Bleed Cubbie Blue Says it's time to back the truck up to Wrigley:

WGN-TV, as you know, always runs a half-hour season preview special before the season starts. Back in the 1970's, it wasn't as whistles-and-bells as it is now; they simply did a review of the previous season, and a look ahead to new players acquired.

I will never forget the show they ran in April 1974. This was, of course, after seven seasons (1967-73) when the Banks-Santo-Williams-Kessinger-Beckert-Hundley-Jenkins Cubs had burst onto the scene after a couple of decades of misery, and tantalized us by getting close but never even making the playoffs, as four Cub teams have done in the last two decades. And yes, the '73 team is included even though it finished under .500 -- it was eight games ahead on July 1 and even as late as the final weekend, could have sneaked into the playoffs.

But after that year's failure, management "backed up the truck". Banks was long retired, and they traded away Santo, Jenkins, Hundley and Beckert, Williams a year later, and Kessinger after that.

The season preview began with a "literal" picture of what had happened -- a large truck backing up to an entrance of Wrigley Field.

Al goes on to list who the Cubs should keep and who they should unload if they get the chance. Needless to say, there are a lot of names on the unload list. He also offers this fun stat:

It's pretty bizarre, too, that the Cubs keep losing games on WGN-TV. They lose on other TV channels too, but they are now 5-27 on WGN, 23-19 on all other outlets. That is just freaky.