2003 Chicago Cubs Season

The Chicago Cubs 2003 season featured the franchise's first National League Central Division title, and the Cubs first playoff series win since their World Series victory in 1908. The Cubs took Central by surprise that year, as no major sporting publication picked the team to finish higher than 4th place. In part, this was due to Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry's pre-season commitment to building around his young players. 2003 was initially supposed to be a year of growth and development for young players such as Corey Patterson, Bobby Hill, Hee Sop Choi, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano. First year manager Dusty Baker was considered the team's main offseason acquisition, and even he tried to temper the fans' enthusiasm, stating at his first press conference: "my name's Dusty, not messiah"[1]. Baker would ultimately be credited for instilling the team with a winning attitude, in particular after a mid-game shouting match with St. Louis Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa. Jim Hendry would also contribute to the title having quite possibly his best year as General Manager. Hendry was quick to recognize that the Cubs would have a shot in the weak Central divison and made several trades to fill holes and fortify the bench. The team would win the NL Central on the 2nd to the last day of the season and go on to defeat the Atlanta Braves in the opening round of the playoffs. However, the team would falter in the NLCS, blowing a 3 games to 1 lead and famously self-destructing in the 8th inning of game 6. Ultimately, a team that should have been the feel good story of 2003 became another chapter in the suffering of the Cubs franchise.

1 Spring Training
2 Regular season
3 References

Spring Training

Prior to Spring Training, Jim Hendry had managed to trade catcher Todd Hundley to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros, saying at the time that the two veteran players would be used to fortify the bench. That began to change when Cubs farmhand Bobby Hill, who had seemingly been handed the 2nd base job at the opening of camp, failed to produce during the spring and lost the job to Grudzielanek. This could be seen as a foreshadowing of things to come under manager Dusty Baker, who despite claims to the contrary, clearly favored older, veteran players to younger ones.

Regular season

The Cubs got off to an unusually good start, going 14-10 in April and never falling further than 3 games out of first place prior to the All-Star break, despite several injuries to starting players. Hee Sop Choi was the National League rookie of the month for April, but suffered a concussion in a collision with teammate Kerry Wood during a June 7th game against the New York Yankees. Eric Karros would replace Choi in that game, hitting a decisive 3-run homer off Yankees reliever Juan Acevedo to spur the Cubs to victory, and would remain the starting first baseman for the rest of the season. Less than a month after Choi's injury, CF Corey Patterson, who had been off to an excellent start, tore his ACL in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals and was lost for the season. The Cubs would hover at the .500 mark for the rest of July, until General Manager Jim Hendry filled two gaping holes by trading for 3B Aramis Ramirez and CF Kenny Lofton of the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 23rd, bringing the team a much needed 3rd baseman and lead off hitter. Hendry would later acquire 1B/PH Randall Simon from the Pirates as well, giving up no major players in either of the deals. The series considered by most to be the highlight of the regular season would come in early September, when the Cubs would take on hated rivals the St. Louis Cardinals in an emotionally charged 5 game series. Chicago would take 4 of the 5 games, rallying from behind to win the final 2, and knocking the Cardinals out of a tie for 1st place with Houston. The Cubs entered the final series of the sesaon tied for 1st place with the Astros, and clinched the division by sweeping a double-header against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the 2nd to last day of the season.