There are last dances, and there are first dances.
In the current era of Cubs baseball, “The First Dance” was in 2015, when Joe Maddon’s squad took down the Pirates in the NL Wild Card Game.
The Cubs entered 2015 having made key offseason additions in Maddon, Jon Lester, David Ross, Jason Hammel, Dexter Fowler and Miguel Montero. With solid veterans in place and a budding farm system, it was only a matter of time before they returned to the postseason for the first time since 2008.
Even with those additions, the Cubs weren’t expected to go from 73 wins in 2014 to a postseason appearance in ‘15.