One Day in Chicago: Baseball Heartbreak

     45 years ago today.  September 24, 1969.  Two sides of town, two groundbreaking moments, and two infamous stories that live on to this day.

     In 1969, the Cubs were entering Leo Durocher's 4th season as manager. After coming in with a thud in a 101-loss first season(the last time before 2012 that the team would lose over 100 games), the team had performed better every year, culminating with an 84-78 record in the 1968 campaign. With the core back and getting hot at the right time, things looked great. Ernie Banks even said that "The Cubs will be fine in sixty-nine" And for the first several months of the season, it looked like Banks was right. They led the National League East for 155 days, a welcome sight for a fan base that hadn't seen postseason baseball since 1945. The team sent its entire infield to the 1969 All-Star Game, putting the world on notice that these Cubs were for real. All throughout the rest of the summer the team dominated. But then September reared its ugly, ugly head.

     It all started when the Cubs were at Shea Stadium playing the Mets on September 2nd. Ron Santo was in the on-deck circle when a cat got loose and made its way onto the field. Not a big deal, right? Did I mention that the cat was black? That was just the first nail in the coffin. After that you had Santo mercilessly castigating a young player for a rookie mistake, the Cubs going 18-27 down the stretch, Leo Durocher riding the players too hard for too long, day baseball, and before you knew what hit you, it was September 24, 1969, and the Mets won the NL East.  The Cubs' postseason dreams were crushed. Those freakin' New York Mets. After coming on the scene in 1962 and setting the modern day record for futility with 120 losses(never fear 1899 Cleveland Spiders, your actual record will never be touched), they'd spent the next 6 seasons as the universal joke of Major League Baseball. Then they came out of nowhere in 1969, not only overtaking the Cubs, but also leapfrogging established powers like the St. Louis Cardinals to win the pennant and the World Series. The collapse of 1969 left the city and the fan base numb with shock and disappointment, and many fans of a certain age remember the Fall of 1969 like it was yesterday.