Most exciting Cubs season by a player which you've ever actually seen

[Javy Is Still A Cub]

PCA's amazing season got me thinking: what's the most EXCITING season a Cub player has had that you've actually seen. Too bad for Mordecai Brown, but I'm talking with your actual eyeballs and NOT the best - the most exciting. 

 

1. Sosa 1998: He and McGuire saved baseball after the '94 strike. Literally everybody in America was talking about them. Your grandma was. Your grandma doesn't know who PCA is, especially if she doesn't live in Chicago. 

2. Dawson 1987: Last-place team but still he couldn't be stopped. 24 stitches after a beanball to the face - still couldn't be stopped. Pure intimidation and domination, and he was feted and feared as a god at Wrigley that year, with bowing salaams by the bleacher bums. Nobody's bowing to PCA (kid's too young). 

3. Arrietta 2015: 20 quality starts in a row to finish the season. If he gave up 2 runs we thought he had a bad start. Baseball is a game dominated by the pitcher, after all, and that was the best run by a Cubs pitcher I've ever seen. 

4. PCA 2026: After the first couple months he was doing something astounding nearly every day. Adding in his youthful age: best baseball athlete as a Cub ever. 

5. Sutcliffe 1984: A team that hadn't done anything since 1969 - in those 15 years they became the "loveable losers" - most definitely had a savior complex, and he was almost literally unbeatable (16-1). Homered in the first playoff game. Won the Cy and 4th in MVP voting.

6. Sandberg 1984: He won the MVP. Sandberg's busting out year, redefining 2b like Ripken redefined SS. 19 triples - at Wrigley - and with Harry Caray slobbering his many beers over every one. 

7. Baez 2018: He probably shouldn't be this low, because he was as electric as PCA. A true baseball genius - he redefined tagging, which is something people had been doing for over a century.

8. 2003 Prior: He took over Chicago as much or more than PCA. He had perfect mechanics (right?), the perfect pedigree, his calves were gigantic - the Cubs had the new Tom Seaver, and this was just the start (right?). 

9. 1992 Maddux: His busting out party. His first half of the season was incredible, and then he somehow got even better the 2nd half. It was how he did it - control not stuff - that made it so unusual.

10. Derrek Lee 2005: Locked in the entire season. Should be in prison for murdering baseballs. As the 2003 season fell apart into the embarrassing 2004 season, Lee was the consummate professional. 

11. Don Zimmer 1989: He was truly the star of that team, and Chicago loves a good old-school coach. Honorable mention to Mark Grace, for his incredible .647/.682/1.118 performance in the playoffs. Even more incredible was how Will Clark actually outplayed him - .650/.682/1.200

12. Rod Beck 1998: Chicago is (or was) mostly a town of relocated hillbillies, after all, and "Shooter" sported a Fu Manchu, a mullet, and you knew what was coming - a fastball. And he beat you anyway. 51 saves and finished 70  - he was a near-daily amusement. 17th in MVP voting. It's a fitting capper to have 1998 represented - it was truly the most exciting year in baseball since... I dunno, before I was born. 

 

 

[Javy Is Still A Cub]

Nobody from 2016, can you believe that?!!

I guess it was because that season was about a truly great team - not just a great player, I guess. Bryant was the most exciting player that year: like Prior 2003, he had the pedigree and that was just the start (right?).

[Stu]

Ryno 1984 will always stand out to me for many sentimental reasons.  The Sutter game got me thinking that maybe for once good things could happen to the Cubs. And I wasn’t used to that feeling up to that point in my life.
 

PCA’s year statistically blows it away but there’s just something about Ryno that year for me. And that was also the year that Dallas Green’s trades started taking real affect and I also was thinking for once they had a competent front office.

[Outshined_One]

My (least) favorite part of the Derrek Lee season was that he won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger for 1B, but Pujols won the MVP.

[Javy Is Still A Cub]

That's a great point about the Sandberg game pulling the Cubs fans out of total despair. 

At least Derrek lost to King Albert - Baez lost out to Yelich. Blecch! What did he ever do? They had to invent the utility Gold Glove because of Baez! 

Shooter Beck's 18th place MVP in the NL as a reliever in (the magical year of) 1998... that's something he could truly put on his tombstone.

If anybody knows where his trailer is parked, please pass on the idea. 

But there are three things I know in this world for certain: 

1) It will have to be in person, because Shooter is connected to no grid. 

2) He lives near a data center.

3) If you asked him about it, he'd respond: "What noise?" 

Edited 1 hour ago by Javy Is Still A Cub
18th, not 17th. Oh, well, that's not impressive anymore!

[Javy Is Still A Cub]

Lookit that 1998 NL MVP race - wow. Everyone is in the HOF or definitely in the near-HOF.

Excepting only Greg Vaughan and Moises Alou - 61th and 48th best LF respectively per JAWS - who are definitely in the near-near-HOF, at least. There's 23 LF in the HOF - if they never elected another one Moises would be right there in the near-HOF. 

(How is Felipe Alou not in the HOF? He is one of just three men to have 2,000 hits, 200 home runs, and 1,000 managerial wins - the other two are Joe Torre and Frank Robinson. He's got more WAR than his son. He was the first player from the DR. My God, what the hell else do you want a guy to do in/for baseball - put him in!!!)

And yet surely many consider Shooter - due to his misunderstood genius - to be some sort of mistake here? They're the crazy ones.

Shooter will win them back when he finally concludes his groundbreaking research into combining cold fusion, Hindu eschatology and beer can pull tabs.  

[cl smooth]

even though he's my favorite player, i was too young for '84 sandberg so i gotta go with '03 prior. for cubs fans of that era, we never really watched a power pitcher with that type of control and poise play for our team. yeah, maddux won his first of 4 cy young awards with the cubs but he was a finesse pitcher who painted corners. prior was something else entirely. 8 games of 10+ strikeouts. averaging 113 pitches/game (!!!!!!!!!!!!). 3rd in cy young, 9th in mvp voting...he was must-see tv. 

Edited 54 minutes ago by cl smooth

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Sosa '98 will probably never be topped, just the perfect storm

[Rcal10]

I would have to go with Sandberg. Mainly because he made the Cubs relevant again. I also think Bryant 2016 should be on the list. He was the best player on the best team. Sosa in 98 was amazing too. And of course PCA this year. 

[Outshined_One]

8 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Sosa '98 will probably never be topped, just the perfect storm

Sosa 2001 would beg to differ. The team around him was abjectly putrid, but he was the sole reason that team even came close to sniffing the playoffs.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

4 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

Sosa 2001 would beg to differ. The team around him was abjectly putrid, but he was the sole reason that team even came close to sniffing the playoffs.

I know 2001 was his better year, but I'll always remember '98 more fondly due to everything surrounding it.

[WhyCantWeWin]

My balls have only been watching since 2006 so Id have to say PCA