It happened. Finally. After 108 years of misery, Billy Goats, and black cats, the Chicago Cubs actually did it. But honestly, if you look back at the cubs baseball schedule 2016, the regular season wasn't just a victory lap—it was a grueling, weird, and occasionally terrifying roadmap that almost fell apart a dozen times before that legendary rainy night in Cleveland. Most people just remember the World Series trophy, but the actual 162-game slate was where the real magic (and stress) lived.
The season kicked off in Anaheim on April 4th. People forget that. We all think of Wrigley Field as the center of the universe, but the 2016 journey started on the West Coast. Jake Arrieta, coming off that insane 2015 Cy Young run, took the hill and basically told the rest of the league that the Cubs weren't playing around. They won 9-0. It was a statement. But the schedule makers didn't make it easy. The early months were a blur of cold weather and high expectations.
The Brutal Reality of the Cubs Baseball Schedule 2016
Scheduling in MLB is a beast. You’ve got these weird 10-game road trips that feel like they’ll never end. For the 2016 Cubs, May was the month where things got serious. They went on a tear early, but then the injuries started peeking through. Kyle Schwarber went down almost immediately—April 7th, specifically—at Chase Field. Most teams would’ve folded losing their best young power hitter in the first week. Instead, Joe Maddon started shuffling the deck.
The schedule was packed with "measuring stick" games. You had the mid-June stretch where they had to face the Nationals and the Mets—the team that had embarrassed them in the 2015 NLCS. The Mets series at Citi Field in late June was a disaster. They got swept. People started panicking. "Same old Cubs," the radio hosts said. But that’s the thing about a 162-game schedule; it’s designed to break you. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and that June slump was actually the best thing that could've happened. It humbled a very young, very cocky roster.
Why the All-Star Break Changed Everything
By the time the All-Star break hit in July, the Cubs sent almost their entire infield to San Diego. Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist, and Addison Russell were all starters. It was ridiculous. But when they came back, the cubs baseball schedule 2016 got even weirder. They had a stretch in August where they seemed completely invincible.
They went 22-6 in August. Think about that for a second. In a sport where winning 60% of your games makes you elite, they won nearly 80% for an entire month. They beat up on the Brewers, the Marlins, and the Athletics. It didn't matter who was on the mound. Jon Lester was throwing gems, and Kyle Hendricks—the "Professor"—was quietly putting up an ERA that looked like a typo. If you were betting on the Cubs during that August stretch, you were making easy money.
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Interleague Play and the Curse of the DH
One of the funniest things about the 2016 schedule was the Interleague matchups. They had to play the AL West. That meant trips to Houston and Oakland. Because the NL didn't have the Universal DH back then (miss those days?), seeing guys like John Lackey or Jason Hammel try to hit in National League parks was a comedy of errors. But when they went to AL parks, Maddon could finally use Jorge Soler or Chris Coghlan in that DH spot. It gave the roster a depth that no one else could match.
The schedule also featured the "Crosstown Cup" against the White Sox in late July. Usually, these games are just for bragging rights in the city, but in 2016, there was a different energy. The Sox actually took two out of four. It was a reminder that even when you're the best team in baseball, you can still get punched in the mouth by your neighbor.
The September Coast and the Playoff Seeding
By the time September rolled around, the division was basically over. The Cardinals were fading, and the Pirates couldn't keep up. The cubs baseball schedule 2016 became a weird balancing act for Joe Maddon. How do you keep guys sharp without burning out their arms?
He started resting Bryant and Rizzo. He used a six-man rotation at times. They officially clinched the NL Central on September 15th, despite losing to the Brewers, because the Cardinals lost later that night. It was a bit anticlimactic, honestly. The fans wanted a walk-off clincher, but they got a "magic number hits zero while we’re sleeping" moment instead. They finished the regular season with 103 wins. 103! That’s a number Cubs fans hadn't seen since the Roosevelt administration.
Analyzing the Postseason Gauntlet
Everything shifted in October. The schedule becomes a different animal. It’s not about endurance anymore; it’s about leverage. The NLDS against the Giants was a heart-attack-inducing series. That Game 4 in San Francisco? The Cubs were down three runs in the 9th inning. The schedule said they should’ve been flying back to Chicago for a Game 5. Instead, they put up four runs in the top of the 9th.
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Then came the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. The NLCS schedule was brutal—back and forth between Wrigley and Dodger Stadium. When Kyle Hendricks outdueled Kershaw in Game 6 to send them to the World Series, the city of Chicago basically vibrated off the map.
The World Series: A Schedule for the Ages
Then came the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians). The World Series schedule is iconic:
- Games 1 & 2 in Cleveland
- Games 3, 4, & 5 at Wrigley
- Games 6 & 7 back in Cleveland
Going down 3-1 in the series meant the Cubs had to win two games on the road in a hostile environment. It shouldn't have happened. Statistics said it wouldn't. But the way the off-days fell, it allowed Aroldis Chapman to pitch until his arm nearly fell off.
Examining the Misconceptions
A lot of people think the 2016 Cubs just bought their way to a title. That’s a total myth. If you look at the names on that daily lineup card throughout the cubs baseball schedule 2016, it was built on savvy drafting and trades.
- Kyle Hendricks: Acquired for Ryan Dempster (a steal).
- Anthony Rizzo: Traded for Andrew Cashner.
- Kris Bryant: Drafted 2nd overall.
- Javier Baez: Homegrown talent.
It wasn't a "Yankees-style" buy-everyone approach. It was a "perfectly timed peak" approach. They caught lightning in a bottle exactly when the schedule demanded it.
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The other misconception is that the 2016 season was easy because they won 103 games. It wasn't. They had a terrible stretch in July where they lost 10 out of 11 games. They looked broken. The bullpen was a mess until the trade deadline when they gave up a massive prospect (Gleyber Torres) to get Chapman. That move was a desperate response to a schedule that was exposing their late-inning weaknesses.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Historians
If you’re looking to relive this or study how a championship team is built, don't just watch the Game 7 highlights. The real lessons are in the "dog days" of the schedule.
What you should do next:
- Review the Box Scores: Go back to the August 2016 games. Look at how Maddon managed the bullpen. It’s a masterclass in preventing burnout during a long season.
- Study the "Quality Start" Metrics: Notice how often the 2016 rotation went 6+ innings. In today's game, pitchers get pulled in the 4th. The 2016 Cubs won because their starters ate innings, saving the bullpen for October.
- Watch the "Rain Delay" Speech: If you haven't seen the documentaries about Jason Heyward’s speech during the Game 7 rain delay, find them. It’s the single most important 17 minutes in the history of the franchise.
- Track the Run Differential: The 2016 Cubs had a run differential of +252. To put that in perspective, most "good" teams are around +100. They weren't just winning; they were dominating.
The 2016 season wasn't just a year; it was an exorcism. Every game on that calendar was a step toward breaking a century-long curse. Whether it was a random Tuesday in Cincinnati or a Friday night at Wrigley, the team played with a sense of destiny that we might not see again for a long time.
If you want to understand the modern Cubs, you have to start with that schedule. It shows the blueprint of how to handle pressure, how to bounce back from mid-season slumps, and how to eventually finish the job when the whole world is waiting for you to fail.