Chicago Cubs Madness has come to the semi-finals

As we continue on through this new abnormal without baseball or any other sports in the foreseeable future, here’s our Chicago Cubs March Madness semifinal matchups.

Without any semblance of Chicago Cubs sports or normality in American society currently, it’s hard to be excited about the prospects surrounding much of anything right now. That being said, we’re here to keep you entertained and add some happiness to your day.

What better way to do such a thing than to give you a little bit of Cubs baseball history and a tie in to the best tournament of the year? March Madness. Even though it’s now well into April.

Regardless of your knowledge of the Chicago Cubs, this is an opportunity to get to know some of the greatest Cubs of all time. Their eras, their stats, and what kind of players they were. It’s also a way to pit modern versus old school players in an attempt to settle who is the GOAT in Cubs history.

When designing the first brackets, the parameters were pretty simple. Using career bWAR for all players, the bWAR is a total amount of bWAR garnered during a Chicago Cubs. Note that some of the players would be much higher if their career bWAR with different teams were used, but that may or may not come into play when we start having these players square off against each other to determine how they advance through the bracket.

With the semifinal matchups of the Cubs tournament upon us, all four players left are Chicago and MLB legends who need no introductions. For more significant fan input and to have your voice heard about who should win each matchup, please comment and make your picks on both the Facebook and Twitter links to this specific article. And, of course, check back as we progress through the bracket.

Chicago Cubs: Wrigley vs. Weeghman Regional

• 1 seed Ron Santo vs. 8 seed Greg Maddux

At this point in the tournament, you just can’t go wrong with who wins and loses. Period. All four teams stars left indelible marks not only on the Chicago area and ballclub but across all of baseball. All four are Hall of Famers enshrined in Cooperstown, and all four hold a special place in Cubs lore and history.

As is fitting for the teams most of the past century, none of them had much postseason success. And, while Greg Maddux did win a World Series in his time with the Braves, many feel that the Braves team did a lot of underachieving as well despite their stacked rosters through most of the 1990s.

In our first semifinal matchup, Santo takes on Maddux in a lopsided seeding contest. As the only guy who isn’t a one seed (due to his years with the Braves), Maddux seems a bit out of place. Yet, to anyone who ever saw him pitch, it’s abundantly clear that he belongs. However, while he belongs, Santo continues his run right through Maddux and the rest of the Cubs Madness bracket so far- all the way to the championship.

Chicago Cubs: A personal conundrum

I admit that this is a bit personal for me, but my love of the game and appreciation of the Cubs comes from my dad, who grew up in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. He grew up on Santo, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Don Kessinger, and Randy Hundley. Me- well, I great up on Ryno, Hawk, Mark Grace, Shawon Dunston, and Maddux. That being said, Maddux left after the 1992 season- right in the middle of my formative adolescent years.

More from Chicago Cubs All-Time Lists

• Ranking the 5 best switch hitters in Cubs history
• Who are the 5 best players drafted by the Chicago Cubs?
• Recalling the 5 best-hitting pitchers in Chicago Cubs history
• Chicago Cubs: 5 loudest moments in Wrigley Field history
• Chicago Cubs: Ranking the team’s 3 worst trades of the last 50 years

Instead of watching Maddux lead the Cubs to the playoffs on WGN, I had to watch the arguably the greatest pitcher of my generation pitch on TBS (Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez could all get in that argument, but none of them pitched for the Cubs, so we’ll just leave that right there).

While Maddux is probably the greatest Cub pitcher of all-time, and he’s the last man standing in our bracket, he just doesn’t carry the same gravitas and weight as someone as venerated as Santo. My dad tells stories about Santo and Banks and Williams from his childhood, and I can’t think about Maddux in the same way. Maybe this will change in 50 years, but for now, Santo is onto the final matchup, I guess there’s a reason there’s a statue of him outside Wrigley Field, right?