Take a Cub Negative and Develop a Winner

It has been said that the Chicago Cubs live with a negative aura, an unmistakable and inescapable horror. They have not won a World Series in 90 years, have not been to a World Series in 53.

“I don’t think I truly appreciated the onus until I sat in the general manager’s chair,” said Ed Lynch, who has been sitting this weekend in a field-level seat at Dodger Stadium, watching the Cubs continue their attempt to shake the pressure of that long history, those nine decades of accumulated karma and bad vibes.

Brian McRae, former Cub center fielder now with the New York Mets, talked about it in spring training, citing that “negative aura” and saying, “As a Cub, you feel it. I mean, losing wears on a lot of people, and there maybe a little bit more than other places because they haven’t won in so long and you feel a sense of urgency to win. You try to block it out, but it’s still there. If you hear it every day, year in, year out, it gets through to you.”

Lovable but laughable. Lamentable losers.

Nonsense, said closer Rod Beck, who signed as a free agent and says he doesn’t feel burdened by any aura.

“When you change the personnel on the ballclub, you’re also bringing in different personalities and different attitudes,” Beck said. “That changes from year to year.

“Maybe if McRae and some others felt that way, maybe that was the cause of what happened last year. I don’t know.

“But you bring in a Jeff Blauser and a Mickey Morandini, and with the guys that were here before, we all expect to win. I’ve never gone to the park with a defeatist attitude. I don’t think you can really connect the Cubs’ past with today. With all the movement of players, every team is different.”

The ’98 team has definitely started differently than the ’97 team, which went 0-14 out of the gate and finished 68-94. The 94 losses were the third-most in club history.

A disaster, said Lynch, who along with President Andy MacPhail, the architect of the Minnesota Twins’ success in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, is in his fourth year of trying to correct the pattern and field a contending team. The win percentages of their first three years--.507, .469, .420--suggest a suspect course, but Lynch said that he and MacPhail knew there would be a period of hard knocks as they worked in young players and broke the historic and “vicious cycle” of trading off young players because of “pressure to win now.”

“We felt ’97 was the year to break the cycle,” Lynch said. “We never expected to lose 94 games. But even though it was a disaster in that regard, a major disappointment, we felt we made subtle progress as an organization.”

He referred to the development of four young players, third baseman Kevin Orie, pitcher Jeremi Gonzalez and outfielders Brant Brown and Doug Glanville, subsequently traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for second baseman Morandini.

Another young pitcher, Kerry Wood, the club’s top draft choice in 1995, joined the rotation two weeks ago.

“We’re using every avenue,” Lynch said, referring to the free-agent signings of Beck and shortstop Blauser, the trade acquisitions of Morandini and left fielder Henry Rodriguez, and the replacements from the farm.

“We’ve significantly improved the offense and have a closer who is capable of closing games,” Lynch added, referring to the signing of Beck in the wake of a 1997 trade that sent expensive flop Mel Rojas to the Mets.

The Cubs arrived for their only Los Angeles visit this year with a 12-9 record, compared to 4-17 after 21 games last year.

“We’re right where we should be,” Lynch said, speaking of the development. “And we should be right in the mix,” he added, referring to the wide-open race in the National League Central.

“The criticism is, we don’t have a true No. 1 pitcher,” Lynch said. “But no one in the division does. Houston lost [Darryl] Kile and St. Louis lost [Andy] Benes. We feel very good about the consistency of our rotation, one through five. The biggest problem we had was putting guys on base and scoring runs, and I’m confident we’ve addressed that.”

Lynch and Manager Jim Riggleman are equally confident that by staying in the hunt, by extending this stronger start, the Cubs will dispel any hint of a negative clubhouse aura.

“Players are human beings,” said Riggleman, who held a clubhouse meeting on the final day of the ’97 season to denounce the selfish attitudes. “It’s June or July and they look at the standings and they know that we’re not going anywhere as a team and they start playing for all the wrong reasons. That kind of thing is rampant throughout baseball, not just here. It’s tough not to have that situation when you’ve lost that many games.”

Said Lynch: “I’ve never seen a last-place team with good chemistry and I’ve never seen a first-place team with bad chemistry. That’s why a good start is so important. If you stay in the hunt, it gives the players a reason to give up any selfish motivations in the interest of the team. But I truly believe we have so many players from other organizations that they’re not burdened by the history.”

Perhaps, but it seems as much a part of being a Cub as the ivy at Wrigley Field. The daily mail, Lynch acknowledged, provides a constant reminder of how long it has been since the Cubs reached a World Series, let alone won one.

“We don’t underestimate the passion,” he said. “It weighs heavily on all of us. Hopefully, we can give the fans the ultimate gift, which would be a World Series. Hopefully, at the least, we can give them a pennant race, some meaningful games in August and September.”

The Tribune Co. approved a $20-million payroll increase this year.

Lynch and Riggleman know their jobs could be on the line, but the concept is not foreign to either baseball lifer.

Neither, truth be told, is that negative aura foreign to the Cubs.