EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally ran four years ago. What follows is a lightly-edited update, since today is the 50th anniversary.
1973 was the last gasp for the great Cubs core that included Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Billy Williams, among others. They ran out to an eight-game lead at 48-33 when the first half of the season was complete and many of us thought this would be it, finally, that group would win the World Series.
Right after that 48-33 start, that Cubs team had the worst run of any Cubs team I can remember — worse even than the 2012 bunch that lost 101 games.