#18: BRUNO, MO, AND GEO
ALL-TIME #18 ROSTER | |
Player | Years |
Bob Smith | 1932 |
Pat Malone | 1933–34 |
Johnnie Gill | 1935 |
Clay Bryant | 1935–40 |
Zeke Bonura | 1940 |
Wimpy Quinn | 1941 |
Red Adams | 1946 |
Russ Bauers | 1946 |
Carl Sawatski | 1948 |
Jeff Cross | 1948 |
Warren Hacker | 1949–56 |
Bob Kelly | 1951 |
Dick Drott | 1957–58 |
Don Eaddy | 1959 |
Al Heist | 1960 |
Andre Rodgers | 1961–64 |
Glenn Beckert | 1965–73 |
Bill Madlock | 1974–76 |
Gene Clines (player) | 1977–78 |
(player–coach) | 1979 |
Preston Gomez (manager) | 1980 |
Mike Tyson | 1981 |
Scot Thompson | 1982–83 |
Richie Hebner | 1984–85 |
Steve Christmas | 1986 |
Wade Rowdon | 1987 |
Angel Salazar | 1988 |
Dwight Smith | 1989–93 |
Jose Hernandez | 1994–99 |
Cole Liniak | 1999–2000 |
Moises Alou | 2002–04 |
Mike Quade (coach) | 2007 |
Jason Kendall | 2007 |
Geovany Soto | 2008–12 |
Chris Rusin | 2012–14 |
Tsuyoshi Wada | 2015 |
Glenn Beckert (1965–74) had a tough act to follow; he was the designated replacement for a deceased Rookie of the Year. When Ken Hubbs was killed in a plane crash before the 1964 season, the Cubs muddled through that year with four second basemen (Joe Amalfitano, Jimmy Stewart, Ron Campbell, and Leo Burke), but in ’65 they decided to try the twenty-four-year-old Beckert, who had been acquired from the Red Sox in the first-year player draft in November 1962. A four-time All-Star, he was a future commodities trader nicknamed after a pro wrestler, and he broke Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski’s stranglehold on the Gold Glove. Beckert and slick-fielding shortstop Don Kessinger made up a dependable double-play combination for nine straight years; Beckert, a solid if unspectacular hitter, hit .280 or better for six consecutive seasons, including a .342 mark in 1971 that was runner-up in the National League batting race to MVP Joe Torre’s .363.
Amid the Gold Gloves piled up by Kessinger and Santo, Beckert won the award in 1968, ending a string of seven Gold Gloves in eight years by Mazeroski (Hubbs was the only other winner in that time). Beckert’s minor league teammate and friend Paul Popovich nicknamed him “Bruno” after wrestler Bruno Sammartino because of his aggressive nature chasing popups. When the great team that never made the postseason was broken up after the 1973 season, Beckert was sent to San Diego with a minor leaguer for outfielder Jerry Morales.
Geovany Soto was that not-so-rare breed that wins Rookie of the Year and never figures out an encore.
Geovany Soto began wearing #18 in 2008 after three September callups wearing #58 (another catcher, Jason Kendall, who wore #18 for both the Pirates and A’s, had worn it during his mostly forgettable two months as a Cub in 2007). Soto, who had not been considered a true catching prospect in his first six professional seasons, had a breakout year in the minors in 2007, hitting .353 with 26 homers and 109 RBI and winning the Pacific Coast League MVP award. Called up and given the starting catcher nod in Game 2 of the Division Series, Soto homered in an 8–4 loss, the Cubs’ only homer off Arizona pitching in that series. He had a terrific 2008 season, hitting .285/.364/.504 with 23 home runs and 86 RBI, numbers that got him named National League Rookie of the Year. He never came close to repeating that performance and was traded to the Texas Rangers at the mid-season deadline in 2012.
Perhaps the best two players to wear #18 for the Cubs were a pair who each played three seasons in Chicago, enjoyed success on the North Side, but had many other good years elsewhere. Bill Madlock (1974–76) was another acquisition in the “Back Up the Truck” purge after ’73, coming from the Rangers in the Fergie Jenkins deal. He started hitting immediately, posting a.313 batting average in his first season and finishing third in the Rookie of the Year voting. By hitting 354 in 1975 (a year in which he was co-All-Star Game MVP with similarly-named Met Jon Matlack), and .339 in 1976, Madlock became the first Cub since Cap Anson (1887–88) to win successive NL batting titles. When Madlock asked for a three-year contract, management’s response was to trade him to the Giants for Bobby Murcer; they then proceeded to give Murcer a three-year deal for more money than Madlock had asked for. There were justifiable accusations of racism involved in this deal, and there is no doubt that Madlock could have helped the Cubs more than Murcer; “Mad Dog” won two more batting titles (both with Pittsburgh), wound up with over 2,000 hits, and was a key part of the 1979 Pirates World Series-winning team.
Moises Alou (2002–04), signed as a free agent after hitting .331 with 27 homers and 108 RBI for the Astros in 2001, disappointed in ’02 by missing thirty games due to injury and hitting only 15 homers. In ’03, though, he came back to form with a 22 homer, 91 RBI campaign, and he was even better in ’04, smacking 39 dingers (leading a team with four 30-homer men) and both scoring and driving in 106 runs. But the most enduring memory, unfortunately, that most Cubs fans will have about this itinerant outfielder (he wore seven different major league uniforms in his career) is watching him slam down his glove in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS when a ball headed to the seats was interfered with by a fan. And of that incident, we shall say no more in this book.
An earlier long-time denizen of #18 was pitcher Warren Hacker, who wore it from 1949–56 (after beginning his Cubs career in #17 in 1948). Hacker was a mainstay in the Cubs starting rotation for nine years, but as was common for those poor Cubs teams, his record wasn’t very good: 52–79 from 1948–56. The native of downstate Marissa, Illinois, had his best season in 1952, his first year as a regular starter, when he went 15–9 with a 2.58 ERA, finishing second in the National League in ERA to Hoyt Wilhelm. After that, hitters went up there hacking. In ’53 he led the league in hits, earned runs, and home runs allowed, not to mention losses. His ERA stayed above 4.25 and he lost 13 or more each season until he was dealt to Cincinnati in 1957.
Before the last pennant in 1945, #18 was mainly the property of pitchers. Two good ones, Pat Malone and Clay Bryant, were the primary wearers, Malone in 1933 and 1934, after his best years for the Cubs had ended, and then Bryant following for six seasons (1935–40). Bryant had only one full season pitching for the Cubs, 1938 (though he had some appearances in each of the six seasons), and it was one that helped the Cubs to the NL pennant. He finished the season 19–11 in 44 appearances (30 starts, with 17 complete games). After Bryant’s retirement he spent more than twenty years managing in the minor leagues and was briefly a major league coach with the Dodgers, in 1961.
Others who wore #18 in the early days are mostly forgotten today, like Bob Smith (1932) and Johnnie Gill (1935). Zeke Bonura (1940) hit 79 homers in four years for the White Sox but managed to club only four for the Cubs before leaving the majors. Bonura later became known as the “czar of North African baseball” for organizing leagues and games in the Army during World War II. Less interesting but almost as good a name: Wimpy Quinn (1941), one of only three Cubs (Ryan Theriot and Roberto Pena the others) to wear three different numbers in a single season—he also wore #4 and #16). And then came the one-and-done brigade: Red Adams (1946); Russ Bauers (1946); Carl Sawatski (1948); Jeff Cross (1948); and Bob Kelly (1951).
One who might be remembered better today if not for injuries is Dick Drott (1957–58). Drott was a Kerry Wood prototype—As a twenty-year-old in’57 he went 15–11 with a 2.70 ERA, throwing three shutouts and striking out 170 in 229 innings. That K total may not seem high by today’s standards, but in 1957 it was good enough to tie for second in the National League. On May 26, 1957, in Drott’s ninth major league start, he struck out 15 Braves, setting a team record that stood until it was broken by Wood 41 years later. But in ’58 Drott got hurt, and unfortunately for him, modern arm surgeries had not yet been invented. He drifted through three more poor Cubs seasons and eventually departed to Houston in the ’62 expansion draft.
Other notable #18s include regular 1961–64 shortstop Andre Rodgers, the first major leaguer born in the Bahamas; Gene Clines (1977–79), a fine pinch-hitter who retired to the coaching lines in the middle of the 1979 season and stuck around as a coach through 1981 (switching to #3 as a coach in 1980, when manager Preston Gomez claimed #18); Dwight Smith (1989–93), who finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in ’89 (taking the only two first-place votes not snagged by teammate Jerome Walton), hit .324 that year and had a memorable game on August 29, 1989, when he replaced Andre Dawson with the Cubs trailing Houston 9–0, and drove in three runs including the game-winner in an amazing 10–9 comeback win; and Jose Hernandez (1994–99), who hit 23 homers for the 1998 Wild Card Cubs.
MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR #18: Don Eaddy (1959). Although Eaddy was a college baseball star at the University of Michigan and considered a “sure major league prospect” by Freddie Lindstrom, then coach for Michigan’s Big Ten rival Northwestern, he appeared only on the margins of the majors. Signed out of school by the Cubs in 1955, it took him four years to make the major league roster. And then he did nothing but pinch-run—14 times (scoring three runs)—and appearing in the second half of a 12–3 blowout by the Reds on August 1, 1959, striking out in his only turn at the plate.
GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE #18: Richie Hebner (1984–85). “The Hacker”—not to be confused with fellow #18 Warren Hacker of the 1950s—wore out Cubs pitching for virtually the entire 1970s as a Pirate, Phillie, and even briefly as a Met, hitting .331/.391/.547 with 30 homers in 647 at-bats, his best marks against any National League opponent. Cubs management, figuring, “if we can’t beat him, let’s have him join us,” signed him as a free agent before the 1984 season. The gambit worked; Hebner had only 81 at-bats as a bench player in ’84, but he hit .333 and was a key part of the NL East division champions that year. Hebner, also known as “The Gravedigger” for a previous offseason occupation, stayed another year in Chicago, but his .217 average in his final season in 1985 was just another factor in the Cubs’ tumble from division champs to fourth place.
Richie Hebner, member of seven NL East division winners in the 1970s, joined the Cubs in time for their NL East title in 1984.
Numbers Not Off Their Backs: Pre-Existing Cubs (1871–1932)
1. City. The franchise has never played a season outside the Chicago city limits. Even after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, they chose not to play in the National Association for two years rather than set up shop in another city. The Braves, the only other team left that started in 1871 (and who joined the National League along with the Cubs in 1876) have called three different cities home.
2. World Series championships—both over Detroit—in 1907 and 1908.
4. The actual number of fingers on Three-Finger Brown’s right hand.
6. Pre-1932 National League batting champions (including the first NL leader, Ross Barnes at .429, in 1876). The Cubs have won six batting titles since ’32.
9. League strikeout crowns before 1932, compared to six since.
12. Pennants won before 1932, compared to four since.
27. The obscene number of home runs hit by Ned Williamson over the 196-foot left field fence at Lake Front Park in 1884. The previous year’s NL champion had hit 10.
34. Losses by the pennant-winning 1886 club (out of 124 decisions); the NL’s first 90-win season and no major league team has had that few defeats since.
56. The longtime National League and Cubs record for home runs in a season, set by Hack Wilson in 1930. The mark stood until the summer of 1998.
116. Wins for the 1906 club, a record unsurpassed in the National League.