After defeating the Phillies the Cubs were doing well at 41-34 and 3.5 games out of first place. Cubs playing that day included Lopes, Durham, Cey, Speier, Eckersley, Hebner and Bowa. Only Durham is pictured with the Cubs on a Kellogg's card.
Phillies included Schmidt and Garry Maddox.
The cardinals won the division with a record of 101-61. The Cubs lost momentum after a decent start and finished 4th with a record of 77-84 finishing 23.5 games behind St. Louis. Yes, they lost 20 games in the standings during the second half of the season.
What happened? The Cubs were 35-19 on June 11th. Two weeks later they were 35-32. 13 losses in a row! Four starters on the disabled list at the same time ruined the season. Sutcliffe, Trout, Sanderson and Eckersley all got injured and the season went down the drain. After their solid start their record was 42-65.
I'm gonna make like a tree and get out of here.
Wait--the Cubs top four starters all went down at the same time? Has that ever happened before? I always wondered what happened to them that year.
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