The Cubs opened the 2003 season with some hope, despite a 95-loss season the previous year.
A new manager had been hired: Dusty Baker, who’d just taken the San Francisco Giants to the World Series. The team had traded the unpopular Todd Hundley to the Dodgers for Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek, and people were looking forward to young star Mark Prior’s first full MLB season after a good last two months of 2002.
They began the year against the Mets at Shea Stadium on a frigid 39-degree afternoon with winds howling at 20 miles per hour.