September 28, 1998: The Cubs & Giants In Another Playoff, 90 Years Later

The way the 1908 baseball season played out, the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs had to replay a game to decide the National League Pennant. The Cubs won. Officially, it is not regarded as a "Playoff" game.

Ninety years later, give or take a few days, and the Giants having moved 3,000 or so miles, the same 2 franchises were at it again, although the stakes weren't quite as high:

September 28, 1998: The Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, having finished in a tie for the National League's Wild Card berth, face each other in a Playoff game at a raucous Wrigley Field.

Former Minnesota Twins World Series winner Gary Gaetti hits a home run, and Rod Beck holds off his former team, despite 3 runs in the 9th inning, to save a fine performance by Steve Traschel, and the Cubs win, 5-3. Trachsel should be remembered for this, not for giving up Mark McGwire's 62nd home run of the season.

Sammy Sosa goes 2-for-4 for the Cubbies, and scores 2 runs. Barry Bonds goes 0-for-4 for the Jints. I guess Sammy's steroids were working that night, and Barry's weren't. This was also the last game for Joe Carter, who retired with 396 home runs in his career.

Sosa, having hit 66 home runs and helped the Cubs into the Playoffs, was named the NL's Most Valuable Player. McGwire, who had hit 70 but had not helped the St. Louis Cardinals into the Playoffs, was not. Sosa had the better batting average, .308 to .299; and more RBIs, 158 to 147. A big edge in walks game McGwire the better on-base percentage, .470 to .377. But Sosa led his team to the Playoffs, McGwire did not, and Sosa, correctly received the MVP.

Or so we thought: As it turned out, both of them were using performance-enhancing drugs. Moisés Alou of the Playoff-bound Houston Astros finished 3rd in the voting. Greg Vaughn of the World Series-bound San Diego Padres finished 4th, and had the most home runs of any NL player not known to be cheating: 50.

The Cubs were swept by the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series. Since it was a decisive loss, with no bizarre element to it, Cubs fans weren't traumatized all over again. That would come in the 2003 NL Championship Series. The Braves then lost the 1998 NLCS to the Padres, who lost the World Series to the Yankees.

All the fuss over McGwire and Sosa led Bonds, along with Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners (56 homers that season) 1 of the 2 best players in baseball, to decide that he wasn't getting enough respect, so he started using performance-enhancing drugs.

UPDATE: The Cubs have a team Hall of Fame. Inducted from their 1998 team were 1st baseman Mark Grace, right fielder Sammy Sosa, pitcher Kerry Wood, clubhouse manager Yosh Kawano, and broadcaster Pat Hughes.

*

September 28, 1998 was a Monday. There was only 1 other score on this day: On ABC Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-6 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.