The ’84 Cubs full confidence in Rick Sutcliffe

Gene J. Puskar/AP

Cubs players, left to right, Ron Cey, Rick Sutcliffe, Jody Davis, Ryne Sandberg and Leon Durham celebrate after the Cubs clinched the National League Eastern Division championship on Sept. 25, 1984. Rick Sutcliffe remembers walking down to the bullpen at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh and spotting a family of four in Cubs gear holding a sign that said 39 years of suffering were enough.

‘‘I had no clue,’’ he said, thinking back to Sept. 24, 1984. ‘‘I didn’t read the paper.’’

Sutcliffe had joined the Cubs via trade in June of that year. And he wouldn’t find out that the sign was a reference to the Cubs’ 39-year playoff drought until after his pregame bullpen session, when…