It is probably the most infuriating season in Cubs history (and that’s saying something with this bunch). The Cubs patched almost all of their holes from the year before when they gagged away a pennant, and the fans were manic from the first game on. Greggie came home, the Cubs stole Derrek Lee, added Todd Walker for some reason and traded for the dumbest catcher they could find. Mark Prior and Kerry Wood got hurt, again, Big Z was still just a kid and tried to drag them to the finish line. Sweaty Joe broke, Ryan Dempster’s Tommy John Disease went into remission and he showed up late in the season to make things worse. Kent Mercker and Steve Stone got in three different verbal slap fights. The Cubs did do a trade and got Nomar! Sammy sneezed his back off, Todd Hollandsworth crippled himself with a foul ball, Andy Pratt threw very few strikes, LaTroy melted down repeatedly, Corey Patterson kept getting put back into the leadoff spot, and wait until you hear how much Jose Macias played down the stretch. Just so much…Dusty. You think you remember all of the bad stuff from the 2004 Cubs, but, you don’t.
Sign up for the Pointless Exercise podcast
Subscribe to the Pointless Exercise newsletter (it’s 15% off)
Follow Andy and Mike on Twitter
Here’s the WGN broadcast from April 16, 2004. It’s a classic.
At 2:16:00 the Cubs bat out of order (and WGN is late coming back from commercial…again)
At 2:55:00 Todd Hollandworth homers in the eighth to cut the lead to one
At 3:15:00 You get the thrilling conclusion
Hey Matt. Just hit him already.
Michael Barrett triple vs the A’s
Greggie goes for 300, Nomar debuts for the Cubs in a weird number
No video of the Victor Diaz homer, just a pixellated photo for your nightmares
Final homestand, Prior strikes out 16 lowly Reds and the Cubs win…right? I mean, they win that game…right?
The only redeeming thing about the final month of the season. Chip announces he’s leaving. (Oh, and Sammy left early and his boombox left in pieces.)