Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #21 Matt Mieske

21. Matt Mieske
Nobody believed in Matt Mieske. He didn't get a big time D-1 scholarship coming out of high school so he went to Western Michigan. He stayed all four years, because the Athletics low-balled him when they drafted him in the 20th round after his Junior year. In his Senior year, he got drafted in the 17th round and got low-balled again, but this time he had no choice so he signed with the Padres. Then he was thrown to the Brewers along with Ricky Bones and Jose Valentin so the Padres could get Gary Sheffield. After four pretty productive years in a part-time role for the Brewers, he had a poor season in 1997, and the Brewers let him go to free agency. He signed with the Chicago Cubs before the 1998 season.

Early on, it looked like the Brewers made the right decision. On May 8, Mieske had compiled a stat line of .056/.150/.056. If I was being incredibly forgiven, I would describe his performance like this:
Even with a start that bad, it wasn't catastrophic as Mieske started just one game and was primarily used as a late-game defensive replacement for Henry Rodriguez. On May 9, Mieske went 4-4 over both games of a doubleheader against the Giants and more than quadrupled his batting average and slugging percentage. It started a hot streak where by the end of the month, he was up to .347/.421/.490. He was crushing it.

Although he dropped off a little bit, he was still hitting .308/.366/.418 on July 20. Those are good numbers, right? Especially for a guy who was just being used as a defensive replacement. Well, not good enough for the Cubs as they sent him to Triple-A. The Cubs were simply too stacked in the outfield. He continued to hit well at Iowa and was called up in September but managed just six at bats in the final month...

But one of those at bats happened to have some mild importance for the Cubs. At the end of 162 games, the Cubs and Giants had the same record which set up a one-game playoff to make the postseason. My deep dive into this game will be saved for a separate player, but in the bottom of the sixth, and the Cubs up 2-0, Matt Mieske pinch hit for Henry Rodriguez, and this happened.

1998 had a lot of highlights, but nothing topped winning this game. Mieske's two-run single provided the difference in a 5-3 win, and that is why even though he only played sporadically, he will always have a special place in my heart when I think about this team. Thanks for the memory, Matt Mieske.
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