Chicago Cubs: Bobby Dernier still remains a fan favorite to this day

Some great Chicago Cubs players have gone unsung and forgotten over the years so here’s the story of 1984, the Chicago Cubs and outfielder Bobby Dernier.

In 1984 I was a freshman at Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago; and as the school year hit April and May many of us began making our way over to Wrigley Field for day games. The trick was not getting caught on television (like in the movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” which came out in 1986) and hoping the Cubs would win for all the trouble it took to skip school.  So let me take you back to what it was like that year and the heroics of Chicago Cubs center fielder, Bob Dernier.

Chicago fans were disappointed in a Chicago Bears team that didn’t make the playoffs going into 1984 as they finished the season 8-8 under head coach Mike Ditka and quarterback Jim McMahon.  Although the Bears didn’t get fans rocking, the rock band Van Halen released their critically acclaimed album in January called, “1984” and everyone was ‘Jumping’ as the single “Jump” hit the Billboard Hot 100.

Music was big in 1984 for teens, as Bruce Springsteen released, “Born in the U.S.A.” in June of that year and a wave of patriotism rolled across the country as blue jeans, baseball hats and red bandannas sold out in stores across the country. I actually got to see ‘The Boss’ and his tour that summer in East Troy, Wisconsin at Alpine Valley on a road trip with friends.

Road trips to concerts were the cool things for high school teens to do in 1984. There was even tragic music news which brought fans to tears on April 1, 1984 when legendary singer Marvin Gaye was shot by his own father. Two days later the Cubs played their first game of the season in San Francisco.

Speaking of California, in 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders won the Super Bowl which is also famous for running the first ad for the Apple Macintosh personal computer during that game. The Edmonton Oilers would win the Stanley Cup while the Boston Celtics would capture their 15th NBA Championship in seven games against the Los Angeles Lakers. On the Hollywood side of California, Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop” was the highest grossing movie that year followed by “Ghostbusters”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Gremlins” and “The Karate Kid”. Notice the family trend in movies?

For high school kids, dancing had not been cool since disco died but the release of “Footloose” in February made dancing all the craze for teens once again. The only other great movie to mention of 1984 came out October 26 and looked like a B-movie from the trailers. However, as audiences went to see the movie it became a cult classic from word of mouth by Christmas. That movie franchise is still running today and so even if you weren’t born in 1984, remember that the first “Terminator” movie, the original, was released that year.

What was going on in Wrigley Field? The Chicago Cubs were the family-friendly team playing in the Friendly Confines. The red, white and blue of the Cubs uniform was in perfect step with the country’s call for patriotism. With the help of a new centerfielder from the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cubs were about to make a run all the way to the National League Championship Series; this was going to be the year of the Cubs.

Chicago Cubs: The summer of 1984 and Bobby Dernier

Picture 1984 as you walk into Wrigley Field; it’ older looking even though it’s really younger in 1984; mainly because the outfield isn’t littered  with fancy digital scoreboards yet. There also aren’t any long nets extended for fan safety; just good old Wrigley Field before lights and even night games.

The fans are wearing Cubs stuff like they do today with Banks or Santo jerseys. New waves of Sandberg jerseys are making their way into Wrigley Field seats for the first time. The organist is playing Van Halen’s “Jump” as fans file in and Harry Caray, Steve Stone and Milo Hamilton are calling the game. That’s what it was like in 1984 going to Wrigley Field.  That year, Steve Goodman wrote, “Go, Cubs, Go!” and it was sung by fans during the 1984 National League East Division Championship.

The Cubs had hired a new General Manager named Dallas Green after a disappointing 1983 season going 71-91. Green hired manager Jim Frey from the Kansas City Royals and waited to see what the Cubs would do over Spring Training before making any other deals.

It was evident that the Cubs pitching ranks needed tweaking and so 1984 was the year Green released Hall of Fame right-hander Fergie Jenkins from the Cubs. This was the second time Jenkins had been let go by the Cubs and this time, it led Jenkins to his retirement. Green picked up pitcher Porfi Altamirano and outfielders Bob Dernier and Gary Matthews in a trade with the Phillies.

As Dernier made his way out to center field we noticed outfielder, Thad Bosley had given up his #20 jersey to Dernier and was now #27. We all wondered who was this new guy? It didn’t take Dernier long to capture fans’ imaginations when he stepped up to the plate as the team’s leadoff hitter that season.

Chicago Cubs: The end of 1984 and the Cubs run

In the 1984 National League Championship Series, Dernier led off the first inning of Game 1 with a home run and fans went crazy. The Cubs went on to win that first game 13-0. Every Cubs fan knows the history of this promised year of 1984 as the Cubs ended up losing the five game series to the Sand Diego Padres, three games to two.

In Game Five, Professor Sutcliffe took the mound again for the Cubs and it looked like the team would finally be heading to the World Series after getting three runs in the first two innings. The Padres answered in the sixth inning with two runs and then a season-ending four runs in the seventh inning, which the Cubs could not recover from. For fans this was the closest the Cubs had gotten to the championship and fans once again recited, “Wait till next year”.

Dernier eventually played two more season for the Cubs putting up great numbers before going back to the Phillies in 1988 and finally retiring in 1990. Dernier reunited with his favorite MLB team, the Chicago Cubs, in 2007 and served as the Cubs minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator and was named the first base coach in August 2010 and kept the job until 2012.

Today Dernier is 63 years old and can still be seen attending Cubs Conventions and is happy to talk about the Cubs and baseball with fans. If the Cubs make another move to the championship, maybe we’ll get to see and hear from the great Bobby Dernier once again.

Thank you Mr. Dernier for making my summer of 1984 a year to remember.