THEY CAN DO WITHOUT TRADITION : With No Pennant Since ‘45, Cubs Surprise Even Themselves

On Fan Appreciation Sunday, a capacity crowd at Wrigley Field is on its feet, showering thunderous appreciation on the Chicago Cubs, who have been recalled from the clubhouse after their final home game of the regular season.

The Cubs are the toast of the city and about to toast, it appears, with the real thing.

The sweet taste of champagne might soon relieve some bitter memories, among them:

--A complacency laced disintegration from National League East champion in 1984.

--A 9-23 spring that led to expressions of self-doubt and predictions that the 1989 Cubs would finish fifth or sixth in the East, losing 100 games, perhaps.

How to relate now to the improbable and accelerated transformation from lovable loser to wacky winner on the verge of claiming a division title?

Holy cow! One way is to seek out Harry Caray, the unabashedly parochial broadcaster.

“We’re the Dodgers of 1988,” Caray said. “Everything we do is right.”

A distant memory, the Dodgers’ unexpected pennant and World Series victory were what? Part fluke? Part celestial intervention? Part Orel, Kirk and a little talent?

So, too, with the Cubs, and no one here--Bleacher Bums excepted--is trying to make more of this than it is.

They cringe at mention of a fluke and contest it some, saying they have become a better team than the critics are yet willing to acknowledge, but they also recognize the reality of their accomplishment.

Said General Manager Jim Frey: “If someone had said to me in March that we would have a four-game lead with a week to go, I would have probably said, ‘Wouldn’t that be some miracle?’ ”

Said Manager Don Zimmer: “If I had predicted we would be in this position, people would have said I’d lost my mind, and they would have been right.

“I can tell you now that when we left Arizona and went to Minnesota to play a couple exhibitions before the season started, Jimmy and I sat down and tried to be realistic and we felt that if we could win 81 games, if we could play .500 and improve on last year, we’d have had a good year.”

The Cubs were 77-85 last year and 76-85, 70-90 and 77-84 in the three previous seasons. Now this unlikely mix of rookies, role players and veterans seems likely to win more than 90 games as well as the title in a division that includes a pair of consistent winners, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals, in addition to the talented Montreal Expos.

Now, too, the 58-year-old manager, fired in San Diego, Texas and Boston, seems destined to supplant Tom Lasorda as the National League’s manager of the year and dieter of the year.

Zimmer has lost 30 pounds using a national reduction system that he now endorses, as he does a fried-chicken chain, which would seem an incompatible mix.

But who would dispute his or his team’s chemistry in this year of the Cubs, saluted on a hot-selling T-shirt as “The Boys of Zimmer.”

“This is the greatest thing that’s happened in my career,” Zimmer said of the team’s success. “If people want to say it’s a fluke, fine.

“I didn’t resent it when they said we’d finish fifth or sixth and lose a hundred games. It’s all just opinion.

“We were awful in spring training, but this isn’t the same team that opened the season.”

Said Frey: “We’re not necessarily the greatest team on paper, but sometimes talent comes together and does the job. Things happen you can’t account for. People who were legitimate question marks have done a lot of good things for us.

“It’s like the Dodgers last year. They weren’t supposed to beat the Giants, weren’t supposed to beat the Mets, weren’t supposed to beat the A’s. Sometimes the best teams don’t win.”

So how are the Cubs doing it, going from 24 out last year to the brink of another battle with the demons of their past?

How have the Cubs--with one title in the 20 years of division play and no pennant since 1945--mounted this challenge to the Dodgers’ 1988 record for overachievement?

“You would have to write a novel to mention all the things that have been important to this club,” Rick Sutcliffe, the veteran pitcher, said. “There were so many things that made us believe. I mean, every time we needed a lift, we got it.”

They got it in the trade for bullpen closer Mitch Williams; the arrival of rookie outfielders Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith; the continued maturation of first baseman Mark Grace, shortstop Shawon Dunston and pitcher Greg Maddux; the ongoing brilliance of second baseman Ryne Sandberg; the quiet leadership of Andre Dawson; the 17 victories of 30-year-old Mike Bielecki, who had never won more than six games in a major league season, and the contributions of the largest cast of role players east of Hollywood.

They got it, as well, from Zimmer’s unpredictable strategy and the game plan with which Frey has attempted to improve the quality and quantity of the pitching while transforming a sour, overpaid team of slow-footed sluggers into a young and hungry team that has the speed and defense necessary to win on the road, as well as in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

The Cubs wound up 48-33 at home and are 41-35 on the road. They are 62-51 on grass and 26-17 on artificial surfaces. Their eight regular starters, including three rookies, total only 32 years of major league experience, with 20 of that belonging to Dawson and Sandberg. Big names and no names dot the roster. Or as third base coach Chuck Cottier said while watching the Cubs do stretching exercises the other day: “Tell me, do you recognize half those guys?”

Frey does, of course. And so would his predecessor, Dallas Green. It was Green’s scouting department that drafted Walton and Smith, who are expected to be 1-2 in rookie-of-the-year balloting, as well as Maddux, Grace, Dunston and the three catchers: Damon Berryhill, Joe Giraldi and Rick Wrona. It was also Green who traded for Sandberg, Sutcliffe and Sanderson, and signed free agents Dawson and Les Lancaster, who has become a valuable setup man for Williams.

Is this Green’s team, or Frey’s? Or does it matter?

It does to Zimmer, who has been Frey’s pal since they were classmates growing up in Cincinnati and who was the third base coach for then-manager Frey when the Cubs won in ’84 and when they were both fired by Green in June of ’86.

Zimmer’s eyes bulged to the size of the tobacco chaw in his right cheek as he spat: “This team wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is if it wasn’t for Jim Frey’s trades. I’m tired of hearing Dallas Green this and Dallas Green that.”

Green paid a heavy financial price in building the surprising winner of 1984. Injuries to a millionaire pitching staff prevented a 1985 repeat, then desire also came up disabled.

The fired Frey, a victim of the high-salaried complacency, returned as a broadcaster in 1987, then was asked to replace Green in the front office in November, one aspect being the parent Tribune Company’s clear distaste for the Cubs’ financial direction.

Frey hired Zimmer and set out to purge payroll and personnel.

“When I came back as a broadcaster and traveled with the club in ‘87, I saw too many things I didn’t like and heard too many things I didn’t like,” Frey said. “And when I got this job I knew I had to do something about it.”

Frey said there were several holdovers from the 1984 team who had become negative influences. He cited a disturbing combination of too many high salaries and too much age, individualism and bickering.

Soon traded were Lee Smith, Keith Moreland, Leon Durham and Jody Davis. Only Sutcliffe, Sandberg and Scott Sanderson remain from the ’84 team. A payroll of about $20 million has been cut in half. Only Sutcliffe, Sandberg and Dawson are in the millionaire class. Rookies Walton and Smith make the $68,000 minimum. The comparatively modest salaries of pivotal role players such as Domingo Ramos at $130,000, Lloyd McClendon at $91,000, and Luis Salazar at $400,000 characterize the payroll.

“The last couple years here, we were dealing with bad attitude and bad ability,” Sutcliffe said. “Now we’ve got guys who were making $1,500 a month or less in the minors and are thrilled to be here making $70,000.”

The turnover, Frey said, had more to do with that bad attitude than budget edict, but he acknowledged that there is inherent motivation when players are fighting for a contract.

“Take that motivation away and some guys can’t get their motor running except when they’re in their option year,” Frey said.

“Some of the players from the ’84 team had become too comfortable. Now we’ve got guys with the same desire those players (from the ’84 team) had five years earlier. I don’t know much about chemistry, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen.”

All of that improved desire would have been wasted, however, if the Cubs hadn’t been able to hold a lead. They blew 27 save opportunities last year when they were 11th in a 12-team league with 29 saves.

Williams alone has 35, two shy of Bruce Sutter’s single-season club record. And the Cubs have set a club record with a league-high 52 saves, contributing to a 50-35 record in games decided by one or two runs and a 10-5 record in extra innings.

Williams was acquired from the Texas Rangers in a nine-player December trade in which the Cubs gave up a proven hitter, Rafael Palmeiro, and were roundly criticized for it, even by Dawson, who later retracted his opinion that the Cubs should have traded Grace instead of Palmeiro.

Now there is general agreement that Williams’ acquisition has proved to be the most important factor in the Cubs’ unexpected success.

“A lot of people wrote that Texas got the best of it because we gave up the next Lou Gehrig and Williams hadn’t established himself,” Frey said.

“Palmeiro is definitely a good hitter, but we took a chance on a young, strong kid who had 18 saves last year and seemed certain to get better, and if I had to pinpoint one thing that really gave the club a sense of confidence it was Mitch’s early success.”

Only 24, Williams tends to be unpredictable on and off the field. The Wrigley organist initially played “Wild Thing” when he came in from the bullpen, but pitching coach Dick Pole felt it underscored his control problems. Now the organist plays “Thriller.”

Either way, Williams’ save of a 5-4 victory over Philadelphia in the season opener set a tone. He gave up three hits, loading the bases in the ninth inning, then struck out Mike Schmidt, Chris James and Mark Ryal.

“Right away we had the feeling that this year could be a little different,” Sutcliffe said.

There was more, some of it born of desperation, Frey acknowledged.

Walton, for instance, was asked to make the jump from double A and has improved the center-field defense while adding speed and an unexpectedly consistent bat to the leadoff spot.

Smith, the equally fleet left fielder who is something of a defensive liability, was sent to triple A after a disappointing spring, was recalled in May and is batting .322 as the No. 3 hitter, sandwiched between Walton-Sandberg and Dawson-Grace.

If the Cubs caught lightning with Walton and Smith, how much can the bottle hold? They are still learning.

Among the examples:

--McClendon, acquired in a December trade with Cincinnati, got off a plane from Iowa when Grace was put on the disabled list in June, hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat an hour or so later and remains in the high .280s.

--Lancaster, recalled early in the second half, did not give up a run for 30 2/3 innings and has a 1.41 earned-run average through 40 appearances.

--Salazar, acquired Aug. 30 in a five-player trade with the San Diego Padres, was hitting a mere .350 for the Cubs, beefing up production at third base, weak-hitting Vance Law having been benched.

It was Salazar, in fact, who supplied two of the season’s biggest hits.

They came on Sept. 9, the day after the Cardinals had delivered a shocker, overcoming a 7-1 lead and cutting Chicago’s first-place lead to 1 1/2 games to one-half.

With the Cubs’ trailing the Cardinals, 2-1, Salazar singled off Dan Quisenberry, tying it in the eighth. Then he singled off Ken Dayley to win it in the 10th. The Cardinals lost six in a row and haven’t been closer than 1 1/2 since.

“Talk about your 24-man efforts,” said Steve Wilson, the Cubs’ rookie pitcher. “I think every player here feels he’s contributed.”

Fluke? Perhaps. But consider:

--The Cubs have consistently met the challenge, going 27-22 against the Mets, Expos and Cardinals, including 15-5 in the second half.

--They have displayed resilience and depth, overcoming the loss of their entire outfield in May, the absence of Grace for three weeks in June and a torn rotator cuff that shelved Berryhill for the season in mid-August.

--The offense, with Walton, Smith and a third rookie behind the plate, ranks first in the league in team batting and second in runs. Only three teams have made fewer errors. And the pitching staff, despite recent ineffectiveness by Sutcliffe compounding the absence of reliable fourth and fifth starters, has an ERA of 3.47, the league’s sixth best.

Consider, as well, that both Whitey Herzog and Buck Rodgers, managers of the Cardinals and Expos, respectively, recently said the Cubs have the league’s best everyday lineup.

Then, too, there’s Zimmer’s hot hand, as illustrated by his pinch-hitters’ .318 average, the 11 runs scored on squeeze bunts, the seven consecutive runners thrown out on pitchouts called from the dugout, and the four-game winning streak that ended in Montreal Monday, a streak born, perhaps, of a clubhouse meeting in which Zimmer blistered the pitchers for losing aggressiveness.

“Like Zim himself says, he can call the plays, but it’s up to the players to put the bat on the ball or make the throw,” Sutcliffe said.

“And it’s been amazing to watch kids with limited experience get it done in front of capacity crowds as if this was nothing more than Peoria.”

Said Frey: “Zim will try anything at any time, and the players seem to have responded to it. They seem to be having fun with it.”

It can be said, in fact, that a funny thing happened to the Cubs on their way to the frustration again predicted for them.

ONE THAT SLIPPED AWAY

Jim Dwyer’s single in the 10th inning leads Montreal over the Cubs, 4-3. Story, Page 4.