Cubs by the Numbers

ALL-TIME #2 ROSTER:
Player	Years
Billy Herman	1932–36
Gabby Hartnett (player, coach, and manager)	1937–40
Dick Bartell	1939
Al Todd	1941
Marv Felderman	1942
Paul Gillespie	1942
Tony Jacobs	1948
Randy Jackson	1950–55
Gale Wade	1956
Lee Walls	1957–59
El Tappe (coach)	1960
Leo Durocher (manager)	1966–72
Bobby Adams (coach)	1973
Jim Marshall (coach)	1974
Jim Saul (coach)	1975–76
Peanuts Lowrey (coach)	1977–79, 1981
Mike Tyson	1980
John Vukovich (coach)	1982–87
(interim manager)	1986
Vance Law	1988–89
Rick Wilkins	1991–95
Felix Fermin	1996
Mako Oliveras (coach)	1997
Jeff Pentland (coach)	1998–99
Sandy Alomar Sr. (coach)	2000–02
Gene Clines (coach)	2003–06
Ryan Theriot	2007–10
Bobby Dernier (coach)	2010–11
Ian Stewart	2012
Cole Gillespie	2013
Eric Hinske (coach)	2014
Jose Castro (coach)	2014
John Mallee (coach)	2015

Isn’t this the Cubs way? Three Hall of Famers (Billy Herman, Leo Durocher, and Gabby Hartnett) have all worn #2.

Yet, for a time—and certainly when the first edition of this book came out in 2009—the most popular player to have donned this low digit was shortstop/second baseman Ryan Theriot. Cubs fans got into innumerable debates about Theriot’s perceived value to the ballclub, because he hit for virtually no power and his range wasn’t sufficient for an everyday shortstop. He was popular enough, for a while, to have his jersey or shirsey (some of which read “The Riot,” a play on words on his name) become one of the biggest-selling replica shirts at Wrigley Field, even though he tried out several different numbers before settling on #2. (He wore #55 when first called up at the end of 2005, then switched to #3 in 2006 and #7 when Cesar Izturis claimed #3 after arriving from the Dodgers, and #2 when Mark DeRosa joined the Cubs in 2007.)

The Riot has since ended—in Chicago in 2010 when he was traded; and in 2012 when he played his last game as a Giant. You can return safely to your homes and businesses, people. And #2 has far more important work in Cubs history.

Gabby Hartnett is, without question, the greatest Cubs catcher of all time. In fact, when he retired in 1941, he was widely considered the best catcher in National League history, and he still ranks no worse than third (with Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza the only ones comparable). He was the first backstop to surpass 200 homers and 1,000 RBI, and his 163 double plays are still more than any other NL catcher. Hartnett played in four Cubs World Series (1929, 1932, 1935 and 1938), and managed the last of those teams. He was an All-Star six years running (1933–38) and he was the one who told Carl Hubbell to throw nothing but screwballs when King Carl famously fanned Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin in order in the 1934 All-Star Game. Hartnett was NL MVP in ’35 when he batted .344 with 13 homers and 91 RBI. When he hit .339 and had career highs with 33 homers and 122 RBI in 1930, it was the only year between 1924 and present without a league MVP Award.

Fans could just barely make out the 2 on his back when he stepped up to the plate in the twilight of the afternoon of September 28, 1938. Hartnett had been named manager in July when the club was mired in third place. The Cubs, who’d rallied to sneak within a half-game of Pittsburgh, were tied 5–5 with the Pirates in the ninth. The umps were set to call the game because of darkness at the end of the inning when Hartnett ripped an 0–2 curve by Mace Brown over the not-quite-fully-covered-with-ivy walls (the ivy had been planted only a year before). The “Homer in the Gloamin’” put the Cubs in first place to stay.

Chicago followed with disappointing fourth and fifth-place finishes the next two years. Gabby, who’d gotten his name as a rookie because he wouldn’t say a word to sportswriters, was let go and he finished his career as a player-coach for the Giants in 1941. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and a decade later wore a uniform for the last time as a coach for the Kansas City A’s.

In addition to #2, Hartnett was the first in club history to wear #7 (1932), and the following year started the rage of Cubs catchers wearing #9 (1933–36), but #2 is his best-remembered number, a digit that perhaps ought to be retired someday.

After Hartnett, a series of forgettable players wore the “We Try Harder” number later popularized by Avis Rent-A-Car: Marv Felderman (1942), Paul Gillespie (1942), Tony Jacobs (1948), Randy Jackson (1950–55; Jackson’s 21 HR, 70 RBI season got him on the All-Star team, and then, predictably, traded away), Gale Wade (1956), and Lee Walls (1957–59).

It was in 1966 that Leo Durocher, who had worn the number as Giants and Dodgers manager and for many years as a Brooklyn and Los Angeles coach, took the managerial reins on the North Side and donned #2. For several years prior to that, under the infamous “College of Coaches,” coaches wore numbers in the 50s and 60s (and the club’s win total was generally in that neighborhood as well). But no player wore #2 between 1959 and 1980, when Mike “Not The Boxer” Tyson joined the team. After serving as the regular second baseman in St. Louis for the better part of seven seasons, he was acquired in exchange for reliever Donnie Moore after the 1979 season. He spent a very forgettable year and a half as the second sacker for a sad-sack Cubs team. Known as “Hitch” for constantly pulling up his pants, his biggest moment as a Cub came in ’81 wearing #18 when he hit a three-run, pinch-hit homer off the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela at Wrigley Field on June 6, 1981, at the height of Fernandomania. That blast sent the Mexican-born pitcher, who’d been staked to a 4–0 lead against the 11–36 Cubs, to his shortest major league outing and worst loss to that date.

There at the end of decades of drought for Chicago baseball was Vance Law, of all players (1988–89). The bespectacled third baseman had the distinction of being the regular third baseman for division champions on both sides of town in the 1980s: the ’83 White Sox and the ’89 Cubs. Or, at least he was the regular third baseman until Luis Salazar was acquired at the end of August 1989. Both played in the NLCS, but neither made anyone forget about Ron Santo. Rick Wilkins (1991–95) became only the second Cubs catcher, after Hartnett, to have a 30-homer season (1993), in one of the biggest fluke seasons in club history.

Despite being a 39th round pick and a .256 career hitter, Vance Law was the first person to play for both a Cubs and White Sox division winner.

But #2 has predominantly been a coach’s number for the past two decades, with the exception of Felix Fermin (1996), Ian Stewart (2012), and the forgettable Cole Gillespie (2013). And, of course, there was “The Riot.”

MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR # 2: Gale Wade, who bears the first name and surname of famous Chicago Bears but had the talent of neither, was #2 for 19 games in 1955 and 1956. He went 6-for-45 (.133) and vanished from the major league scene for good.

GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE # 2: Felix Fermin, who was once traded straight up for a young Omar Vizquel, was a Cub for the last stop of his career. A good glove man and career .259 hitter over 10 seasons, in 1996 Fermin was released by the Mariners in April, the Yankees in May, and the Cubs in August. He hit .125 in 11 games as a Cub and called it quits.

Number 2 Is Number 1: Managing Wins by Number

Charlie Grimm managed the Cubs wearing six different numbers (#1, #6, #7, #8, #40, #50), won pennants wearing two of them (1932, 1935, 1945), and had a record of 946–742 (second only in franchise wins to Cap Anson’s 1,282, in the days before uni numbers). Yet it is #2—a number Grimm didn’t wear—that reigns supreme as the winningest Cubs uni for managers. You can thank Gabby Hartnett, the man who replaced Grimm as manager in 1938 and went on to win the pennant, for getting #2 going. Leo Durocher later wore #2 for seven seasons. John Vukovich spent two days managing in #2. In fact, none of the three numbers (#4, #5, #25) worn for 500 wins belonged to Grimm. Sorry, Charlie.