History of the Chicago Cubs

Despite the strong finish, the club was compelled to drop out of the league during the city's recovery period until ultimately being revived in 1874, and moving into the newly built 23rd Street Grounds on the near south side.

After the formation of the American League, Al Spalding gave up ownership of the club to concentrate on touring the country to promote his sporting goods company, selling the team to John Hart in 1902.

During that 1910 season, the club's star infielders, Tinkers, Evers, and Chance, gained even more national acclaim after turning a critical double play against the New York Giants in a July game.

The trio was immortalized in Franklin P. Adams' poem Baseball's Sad Lexicon, which first appeared in the July 18, 1910, edition of the New York Evening Mail: These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Hack Wilson, Gabby Hartnett, Billy Herman, Rogers Hornsby, and many other stars donned Cub uniforms during that stretch, and they achieved the unusual accomplishment of winning a pennant every three years – 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1938.

The 1938 season saw Dizzy Dean lead the team's pitching staff and provided an historic moment when they won a crucial, late-season game with a "walk-off" home run by player-manager Gabby Hartnett, which became known in baseball folklore as "The Homer in the Gloamin'."

After the Curse of the Billy Goat, a few years into the post-World War II era, astute observers of the game began to suspect that something had gone wrong with the Cubs franchise, and that it might take them a long time to recover.

Following the disastrous 1969 campaign, the Cubs fell into mediocrity, finishing slightly over .500 in 1970, 1971 and 1972, while they still had most of the core players from the 1969 team in uniform, including the "Old Guard" of Santo and Williams on the field and Jenkins, Holtzman, and Milt Pappas, who tossed a no-hitter in 1972, on the mound.

The Cubs responded by starting out 35–19 by June 11, but swooned again, losing 13 in a row as the club's four top pitchers all hit the disabled list, and the Cardinals took the division crown as the North Siders ended up a disappointing 77–84.

The 1988 team, under new skipper Don Zimmer (who was promoted after Frey took the general manager position), was the first of a new era in Cub history, as lights were installed at Wrigley Field and were first to be used for a night game on August 8.

Some young faces contributed to the 1989 success, with 1B Mark Grace leading the team in hitting and fellow sophomore Damon Berryhill providing stability behind the plate for Maddux and the other Cub hurlers.

Mark Grace, known for his glove and his bat, along with rifle-armed SS Shawon Dunston and reliable catcher Joe Girardi became fan-favorites as Dawson and Sandberg solidified themselves as annual starters in the All-Star game with Ryno eventually becoming the highest paid player in baseball, retiring and then making a Jordanesque comeback.

This changed with the signing of left fielder Henry Rodríguez to complement Grace and Sosa in the lineup and inking closer Rod Beck and starter Kevin Tapani to bolster the pitching staff.

The Cubs became media-darlings once again, paced by Sosa's amazing 66 HR, MVP season and Kerry Wood's dominating Rookie of the Year pitching, which included an MLB record-tying 20 strikeout game versus the Houston Astros.

Although the Cubs started well, at one point reaching nine games over .500, the June-swoon reappeared when they were swept by the crosstown rival White Sox in Comiskey Park, which was the genesis of another epic tailspin, resulting in the club finishing in last place.

MacPhail vowed to lead the team to success in the new century.McPhail sent Hendry to work quickly, and his first move was trading reliever Terry Adams to Los Angeles for Eric Young and Ismael Valdez, and hiring Don Baylor to succeed Riggleman as the Chicago skipper.

The Cubs led the eventual Wild Card winning Cardinals by 2.5 games in early September, but Preston Wilson's walk-off homer off of closer Tom "Flash" Gordon took the wind out of the team's sails, failing to make another serious charge.

At mid-season, the Cubs had overcome Sammy Sosa's corked bat incident, and found themselves in the thick of the pennant race, and were looking for a replacement for Bill Mueller, who was traded near the end of the 2002 campaign.

Months later, Sammy was one of a group of players (including Mark McGwire) who were asked to testify during an all-day, nationally televised hearing before the House Government Reform Committee about steroid use in baseball.

During the off-season, the Cubs revamped the outfield, acquiring speedy center fielder Juan Pierre from the Marlins and inked free agent Jacque Jones to fill the hole in right.

Rich Hill came up from Iowa and showed some flashes of brilliance, and Aramis Ramírez had another great season, but Pierre, though stealing 52 bases, failed to live up to expectations and Jones lashed out at the Wrigley faithful for booing him after his initial poor play.

Just before Christmas in 2007, Sam Zell closed the sale of the Chicago Tribune and promised the team would be sold prior to the season (which ultimately didn't happen), leading many to question whether the Cubs would be major players in the free-agent market.

Chicago set a team record with eight players being named as all stars with Zambrano, Soriano, Ramirez, Wood and Dempster being joined by first timers Fukudome, Geovany Soto, and late addition Carlos Mármol.

[19] Apparently handcuffed by Tribune's bankruptcy and the sale of the club to the Ricketts family, the Cubs quest for a NL Central 3-peat started with notice that there would be less money invested into contracts than in previous years.

However, as the team fell out of contention Derek Lee, Ryan Theriot, and Ted Lilly were traded away and skipper Lou Piniella retired near the end of the season, in which the Cubs finished in 5th place at 75–87.

The youth movement ushered in by Epstein and Hoyer began as longtime fan favorite Kerry Wood retired, followed by Ryan Dempster and Geovany Soto being traded to Texas at the All-Star break.

(In 1999, a long-lost extra RBI mistakenly credited to Charlie Grimm had been found by Cooperstown researcher Cliff Kachline and verified by historian Jerome Holtzman, increasing the record number to 191.)

"[30] On June 23, 1984, Chicago trailed St. Louis 9–8 in the bottom of the ninth on NBC's Game of the Week when Ryne Sandberg, known mostly for his glove, slugged a game-tying home run off ace closer Bruce Sutter.

During a Chicago Bulls-Dallas Mavericks telecast on October 9, 2008, Cuban, in a courtside interview with Comcast Sports Net, claimed he had made the highest bid, and although he did not know where he stood, noted that the state of the economy would likely affect the time frame of the eventual sale.

Nonetheless, on January 8, 2009, the Chicago Tribune reported that a new group of three finalists, Thomas S. Ricketts advised by Salvatore Galatioto of Galatioto Sports Partners, Hersch Klaff advised by Michael Levy of Paragon Capital Partners,[39] and a partnership of private equity investors Marc Utay and Leo Hindery Jr., were expected to submit polished offers "within days", after which the winning bid would be accepted and, pending the winning bidders approval by 2⁄3 of the current MLB owners, "would be final", with Zell holding on to a minor share of the team.