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Postseason Collapses The Chicago Cubs seemingly exorcised their habit of late-season folds with Rick Sutcliffe's 4-1 victory over the Pirates on September 24, 1984. Earning the Cubs their first National League Eastern Division title. The team then proceeded to win the first two games of the National League Championship series over the San Diego Padres. Nevertheless, the Cubs' subsequent three straight losses in San Diego, which included a ground ball that slipped through Leon Durham's legs, forever haunts Cubs fans. In 1984, fifteen years after the late-season collapse of the Cubs in the summer of 1969 and forty-nine years after the Cubbies had played in the postseason, the general malaise felt yearly by fans was somewhat eased with the team's first Eastern Division title. The curse seemingly had been lifted at the start of the season, Chicago overcame its habit of folding late in the summer, and the Cubs appeared to be a headed for their first National League pennant and World Series appearance since 1945. But the Cubs' fate took a different path when Chicago found a new way to lose a postseason collapse. Five years later, the Cubs surprisingly battled for first place throughout much of the 1989 season and managed to win the division title. But after splitting the first two games of the National League Championship series with the San Francisco Giants, quickly lost three straight games to lose the series 4-1. The 2003 Chicago Cubs, in Dusty Baker's first year as manager, got closer to winning a National League pennant than any other Cubs team since 1945. From the start of the season, the club had a new and positive attitude. Baker had downplayed talk of the Cubbies' history of late-season collapses and the Curse of the Billy Goat. Uncharacteristically, the team finished the month of September winning more games than it lost and, in the process, won the National League Central Division title. The Division Series victory over the Atlanta Braves exorcised the demons from the 1984 collapse to the San Diego Padres just as the 1984 team had cured the club's "Big Hurt" from the 1969 flop. Nonetheless, for all the success of the 2003 Chicago Cubs, the team will always be remembered for its eight-run, eighth-inning collapse to the Florida Marlins with only five outs to go to win the National League pennant. |
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