#1: WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, JOSE CARDENAL?
| ALL-TIME #1 ROSTER | |
| Player | Years |
| Woody English | 1932–36 |
| Charlie Grimm (manager) | 1937–38 |
| Jimmy Wilson (manager) | 1941–42 |
| Bill Serena | 1954 |
| Jim Fanning | 1955–57 |
| Richie Ashburn | 1960–61 |
| Mel Wright (coach) | 1971 |
| Jose Cardenal | 1972–77 |
| Cookie Rojas (player and coach) | 1978–81 |
| Larry Bowa | 1982–85 |
| Dave Martinez | 1986–88, 2000 |
| Rick Wrona | 1988–90 |
| Doug Strange | 1991–92 |
| Tommy Shields | 1993 |
| Doug Glanville | 1996–97 |
| Lance Johnson | 1997–99 |
| Augie Ojeda | 2001–03 |
| Kenny Lofton | 2003 |
| Jose Macias | 2004–05 |
| Tony Womack | 2006 |
| Kosuke Fukudome | 2008–11 |
| Tony Campana | 2012 |
| Cody Ransom | 2013 |
| Gary Jones (coach) | 2014–15 |
When teams began to issue uniforms with numbers on the back, many of them did it in the simplest possible way–right down to the starting lineup, with the leadoff hitter getting #1, the second-place hitter #2, etc.
And that is why Woody English is the first player discussed in the first chapter of this book. He led off for the 1932 Cubs, and when the ballclub first appeared in numbered uniforms on June 30 of that year, Woody became #1. He had been the Cubs’ regular shortstop since 1927, having his best year in the hitters’ season of 1930 when he hit 14 homers, drew 100 walks, finished third in the NL with 152 runs scored, and hit .331. He finished fourth in the MVP voting that year.
A genial, likeable man, he even got along with the irascible Rogers Hornsby, rooming with him for a time. But it was also English, in his role as team captain, who called the famed 1932 clubhouse meeting in which the players voted not to give Hornsby a World Series share.
After the 1932 season, English’s performance began to decline due to various injuries. He was traded to the Dodgers following the 1936 campaign. Two managers (Charlie Grimm and Jimmie Wilson) wore the premier digit, and then it lay on the shelf until 1954. Unlike other teams, who often reserved #1 for their best players (the number is retired by seven teams: Pirates, Dodgers, Yankees, Reds, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Phillies; plus the Brewers saw fit to retire it for former owner and commissioner Bud Selig in 2015), the Cubs gave it out democratically, or at least randomly. The team issued #1 to players who had worn other numbers (Bill Serena, who wore #6 from 1949–53), weren’t very good (Jim Fanning, who hit .170 over four seasons as a backup catcher but who later had a long career as a major league manager and general manager), or who were good elsewhere (Richie Ashburn, who was long past his prime when he played his two Cub seasons, and whose #1 is retired by the Phillies).
So that leaves outfielder Jose Cardenal (1972–77) as perhaps the most popular and well-known of the Cubs who have worn #1. During his career he was also well-known for his many excuses as to why he couldn’t play (including “I woke up and my eyes were swollen shut,” and “Loud crickets kept me up all night”).
Cardenal was acquired on December 3, 1971 from the Milwaukee Brewers in what was one of the Cubs’ better trades of the ’70s. In his first three seasons he hit .290 or better and along with speed–25 steals in 1972 and 19 in 1973. His best year in the blue pinstripes was 1973 when he led the team in hitting (.303), doubles (33), and steals (19) and was named Chicago Player of the Year by the city’s baseball writers. In 1975, Jose swiped 34 bases, and he also had his best overall season, hitting .317/.397/.423.
Jose also posted one of the best single-game lines in franchise history, going 6-for-7 with a double, home run and four RBI as the Cubs defeated the Giants, 6–5 in 14 innings on May 2, 1976.
The number was also Lance’d (Lance Johnson, 1997–99) and became Strange (Doug Strange, 1991–92). Kenny Lofton wore it for a couple of games after his acquisition by trade from the Pirates in July 2003 before switching to his more familiar #7. Dave Martinez (1986–88) began wearing #1 as a speedy twenty-one-year-old outfielder and he reclaimed the number at Wrigley as a near-the-end-of-the-line bench player in 2000, a year when he played for four different teams.
Dave Martinez gives James Franco eyes to the camera on a sun-splashed Wrigley day.
It appeared, for a time, that the Cubs’ first Japanese-born position player, Kosuke Fukudome, might make #1 famous. Many fans bought his jersey in the 2008 playoff season, as Fukudome had a torrid first half and made the All-Star team. But he cooled off late that year and wound up at just .257/.359/.379 overall with only 10 homers, a fraction of the power he’d shown in Japan. His performance improved a bit over the next two seasons, but the team didn’t, and in mid-2011 he was traded to the Indians for no one you’ve ever heard of. (Trust us, you haven’t.)
Tony Campana (2012), who wore #41 briefly on his first callup to the majors after Lou Piniella retired and gave up the number, switched to #1 in his second season with the team, perhaps on the theory that having a big “1” on your back makes you look taller. Campana, generously listed at 5-foot-8, stole 30 bases in 2012, ninth in the National League despite playing in just 89 games. Speed was really his only skill; his lack of hitting got him shipped to the Diamondbacks following the 2012 season.
Oddity: Cookie Rojas (1978–81) is listed as “player and coach” here, but you won’t find his name in any of the encyclopedias as having played for the Cubs. At thirty-nine and in his first year on the coaching staff following a sixteen-year playing career, Rojas talked the brass into activating him as a player after rosters expanded on September 1. He is listed as “Coach-IF” on all the home scorecards dated September 4, 1978 to the end of the season. But he never got into a game, not even after the Cubs were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, and he was reportedly miffed at GM Bob Kennedy for giving him the idea that he’d be able to play again, even in a token appearance, and then not letting it happen.
Rojas was the last Cubs coach to wear #1 until Gary Jones donned it starting in 2014. You might not know much about Jones, and that’s actually good, because he’s the team’s third-base coach. If you’re hearing a lot about your club’s third-base coach, that probably means he’s sending too many runners to their doom at the plate.
MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR #1: Tommy Shields (1993), who despite having a fine name for an athlete, wasn’t very good. He went 6-for-34 in twenty games, starting six of them.
GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE #1: Larry Bowa (1982–85). Bowa, who was brought over along with many other Phillies by Dallas Green, never seemed quite comfortable or looked very good in Cubs pinstripes. He did right by Green, though, becoming part of the first Phillies world championship after ninety years of Phutility and then part of the Cubs’ first postseason team in thirty-nine years. He had worn #10 for the Phils, but he chose to wear #1 for the Cubs, probably just to be ornery (or maybe because he didn’t feel like fighting incumbent Leon Durham for #10). Yet he just didn’t fit right in Chicago. Oh, there was some other kid thrown into the Bowa-for-Ivan DeJesus deal. Kid named Sandberg. That one worked out OK.
You may not think of Larry Bowa as a Cub, but who can forget the guy who came over in the deal with him from Philly: Ryne Sandberg.
First Things
June 30, 1932, a Thursday, was the first time the Cubs wore uniform numbers. American League teams had all gone with numbers the previous year (the Yankees had done so in ’29 and the A’s wore numbers only on the road until ’37). The National League followed the trend, demanding all teams go to numbers at the league meeting on June 22, 1932. “The club owners felt that there was a general demand on the part of the public that the players be numbered,” said NL president John Heydler. Though no National League team was regularly wearing numbers before the meeting, all eight clubs quickly stitched digits on their shirts within ten days of the edict. The Cubs waited until they returned to Wrigley to suit up in the numbers, making them among the last teams to comply.
Chicago went with a system that—like several teams before them—generally featured players wearing numbers that coincided with the spot in the order in which they batted, with some exceptions. This was the lineup on June 30,1932, the first with numbered Cubs:
1. Woody English, 3B
2. Billy Herman, 2B
3. Kiki Cuyler, CF
4. Riggs Stephenson, LF
49. Vince Barton, RF
6. Charlie Grimm, 1B
7. Gabby Hartnett, C
11. Billy Jurges, SS
12. Charlie Root, P
The regular right fielder, Johnny Moore, did get #5, but didn’t play that day. Root blanked the Reds, 7–0, in the first of a three-game series. At the end of the day the Cubs trailed the first-place Pirates by half a game. They took over first place the next day and the two teams were in a nip-and-tuck fight for the flag throughout the season. The Cubs would get rid of the great yet grouchy Rogers Hornsby (#9) as manager on July 13 and replace him with first baseman Charlie Grimm (#6), aka “Jolly Cholly.” Chicago went 55–34 with the numbers on their back en route to the ’32 pennant.