(N)opening Day-- Part 7: Japan and a World Series Year

MARCH 29, 2000

In the first Major League game played outside of North America, the Cubs rode Jon Lieber's arm and Shane Andrews' bat to a 5-3 victory over the Mets in front of 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

Lieber allowed one run on five hits  in seven innings and Andrews belted a two run homer in the seventh and Mark Grace had a solo shot in the eighth to give Don Baylor the victory in his managerial debut.

2016

Jake Arrieta, coming off his Cy Young Award-winning season, pitched seven innings of two-hit baseball in 1 9-0 victory over the Angels  in Anaheim.  He held Albert Pujols and Mike Trout to a combined 0-6 with three strikeouts.

This was the first of the 103 regular season wins the Cubs had  that year on their way to winning their first NL Central title since 2008.

Then as you know, they went on to win their first World Series since 1908.

That Sure Was Some Fun Year.  --Cooter