#15: FAME ELUDED US
| ALL-TIME #15 ROSTER | |
| Player | Years |
| Pat Malone | 1932 |
| Gilly Campbell | 1933 |
| Dick Ward | 1934 |
| Jim Weaver | 1934 |
| Bill Lee | 1935–36 |
| Lonny Frey | 1937 |
| Tony Lazzeri (player-coach) | 1938 |
| Steve Mesner | 1939 |
| Bobby Mattick | 1939–40 |
| Lou Stringer | 1941–42 |
| Carl Sawatski | 1953 |
| Hobie Landrith | 1956 |
| Johnny Briggs | 1956–57 |
| Jackie Collum | 1957 |
| Sammy Taylor | 1958–60 |
| Ron Santo | 1960 |
| Jim McKnight | 1962 |
| Ken Aspromonte | 1963 |
| Leo Burke | 1963–65 |
| Ron Campbell | 1965 |
| Norm Gigon | 1967 |
| Dick Nen | 1968 |
| Nate Oliver | 1969 |
| Ken Rudolph | 1970–73 |
| George Mitterwald | 1974–77 |
| Steve Dillard | 1979–81 |
| Junior Kennedy | 1982–83 |
| Mike Diaz | 1983 |
| Ron Hassey | 1984 |
| Davey Lopes | 1985–86 |
| Domingo Ramos | 1989–90 |
| Rey Sanchez | 1991 |
| Chuck Cottier (coach) | 1992–93 |
| Matt Franco | 1995 |
| Terry Shumpert | 1996 |
| Kevin Orie | 1997–98, 2002 |
| Gary Gaetti | 1998 |
| Sandy Martinez | 1998–99 |
| Julio Zuleta | 2000–01 |
| Mario Encarnacion | 2002 |
| Jose Hernandez | 2003 |
| Aramis Ramirez | 2003 |
| Sonny Jackson (coach) | 2003–04 |
| Jerry Hairston Jr. | 2005–06 |
| Scott Moore | 2006 |
| Cliff Floyd | 2007 |
| Jim Edmonds | 2008 |
| Darwin Barney | 2010–14 |
| Chris Denorfia | 2015 |
While #15 has been retired by the Yankees in honor of Thurman Munson, and by the Green Bay Packers in honor of Bart Starr, the lot of that number in Cubs lore is that it has been worn—very briefly, in many cases—by players who became better-known wearing other numbers, or for other teams.
Ron Santo began his career wearing the #15 jersey and no one seemed to notice at the time, except maybe clubhouse guy Yosh Kawano and the guy whose number he took, Sammy Taylor. (See sidebar below.) It was ever thus with #15. Pat Malone, who went 15–17 for the NL champion Cubs in 1932, was the first player to wear #15, but changed to #19 in 1933 and 1934. The number then wended its way through reserves Gilly Campbell (1933), Dick Ward (1934), and Jim Weaver (1934) before pitcher Bill Lee sported it in 1935 and 1936—though Lee’s best year came wearing #11, in 1938.
Lonny Frey (1937)? Better known as a Dodger and Red. Tony Lazzeri (1938)? A Yankee. Bobby Mattick (1939–40)? A Blue Jay (OK, much later, as their first manager).
And the beat went on through the 1950s (after the number wasn’t issued for ten seasons between 1943–52): Carl Sawatski (1953)? Cardinals and Braves. John Briggs (1956–57)? Wrong John Briggs; not the guy who was a solid outfielder for the Phillies and Brewers, this John Briggs was a mediocre swingman (5–6, 4.70 in 26 Cubs games pitched).
It wasn’t until 1973 that anyone wore #15 for as many as four seasons; Ken Rudolph, a backup catcher, who had worn #8 in 1969, switched to #15 the following year, but he barely hit his weight in it (weight: 185, average wearing #15: .202). Another catcher, and the only other player to wear #15 for four years, George Mitterwald, traded to the Cubs before the 1974 season, hit three homers and drove in eight runs in an 18–9 win over the Pirates on April 17, just seven games into his Cubs career, but hit only four other homers the rest of the ’74 season. He wore #15 for more games than any other Cub (373) until…well, let’s put it this way, when your #15 flagship is Darwin Barney (2010–14), that ship is not heading too far out of port.
But Barney did wear the number for 542 games as a Cub, and he earned the only hardware of any #15. He won the 2012 Gold Glove at second base, tying the major-league record for most consecutive errorless games at that position, 141. He made just two errors in 2012. If only the rest of the 2012 Cubs had been that flawless. And if only Barney could hit.
Davey Lopes could play second base and hit, but the stalwart of the Dodgers teams that went to three World Series between 1977–81, wasn’t going to play second base in Chicago with Ryne Sandberg around. So Lopes, a former Gold Glove winner at second, played third base and the outfield at Wrigley. He had one last hurrah for the Cubs, stealing 47 bases at age forty in 1985—setting a record for the most steals for a player forty years old or over. Gary Gaetti, better-known as a Twin, Angel, Royal, and Cardinal, was also more familiar in #8, which he switched for the #15 he initially wore for his own last hurrah after landing in Chicago’s lap right when they needed a jolt for the 1998 stretch run.
Davey Lopes brought his trademark broom mustache and basestealing skills to Wrigley in the mid-1980s.
In the eighties and nineties, #15 became the property of reserve infielders and catchers: Steve Dillard (1979–81), was an ordinary backup infielder except for one week in early August 1979, where he hit .600 (12-for-20) with three homers, nine runs, 10 RBI, and was named NL Player of the Week; Junior Kennedy (1982–83); Mike Diaz (1983); Ron Hassey (1984); Domingo Ramos (1989–90); Rey Sanchez (1991), who also wore #6 and #11, the well-known infielder numbers; and Matt Franco (1995), following the #15 trend set earlier, he’s best remembered as a Met…and as actor Kurt Russell’s nephew.
Julio Zuleta (2000–01) might have had a decent major league career if the NL had the DH rule; he wasn’t about to displace Mark Grace at first base. His main claim to fame came in May 2001, when after a long Cubs losing streak, Zuleta decided to hold a ritual with his and his teammates’ bats involving fruit, sunflower seeds, and liniment. The Cubs proceeded to win 12 games in a row. A .217 average, however, banished Zuleta and his voodoo to the minors by July, never to return.
Aramis Ramirez, far better known for wearing #16, gets a footnote in this chapter because when he was first acquired from the Pirates on July 22, 2003, coach Sonny Jackson was wearing the #16 that Ramirez had worn with the Pirates. It took a few games before Ramirez reclaimed the number.
And what better way to end #15 than with a historic, joyous moment from ’15. Chris Denorfia, a useful bench player for the 97-win playoff team, homered in the 11th inning on September 28 to beat the eventual world champion Royals at Wrigley, 1–0. It was the first pinch-hit, walkoff homer to win a scoreless extra-inning game in major-league history.
MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR #15: Norm Gigon (1967). It’s a mystery at times how certain players even get to wear a major league uniform. Gigon was signed out of high school by the Phillies in 1958. He spent eight years toiling in Philadelphia’s farm system before being traded to the Cubs for Billy Cowan on June 22, 1966. It took nearly another year before he made his major league debut on April 12, 1967, walking as a pinch-hitter. He played in 33 games, starting 13 of them, some in the outfield, some at second base, and one at third base, and hit .171 with one home run, a three-run blast off Juan Pizarro in a 7–3 win over the Pirates. Gigon later became a footnote to team history, as he was Joe Maddon’s first baseball coach at Lafayette College in 1972. Gigon retired just weeks after his ’67 taste of Wrigley to take the job. Already with a master’s degree in history when he began at the Pennsylvania college, one can imagine the in-depth discussions between him and Maddon.
GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE #15: Jim Edmonds (2008). To say Cub fans “never thought” of Edmonds as a Cub is an understatement. During his eight years as a Cardinal, he became one of Cubs fans’ most hated opposing players; he hit .270/.394/.554 vs. the Cubs as a Cardinal, with 32 home runs in 126 career games. St. Louis sent him to San Diego before the 2008 season, but the Padres gave up on him after only a month; he was hitting .178 with one homer and many Cub fans thought Jim Hendry’s signing of him was folly. But Edmonds surprised everyone by hitting for average and power, and showing flashes of that great center-field defense that had denied the Cubs so many times.
The Search for Santo
Ron Santo, whose #10 is retired and flies proudly on a flag above the left-field foul pole at Wrigley Field, could have instead have sent #15 to its retirement. As noted in Chapter 10, Santo wore #15 for his first few games as a Cub, including a handful at Wrigley Field. As was the case for so many players in that era, Santo was simply handed the shirt off the back of the player he replaced on the roster, Sammy Taylor. At 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Taylor wasn’t that much different in size than the 6-foot, 190-pound Santo. Taylor had been sent to the minors to make room for Santo in June 1960, and by the time he was recalled a month later, Santo had switched to his now-familiar #10, so Taylor took #15 back, wore it through the end of that season, then changed to #7 for 1961 and 1962.
Finding the information about Santo in #15 wasn’t easy, and at first brought a mystery.
In early 2008, one reader, veteran Chicago sportswriter Bob Vandenberg, emailed Kasey Ignarski to tell him that he was missing (at cubsbythenumbers.com) one of the uniform numbers of a very significant person in Cubs history: Ron Santo. Vandenberg wrote that Santo’s original number was 15. Kasey tried to check this out, but couldn’t find a source to verify it. Nevertheless, Vandenberg insisted that his remembrance was true.
The next step was to try to contact Ron Santo directly. That brought Kasey to Santo’s then-WGN Radio broadcasting partner, Cory Provus, who asked Ron if he had worn any other number besides his famous number 10. The response from Ron: yes, he did wear another number when he was first called up: 17. Delighted to hear this from the horse’s mouth, Kasey again contacted Vandenberg and told him Santo had originally worn #17, but Vandenberg continued to insist that #15 was correct.
Wanting to be accurate, Kasey then contacted baseball historian Ed Hartig, who replied: Santo must be mistaken, as Don Zimmer was wearing #17 when Santo was called up.
Armed with this information, Kasey went to AU Sports, a sports memorabilia store in Skokie, Illinois, to search through their file cabinets full of old Cubs scorecards to try to find a scorecard from Santo’s first series at Wrigley Field. Success! The store had a scorecard from the first game of a Cubs doubleheader played at Wrigley Field on June 29, 1960, the second game Santo played at the Friendly Confines.
The scorecard shows on both the printed roster and most importantly, the part hand-written by the person who kept score (as the printed numbers have at times been incorrect): “15 Santo”—proof positive!
With this information in hand, Kasey once again contacted Cory Provus. Provus went back to Santo, who told him that yes, he now remembered it was #15, not #17, that he wore when he made his Wrigley Field debut.
Many thanks to Bob Vandenberg, Cory Provus, Ed Hartig, and, of course, the late Ron Santo for helping Kasey uncover this mystery, and soon after, other online sources started listing Santo as wearing #15 and whenever people questioned him about it, Kasey would just send them a scan of the scorecard, a small piece of Cubs history confirmed by one of the authors of this book.