Recent and Current Chicago Cubs’ Eras Similar to 1960s and 1970s
Two seven-year eras of contention, followed by a rebuild
(This image was originally posted to Flickr by apardavila at https://flickr.com/photos/63704136@N00/30709972906. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)
By William S. Bike
For the Chicago Cubs two seven-year eras of contention, 1967–73 and 2015–21, bear remarkable similarities.
In both eras the Cubs contended for seven years straight and had some of their greatest teams.
The 1967–73 team was the Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and Fergie Jenkins Cubs, and the 2015–21 Cubs had Anthony Rizzo, Krys Bryant, and Javier Baez. The big difference was that in the second era, the Cubs made postseason play five times and won the World Series in 2016, but in the first era, the Cubs never even made the playoffs. But way fewer teams made the playoffs then — in fact in 1967 and 1968, there were no playoffs other than the World Series — a team either won the league or went home. Under the current playoff system, the 1967–73 Cubs would have made the playoffs in six of those seven years, and probably would have won a pennant or two, and maybe the World Series.
For example, the computer analysis I did for my book The Forgotten 1970 Chicago Cubs: Go and Glow shows that if they would have made the World Series that year, they would have won rather easily.
