A quick scan of baseball-reference tells me that these are the seasons, since 1945, in which the Cubs were in first place in their league or division on August first:

1969
1977
1984
2001
2007

Yeah. That didn’t take long.

Among those teams, the ’69 Cubs had the biggest lead on the month’s first day (6 1/2 games), and we all know what happened there. The ’77 Cubs had a hot start but were, in fact, in the midst of a free-fall by the time August rolled around. I remember the ’84 team was playing the Phillies in a taut, 3-game series in late July/early August. Regular centerfielder Bob Dernier was out with an injury and I seem to recall–though the numbers may not back it up–that his replacement, Henry Cotto, had a big series in Bobby D.’s absence, both at the plate and in the field. In taking the rubber match at Wrigley from Philadelphia on August first, the ’84 Cubs moved into the old NL East top spot and never dropped back out, eventually winning the division by 6 1/2 games. It would be 17 years before the Cubs found themselves in first place on August first again, when the overacheiving 2001 club opened the month with a four-and-a-half game lead. The next day they experienced the first of three ball-crushing defeats and two of the teams that had been behind them on August first–St. Louis and Houston–both ended up pulling ahead of the Cubs and reached the playoffs. Finally, last season’s club was in a first-place tie with Milwaukee on the first of August. They fell back out of first the next day, and didn’t get back there for two weeks.

There’s no assurance that being in first place with two months to play will result in the team making the postseason. The Cub teams with the two biggest leads at this juncture–1969 and 2001– ended up watching the playoffs on TV. Conversely, the ’89 Cubs and the ’03 Cubs were not in first place at this point but they did, in fact eventually take the division. However, after watching the Cubs completely outclass our neighbors to the north, it’s really hard to imagine them somehow not playing into October.

Right now, this team is playing at its highest level. The perfect storm of patient and timely hitting, good defense and stellar pitching has resulted in the season’s high-water mark–twenty-one games over .500. The last time they were 21 games over .500 was right before Ryan Dempster and LaTroy Hawkins kicked off a humiliating week of soul-crushing come-from-ahead losses by pissing away a game at Shea Stadium and having just interjected some scab-picking into this feelgood entry, I promise to never mention that game again.

If the Cubs beat the Pirates later today, they will be 22 games over .500 for the first time since 1989.

Yep. Times are good. The Cubs have been in first place in the NL Central every day since May 11th. They have had the best record in the National League since May 27th–a span of 65 straight days. This team has pissed away very few games and should appear to be setting themselves up so that things won’t come down to the season’s final weekend. Considering that in the season’s final week, the Cubs will be playing two teams that are expected to be contending for the postseason–New York and Milwaukee–I think I speak for all Cub fans everywhere when I say that I look forward to things being wrapped up by then so that the team can focus on setting up their playoff rotation. In light of this week’s dominance over their closest pursuers, it looks the Cubs may well grant us our wish.