Few and Chosen Cubs: Defining Cubs Greatness Across the Eras - Hardcover

Santo, Ron; Pepe, Phil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1572437103 ISBN 13: 9781572437104

Verlag: TRIUMPH BOOKS, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Famed former Cubs player Ron Santo lists the top five players at every position in the history of the franchise with explanation for each decision, along with statistics for every player and dozens of photos throughout.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ron Santo is a former baseball player for the Chicago Cubs, a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a nine-time All-Star, and a seven-time top-10 home run leader. He broadcasts Cubs games for WGN Radio. Phil Pepe is the author of more than 40 books on sports, including collaborations with Yankees legends Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, and Whitey Ford. He is a former Yankees beat writer for the New York Daily News and a former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Ernie Banks is a retired Major League Baseball shortstop and first baseman, and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. His entire 19-year career was played with the Chicago Cubs, during which he earned honors that include being named an All-Star 14 times, two National League Most Valuable Player awards, and the honor of being the first number retired by the Cubs. He lives in Los Angeles. Ryne Sandberg is a former second baseman for the Chicago Cubs.

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Few and Chosen

Defining Cubs Greatness Across the Eras

By Ron Santo, Phil Pepe

Triumph Books

Copyright © 2005 Ron Santo Phil Pepe
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57243-710-4

Contents

Foreword by Ernie Banks, 
Preface by Ron Santo, 
Preface by Phil Pepe, 
Acknowledgments, 
Introduction by Ryne Sandberg, 
ONE Catcher, 
TWO First Baseman, 
THREE Second Baseman, 
FOUR Shortstop, 
FIVE Third Baseman, 
SIX Left Fielder, 
SEVEN Center Fielder, 
EIGHT Right Fielder, 
NINE Right-Handed Pitcher, 
TEN Left-Handed Pitcher, 
ELEVEN Relief Pitcher, 
TWELVE Manager, 
THIRTEEN Team, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Catcher

1. CHARLES LEO "GABBY" HARTNETT

2. RANDY HUNDLEY

3. JODY DAVIS

4. JOHNNY KLING

5. BOB SCHEFFING

BEFORE Ernie Banks, the shining light of Chicago Cubs baseball was Charles Leo Hartnett, who picked up the ironic nickname "Gabby" because as a Cubs rookie in 1922, he was shy and reticent in the presence of such hardened veterans as Charlie Hollocher, Bob O'Farrell, and Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Gabby was the oldest of 14 children in an athletic family. His father was a streetcar conductor and a semipro catcher who was a legend in New England because of an exceptional throwing arm. Three Hartnett sisters barnstormed with a women's team, and three brothers played semipro ball, but Gabby was the only one to make it to the major leagues. He replaced O'Farrell as the Cubs' regular catcher in 1924 and held down that post until 1940, when in his third season as manager of the Cubs, he turned the catching chores over to veteran Al Todd, acquired in a trade with the Dodgers.

In a 20-year career, Hartnett caught 100 or more games 12 times, led the National League in putouts 4 times, led in assists and fielding percentage 6 times, had a career batting average of .297, belted 236 home runs, and drove in 1,179 runs.

Until Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, and Carlton Fisk came along, the debate over who was the greatest catcher in baseball history always centered on three names: Mickey Cochrane of the Detroit Tigers and Bill Dickey of the New York Yankees in the American League, and Hartnett in the National League. Joe McCarthy, who managed both Dickey and Hartnett and against Cochrane, called Hartnett "the perfect catcher."

Hartnett made the All-Star team six times and was the starting catcher for the National League three times, including the 1934 game at New York's Polo Grounds when he was behind the plate as Carl Hubbell struck out, in succession, future Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin.

I regret I never got to meet Hartnett, but I have heard so much about him from old-time Cubs fans and former players that I feel as if I knew him. They say he was the best at his position, a great defensive catcher, and, ofcourse, there was the famous home run. You can't live in Chicago as long as I have and not have heard a lot about the great Gabby Hartnett.

In 1935, Hartnett was named the National League's Most Valuable Player when he batted .344, third in the league, and had 13 home runs and 91 RBIs. But his most productive season came five years earlier, when there was no MVP selected. In 1930, Hartnett batted .339, had 37 home runs (a record for a catcher that stood until Campanella slugged 41 23 years later), and drove in 122 runs. But he was overshadowed by the Giants' Bill Terry, the last National Leaguer to bat over .400, and by Hartnett's Cubs teammate Hack Wilson, who led the league with 56 home runs and a record 191 runs batted in.

Hartnett's greatest moment in baseball is one that is revered by Cubs fans to this day, almost seven decades after it happened. Hartnett, 37 years old and on the downside of his career, had replaced Charlie Grimm as manager of the Cubs in the middle of the 1938 season with the team in third place. On September 28, the Cubs met the first-place Pirates in Wrigley Field with Pittsburgh holding a half-game lead on Chicago. With darkness falling rapidly (remember, there were no lights in Wrigley Field) and the score tied, 5–5, in the ninth, Hartnett came to bat with two outs and nobody on base. The count went to 0–2 when Hartnett blasted his famous "homer in the gloamin'" to give the Cubs a 6–5 victory. With the victory, the Cubs moved into first place to stay, and they finished two games ahead of the Pirates to win the National League pennant.

When the Cubs slipped to fourth place in 1939 and fifth in 1940, Hartnett was fired as manager and replaced by Jimmie Wilson. Gabby would play a final season with the Giants in 1941, batting .300 in 64 games at age 40.

In 1955, Hartnett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining Ray Schalk of the White Sox as the seventh and eighth catchers so honored (six other catchers have since been inducted). A native of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Hartnett is one of only three natives of the smallest state in the union to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The others are Napoleon Lajoie, also a native of Woonsocket, and Hugh Duffy of Cranston, another former Cub, who both started their careers before 1900.

I regret I never got to meet Hartnett, but I have heard so much about him from old-time Cubs fans and former players that I feel as if I knew him. They say he was the best at his position, a great defensive catcher, and, of course, there was the famous home run. You can't live in Chicago as long as I have and not have heard a lot about the great Gabby Hartnett.

My old teammate Randy Hundley told me he once met Hartnett at a banquet and had a nice conversation with him — the two best catchers in Cubs history side by side on the dais. Hundley said he noticed a big ring on Hartnett's finger and Randy asked him, "Is that a World Series ring?"

"No, son," Hartnett replied. "That's a Hall of Fame ring."

Randy said he was so embarrassed, he wanted to crawl under the table.

Speaking of Randy Hundley, the best compliment I can pay my old buddy is that he's a guy you would want with you in a foxhole. "Rebel" — that's what we called him because he's from Virginia and has a deep voice and a Southern drawl — is a born-again Christian. He doesn't drink, and he doesn't smoke, and he never cussed. Never. But he didn't wear his beliefs on his sleeve, and he could get mad. He was a guy who would not turn the other cheek.

Rebel was tough and aggressive. Very aggressive. He'd sit behind the plate and pop his fist into his mitt right in a hitter's ear. We had a brawl with Pittsburgh one day, and my roommate, Glenn Beckert, was in the middle of it. I went in there and tried to pull him out, and I saw this body go over me. It was Hundley. He had jumped right into the middle of the melee — literally flew over me to grab a Pirate.

The Cubs have been criticized over the years for some of the bad trades they made, like Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio, but they made some good trades, too, and one of the best was when they sent Lindy McDaniel, Don Landrum, and Jim Rittwage to the Giants after the 1965 season for two young, unproven players: pitcher Bill Hands and Hundley. That trade helped the Cubs work their way to becoming contenders over the next seven years.

Hands won 54 games in the three-year period from 1968 through 1970, and Hundley became the Cubs' best catcher since Gabby Hartnett. He was a great receiver, had a good arm, and was an iron man behind the plate. He set one major league record by catching...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: TRIUMPH BOOKS
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1572437103
• ISBN 13: 9781572437104
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar