Chicago Cubs March Madness Bracket – Round of 32

Chicago Cubs: Weeghman Region

• One seed Cap Anson defeats 16 seed Harry Steinfeldt
• 8 seed Greg Maddux defeats 9 seed George Gore
• 5 seed Hippo Vaughn defeats 12 seed King Kelly
• 4 seed Clark Griffith defeats 13 seed Charlie Hollocher

• 6 seed Charlie Root defeats 11 seed Johnny Kling
• 3 seed Frank Chance defeats 14 seed Larry French
• 7 seed Phil Cavarretta defeats 10 seed Larry Corcoran
• 2 seed Gabby Hartnett defeats 15 seed Kyle Hendricks

Everything went to plan in this region according to seeds, with Hendricks as the only current Cub to go down. While Hendricks was a solid matchup for Gabby Hartnett, the Hall of Famer catcher, Hartnett, was too much to withstand. With 19 years and 55.9 bWAR with the Cubs, the former MVP and 1955 inductee to the Hall of Fame had too long and too good a career to be taken down in the first round.

Funny fact about Harnett is that despite having 10 seasons in which he received MVP votes, he received none in arguably his best offensive year. In 1930, Hartnett hit 37 home runs, knocked in 122, and put up a slash line of .339/.404/.630 without a single MVP vote. Granted, the National League MVP wasn’t awarded in 1930, so that could have played a small role.

With the above results, the bracket now looks like this- straight chalk:

• 1 seed Cap Anson vs. 8 seed Greg Maddux
• 5 seed Hippo Vaughn vs. 4 seed Clark Griffith
• 6 seed Charlie Root vs. 3 seed Frank Chance
• 7 seed Phil Cavarretta vs. 2 seed Gabby Hartnett

Despite Anson being the number 1 overall seed in the Cubs career bWAR, Greg Maddux is one of the greatest pitchers of all time- what a great matchup that will be. In the lower half of the bracket, it’s also difficult to see anyone unseating Hartnett.