The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Era committee put three familiar Cubs names on its Class of 2027 candidate list Monday: Joe Maddon, Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella.
Of the group, Maddon stands out most clearly because of what he delivered in Chicago. He guided the 2016 Cubs to a World Series championship, and while the title run never turned into the long dynasty some imagined, his imprint on the franchise is hard to miss. Under Maddon, Cubs teams averaged 94.2 regular-season wins a year, reached the NLCS three straight times, won the championship and picked up two NL Central titles.
His hiring in 2015 changed the mood around the team right away. He reshaped how fans viewed the Cubs, and that shift carried into the clubhouse and dugout as well. His work in Chicago is what most people remember, but his time with the Rays also mattered and helped set up what came later with the Cubs.
Baker’s Cubs tenure is remembered differently, and it all circles back to 2003. Chicago was one win away from the World Series before everything unraveled against the Marlins.
After that, Baker-led Cubs teams never won 90 games and never rediscovered the same spark from his first season in charge. He’s more often linked to his stints with the Giants and Astros, the last team he managed, especially after finally winning a championship in 2022.
Baker’s résumé is enormous. He managed more MLB games than all but seven men in baseball history, and he remains the only manager to take five different teams to the playoffs: the Cubs, Giants, Reds, Nationals and Astros.
Piniella also brought Chicago to October, with postseason trips in 2007 and 2008. Both ended in first-round sweeps, leaving the Cubs without the breakthrough they wanted.
He’s better known for his time with the Reds and Mariners, though his fiery ejections are part of the memory bank too. This is his third time on the committee’s ballot, and now the question is whether this is the year he finally gets through.
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