CHICAGO -- Jody Davis remembers how some of the great players from an earlier era in Cubs history started showing up at Wrigley Field. As the 1984 team got closer and closer to clinching a spot in the playoffs -- something not achieved for the franchise in four decades -- the old guard would sometimes be in the clubhouse after wins.
Davis rattled off the names of Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Randy Hundley.
“Those guys were our biggest fans,” Davis said. “Those guys were pulling for us so hard, and it kind of took us by surprise. They’re coming down to the clubhouse and cheering us on. … And then we turn around to '16, and I was that guy. I was going, ‘Come on. Come on, man. We are so in it, man.’”
In the hours leading up to Sunday’s game against the Reds at the Friendly Confines, Davis took a seat next to former Cubs lefty Jon Lester, who was part of that '16 team that ended the franchise’s 108-year World Series drought. Now, the two club greats for a pair of defining eras in team history were inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame together.
While the '16 team was the group that finally brought the championship back to the North Side, there is an argument to be made that the '84 squad helped usher in the kind of winning expectations that continue to surround the team. That Chicago team won the division, clinching the Cubs’ first playoff berth since the 1945 World Series.
The '84 team fell in the National League Championship Series, but that summer had Cubs fans dreaming about October again as a realistic possibility. And in the years since that run, the Cubs have played in the postseason 11 times -- with a 12th trip a real possibility again this fall.
“The most exciting part of it in '84,” Davis said, “was watching the city of Chicago actually believe that we could compete again, that we could win again. It had been so long that they’d been starved for the playoffs.
“We kind of feel like in our hearts that we were the cornerstone that kind of turned it around and brought along that '16 team. … And then Jon and the '16 team won it for all of us.”
That is something Lester appreciates hearing from players like Davis, who spent eight of his 10 big league seasons with the Cubs and was a two-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner for the franchise.
“That’s the reason I came here,” Lester said. “It’s always nice to hear from guys that have done it and have played here, have grinded here, have tried to be a part of it. For whatever reason, we were lucky enough to do it. And it’s just awesome to be able to share this with him and share it with all the guys that have ever put on a Cubs uniform. I think that’s the way it should be.”
Prior to Sunday’s game, Lester and Davis took the field, alongside a group of fellow Cubs Hall of Famers including Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Lee Smith, Jose Cardenal, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Kerry Wood, Rick Sutcliffe and Shawon Dunston. The newest inductees donned their Cubbie blue jackets and now have plaques on the Hall of Fame wall behind the left-field bleachers.
“For me, it’s absolutely everything,” Davis said.
“You’re there now. It’s locked in and it’s there,” Lester said “You’re there for eternity. That’s a pretty cool thing.”
A member of both the Red Sox and Cubs team Halls of Fame, Lester was asked if he is starting to think ahead to baseball’s Hall. He was on a family trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., over the summer to watch one of his sons play in a tournament, and that is when the former Cubs great began to really consider that question.
“We went to Cooperstown and it was incredible,” Lester said. “And then when we left, my son went and rode with another family back to where we were staying, and I’m sitting in the car by myself driving 30 minutes back to All-Star village, and I was like, ‘It’d be pretty freaking cool. It’d be pretty cool.’ It’s such a special place.
“If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, will I be disappointed? Yeah, probably a little bit. But at the end of the day, I didn’t play for that reason.”