ve done before.

In this case, the stretch recent of poor play called to mind unfortunate episodes from Cubs history both on and off the field. As my colleagues Cat Garcia and Ryan Davis have argued, the on field problems are still really nothing worth losing your mind about. But I would argue that the off field issue this losing streak highlighted is definitely something to watch carefully.

At the end of the first half, Ben Zobrist explained one of the key reasons for the Cubs’ tailspin: 24 games in a row.

“Even with makeup games, your body is not made to do that. Your mind is not made to do that… When you’re playing that many days, it ends up not being as much about excellence as it is about money and players’ endurance.”

Having watched the last 10 days of Cubs baseball before the break, I think we’d all agree that it’s definitely not about excellence. It’s never a good sign when the only thing that differentiates a team from the Mike Quade-era Cubs is the manager’s eyebrows.

And you don’t have to go back too far in Cubs history to find a historical comp for a stretch like that. Because it turns out that over the last few weeks, you were watching an updated but less tragic version of the 2004 Cubs’ collapse.

(I will pause here to allow Len Kasper to change the locks on the press box door.)

In early September of 2004, the Cubs were scheduled to play a three-game road series with the Florida Marlins that coincided with the landfall of Hurricane Frances. All three games were postponed, forcing the Marlins‘ total attendance for the year to plummet by 78.

Because they would have to reschedule those three games in September, this meant that the Cubs would have to play 26 games in their final 24 days without an off day. Yes, those 2004 Cubs. The team whose trademark was thriving under pressure. After all, as anyone who has read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can tell you, the first habit is “When the chips are down, kick a rotating fan.”

(And looking back, it makes perfect sense why they would end that season by smashing Sammy Sosa’s boombox. Because that is the only sane response to 24 consecutive days of Whitney Houston.)

For the first two weeks, the 2004 Cubs actually looked like they were going to emerge from the gauntlet, going 13-4 to jump to a 2.5 game lead in the Wild Card race. But just as the endless stretch of schedule got to this year’s team, it also led that infamous squad to crash and burn with a dismal 2-7 record in their final nine contests to blow their chance at the playoffs.

Thankfully, with the Cubs still enjoying an eight-game divisional lead, the on field comp for this stretch is more of an academic exercise (presumably for a class entitled “If Darren Aronofsky directed baseball”). It’s when you dig deeper into what that stretch says about the way the Cubs conduct business that makes it a bit concerning.

The first place Zobrist went when describing this brutal stretch of 2016 schedule was  saying that it was about money. As for what that could imply, an answer might be found in Paul Sullivan’s story from the make-up game with Atlanta.

“The Cubs could’ve scheduled a day game for the makeup against the Braves, but the business operations department decided to schedule it at night for television ratings. 

“Thus, the Cubs took a 1:30 am bus to O’Hare for the flight to Pittsburgh and would arrive just before sunrise…”

That’s a genuine red flag. Because Sullivan’s implication is that the Cubs’ decision to finish the homestand with a night game on getaway day was the business department imposing its priorities on the baseball side. Which is something that has happened all too often in this team’s history and it has never ended well.

(Although in interest of fairness, it’s probably worth remembering that business ops is one of Sullivan’s favorite whipping boys. If Paul Sullivan had been around for the 1932 World Series, he might have accused Crane Kenney of standing in center field with a sign reading “HIT IT HERE, BABE!”)

The swoon demonstrated that if the business side of the Cubs interferes with the baseball side in even a small way, it can still have drastic consequences. While you can’t put a number on how much playing 24 games in a row affected the Cubs’ play on the field, Zobrist’s candor certainly leads to the conclusion it’s a big deal for the players. Unfortunately, in the interest of ratings for WLS, the Cubs decided not to concern themselves with how their scheduling would affect the on field product and ultimately paid a price.

Earlier this season, the Cubs threw a 1990s Day, presumably for the part of the fanbase that looked at Kris Bryant at third base and thought, “I miss Leo Gomez.” There were throwback hats in the bleachers and players took their at bats to musical classics like Kris Kross’s “Warm It Up” and Snow’s “Informer.”

Unfortunately, the business department’s handling of the make-up game with the Braves was also a throwback to 1990s Cubs ownership. All that was missing was an attempt to distract the fanbase from the losing streak with “Kenny the Crane Beanie Baby Day.”

Even with seemingly minor decisions like this, it’s worth hoping that the business interests of the team do not take priority over the baseball side of things. As the last two weeks showed, even small compromises can have a major impact on the players. And eventually if the Cubs are going to bring back their 1990s style of management, they’re also going to throw back to that decade on the field.

In which case, I’ll plan to meet Joe Maddon for a chat outside the firehouse.

Lead photo courtesy Jake Roth—USA Today Sports.