Cubs glory years: 1929

Like many Cub fans, throughout my life I have dreamed that the Cubs would become the dominant team in the National League, and even all of baseball. The Cubs have the advantage of being in the third largest media market in the country, they have a fanbase that supports them religiously, and they have seemingly endless ways to make money with the club that they can spend on fielding the best team in the NL. Of course the Cubs have never dominated the NL in my lifetime. In recent seasons Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella have changed the mindset and the back-to-back division titles in 2007 and 2009 are just the start toward that kind of dominance…well I hope anyways. Still, at times it can be hard to imagine that the Chicago Cubs were ever a consistent winner.

With all the hoopla that surrounded the 100 year anniversary of the Cubs last World Series title last season, it is real easy to think that this team has been a laughingstock since 1908. That simply is not the case. Yeah there were the 1950′s, but every decade was no where near that bad. There once was even a period of time when the Cubs didn’t field a team that finished below .500 for 14 seasons (1926-1939). There was actually a ten year span from 1929-1938 where the Chicago Cubs were one of the most feared teams in the National League. The Cubs would win the pennant 4 times–once every three years in 1929, 1932, 1935 and in 1938. The other seasons during that time they would finish either second or third. No second division during these years. The Cubs in the during this span were all about winning.

Growing up, my Grandpa used to talk about Hack Wilson, Kiki Cuyler, Billy Herman, Billy Jurges, Charlie Grimm, Stan Hack, Phil Cavaretta, Lon Warneke, Charley Root, Gabby Hartnett and many many more favorites of his from those great teams. He remembered these players fondly because they were the players that made up the last Cubs dynasty. The last Cubs team that he remembered that could hope for the pennant each and every year. Over the winter I’m gonna take a look back at the teams and the players that made these years some of the most memorable in Cub history. We’ll start at the end of the roaring 20′s with the first Cub team to win the NL since 1918.

1929

The Cubs entered 1929 with great expectations. Owner William Wrigley, despite General Manager William Veeck’s objection, approved a trade of five players and over $200,000 to the Boston Braves for future Hall Of Fame second sacker Rogers Hornsby. In addition to the huge check, Braves owner Emil Fuchs received, the Braves received pitchers Percy Jones, Bruce Cunningham, Herry Seibold, catcher Doc Leggett and second sacker Fred Maguire. Despite Veeck’s objection, this trade would show the Wrigley’s commitment to winning.

Before the addition of Hornsby, manager Joe McCarthy brought back a club that had won 91 games in 1928. That was good enough for third place in the National League. The Cubs at this time were in what they would have considered a drought. It had been eleven seasons since the Cubs last won the NL Pennant in 1918.

The 1929 Cubs team would be a favorite at the box office. Fans poured into Wrigley Field at record levels. The Cubs would draw 1,485,166 fans this would be the major league record until the Yankees broke it in 1946. The Cubs would not draw this many fans for forty years. In 1969 when Leo Durocher’s squad with Banks, Williams, Santo and all the rest thrilled the fans for a summer only to fall apart down the stretch. The 1969 Cubs drew 1,674,993 fans.

As the ’29 season opened the stock market crash and much of the despair that would face this country over the next decade were still 7 months off. These were still good times! The 1929 Cubs would open the season with this lineup:

1. Woody English SS
2. Clyde Beck 3B
3. Kiki Cuyler RF
4. Rogers Hornsby 2B
5. Hack Wilson CF
6. Riggs Stephenson LF
7. Charlie Grimm 1B
8. Mike Gonzalez C
9. Charlie Root P

The three-four-five hitters would all wind up in Cooperstown. 1929 would be Hornsby’s last season as an everyday player. Rajah left nothing to the imagination. He hit .380 with 39 homeruns, 149 RBi, 156 runs, and 409 total bases. Wilson was a year away from a historic season. But 1929 wasn’t bad for Hack who tied Hornsby with 39 homeruns, he also hit .345 and led the NL with 159 RBi. Cuyler would lead the league in steals and set a career high for average hitting .360.

The 1929 Cubs were an offensive powerhouse they scored at will. As a team they hit over .300 (.303). The team led all of baseball with 6.29 runs per game.

Joe McCarthy’s team would win the NL running away. The Cubs would beat out the Pirates by 10-1/2 games. Setting the stage for a World Series battle with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Here are the final NL standings for 1929:

1929 National League
Team W L WL% GB
CHC 98 54 .645 –
PIT 88 65 .575 10.5
NYG 84 67 .556 13.5
STL 78 74 .513 20.0
PHI 71 82 .464 27.5
BRO 70 83 .458 28.5
CIN 66 88 .429 33.0
BSN 56 98 .364 43.0

1929 would mark the first time the World Series would be played at Wrigley Field (the 1918 series versus Boston had been played at Comiskey Park because it was a larger venue). The Cubs would face Mack’s Athletics in a rematch of the 1910 series.

This series had all the makings of a classic. The A’s took the first two in Chicago. Winning 3-1 in game one and 9-3 in game two. The Cubs took game three at Shibe Park 3-1 behind the pitching of Guy Bush. It looked like the Cubs would even things up in game four. Through 6-1/2 the Cubs had an 8-0 lead. But the bottom of the seventh would be one of the most disastrous innings in Cubs franchise history (take that Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS). Retrosheet.org provides us with the play-by-play:

ATHLETICS 7TH:

Simmons homered;

Foxx singled to right;

Miller singled to center [Foxx to second];

Dykes singled to left [Foxxscored, Miller to second];

Boley singled to right [Millerscored, Dykes to third];

BURNS BATTED FOR ROMMEL; Burns poppedto shortstop;

Bishop singled to center [Dykes scored, Boley tothird];

NEHF REPLACED ROOT (PITCHING); Haas hit an inside the park homer to center [Boley scored, Bishop scored];

Cochrane walked;

BLAKE REPLACED NEHF (PITCHING); Simmons singled to left[Cochrane to second];

Foxx singled [Cochrane scored, Simmons tosecond];

MALONE REPLACED BLAKE (PITCHING); Miller was hit by apitch [Simmons to third, Foxx to second];

Dykes doubled to left[Simmons scored, Foxx scored, Miller to third];

Boley struckout;

Burns struck out;

10 R, 10 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Cubs 8,Athletics 10.

Yeah, the A’s put up ten runs in the inning. The Northsiders went from 9 outs to a tied series to being down 3 games to 1. They would not recover from the disastorous seventh. The Cubs would lose game 5 and the series, 2 days later, thanks to a 3-2 decision on October 14, 1929.

Ten days later, October 24, 1929 would be “Black Thursday” the initial crash of the 1929 stock market crash. The roaring twenties would come to a screeching halt. Like everybody else, the Cubs had no idea they would feel the effects of October 1929 at the box office throughout the 30′s.

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