Special, memorable, iconic. Those are just a few words people would use to describe the 1984 Chicago Cubs, who won the NL East Championship.

Before the 2016 Cubs won the World Series, many considered the 1984 squad to be the greatest team the Cubs fielded since their last World Series appearance in 1945.

Sept. 24, 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of the day that Cubs team clinched the NL East title in Pittsburgh, which sent them to the National League Championship Series. To celebrate the anniversary, members of the team reunited to celebrate and discuss their memories from that season in a special on Marquee Sports Network.

“This is awesome. We’re definitely like family and like brothers,” said Ryne Sandberg while expressing what it meant to him to see his former teammates together again.

As the Cubs celebrated their division-clinching victory against the Pirates that day, it was that year’s NL Cy Young Award winner, Rick Sutcliffe, who recorded the final out as he finished off a dominant complete game to tally his 16th win with the Cubs that season.

When looking back on 1984, not many players had a more chaotic or successful year than Sutcliffe, whose impact was enormous after coming to Chicago in a mid-season trade.

While recalling fond memories about the season, Ron Cey – the third baseman on that 1984 squad – brought up the story of how Sutcliffe became a member of the Chicago Cubs.

During the season, then-GM Dallas Green came up to Cey and told him, “I’ve got a chance to get Rick Sutcliffe. What can you tell me about him?”

Cey, having played with Sutcliffe with the Dodgers from 1976-1981 gave Green his scouting report.

“Rick won 17 games as a rookie for us and was a bulldog. He could field his position, he’s gonna give you the innings and he can hit,” Cey told Green.

Cey also mentioned that Sutcliffe was a competitor with an attitude and pushed for Green to make the deal.

After the deal was made, the rest was history. Not only did Sutcliffe pitch remarkably in 1984 but he went on to pitch 7 more seasons with the Cubs where he earned 2 All-Star appearances and helped the Cubs reach the postseason again in 1989.

“These guys changed my life,” said Sutcliffe about his Cubs teammates.

Sutcliffe’s 1984 season began with a 4-5 record and a 5.15 ERA in Cleveland before he got traded to the Cubs, where he went 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA

“We were in last place, 27 games out and overnight, I was in 1st place,” recalled Sutcliffe as he credited his teammates as the reason his season turned around the way it did. “Each one of these guys had a lot to do with that summer.”

The Cubs had a great team in 1984. They had a manager in Jim Frey who won Manager of the Year that season, a stellar defense which featured multiple Gold Glove winners in Bobby Dernier and Ryne Sandberg, and a lineup highlighted by Sandberg who took home that year’s NL MVP award. But the emergence of Sutcliffe gave the Cubs the dominant ace they needed to make a run to the postseason.

Watch the full 1984 40th Anniversary Special on the Marquee Sports Network app.