Despite loss, Maddon lets Cubs celebrate playoff berth
Joe Maddon might be the only guy who could have pulled this off.
The Cubs had just lost their second game in a row to the Pittsburgh Pirates and third overall Saturday, getting shut out 4-0 at Wrigley Field.
So what did they do after the game?
Party. And hard.
Lights flashed in the clubhouse and disco music blared. Players, coaches and other members of the Cubs family popped open bottles of champagne or the beverage of their choice.
Some of the champagne was tasted. Much of it was sprayed all over everybody and everything in the area.
Despite the loss and now a mini-losing streak, Maddon allowed his players to celebrate their clinching of a playoff spot in the National League. That did not become official until almost midnight Friday, when the San Francisco Giants were eliminated from the race.
So Maddon allowed his boys to let loose Saturday.
"Our guys deserved this," said Cubs president Theo Epstein, who hired Maddon last fall. "Frankly, it would have been out of personality for them not to celebrate in a big way. They deserved it. I'm proud of them. Let them do whatever they want within the law."
Maddon allows the Cubs to celebrate victories hard for 30 minutes. That usually means a party in the clubhouse.
Because the Cubs didn't clinch on their own by winning Friday, Maddon let them celebrate like winners Saturday.
"It's just different, obviously, because you're used to going nuts on the field and in the clubhouse," he said. "Who knows why it had to happen that way, but it did. We accept it. We take it. It's a beautiful thing. We're really happy, obviously, for our organization, our ownership, our front-office folks. Again, grateful for them asking me here this year.
"Our coaching staff has been fabulous. Don't underestimate how good this coaching staff is. And, of course, the players. We always want to pass the kudos around, but at the end of the day, it's all about the players. It's a players game. We have a bunch of young guys who've matured and developed rather quickly this year."
The Cubs made their way out onto the field from the clubhouse, and they were cheered by fans who gathered behind the dugout and caught some champagne spray. Team chairman Tom Ricketts heard his name chanted by fans, and he came over and high-fived a few of them.
"I think Joe is the best manager in the game," Ricketts said to cubs.com. "He's kept everybody focused but loose. He relates as well to the 21-year-old shortstop as to a 38-year-old catcher. Everybody loves playing for him. He's focused, and we're winning. He takes it one game at a time and we go for it every night."
Epstein came aboard in the fall of 2011 after winning two world championships with the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox went from 1918 to 2004 between World Series titles. The Cubs haven't won a Series since 1908. The first three years under the baseball regime headed by Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer were losing years in big ways, with the Cubs compiling a three-year record of 200-286.
The plan was to use high draft choices and build from within. Saturday's celebration was both a culmination and a possible beginning.
"We haven't done what we set out to do yet," Epstein said. "We're trying to win the whole thing. For the most part, people have been remarkably supportive. There's always going to be doubters, and there probably will be until we win the whole thing.
"It also feels like a beginning. I don't feel like this is the ultimate goal. Nobody set out to just get into the playoffs. We want to win a World Series. I think you need to build a great organization to do that, and I feel like we're real close to having that now.
"Now, great organizations play well in October. I hope we're going to give ourselves a lot of chances to do that in the coming years. But it starts right here, right now, this October."