#42: GAME OVER

ALL-TIME #42+ ROSTER
Player	Years
Charley O’Leary (coach)	1932–33
Beryl Richmond	1933
Tuck Stainback	1934, 1937
Walter Stephenson	1935–36
Kiki Cuyler (coach)	1943
Roy Johnson (manager)	1944
(coach)	1945–53
Hy Cohen	1955
Jim Brosnan	1956–57
Elmer Singleton	1958–59
Lou Jackson	1959
Danny Murphy	1960
Lou Boudreau (manager)	1960
Jack Curtis	1961–62
Freddie Burdette	1962–64
Chuck Hartenstein	1965–68
Jim Qualls	1969
Tony LaRussa	1973
Matt Alexander	1973–74
Milt Wilcox	1975
Bruce Sutter	1976–80
Rich Bordi	1983–84
Lary Sorensen	1985
Bob Tewksbury	1987–88
Kevin Coffman	1990
Dave Smith	1991–92
Moe Drabowsky (coach)	1994
Dan Radison (coach)	1995–97
+Retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. Now only worn on April 15, in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Bruce Sutter was a pioneer. He was the first to throw the now-common split-finger pitch with any accuracy or success. And he came about it almost by accident—trying it out only because his fastball topped out at 88 MPH and the Cubs were going to release him. Instead, minor league pitching coach Fred Martin taught him—and all the pitchers at the Cubs’ Class A affiliate at Key West—the pitch. Sutter’s minor league numbers improved from 3–3, 4.13 in 1973 to a 1.35 ERA in 40 innings in 1974, when he allowed only 26 hits and struck out 50. The Key West team, which also included future Cubs Dennis Lamp, Donnie Moore, and Mike Krukow, finished 34–97, but Sutter was dominant.

Two years later he was in the major leagues, serving as a setup man—apparently, manager Jim Marshall didn’t recognize his talent at first—picking up 10 saves and posting a 2.70 ERA. But it was the next year, 1977, when Sutter and his split–finger fastball broke through. Hitters would stand and stare at what they thought was a fastball, only to see it drop down at the last possible moment, either called a strike, or swung on and missed badly. Sutter struck out 123 and walked only 29 in 107.1 innings, posting a 1.35 ERA and saving 31 games. They weren’t the quickie one-inning saves we know from closers today, either; Sutter pitched at least two innings in fifteen of his saves and three innings in five of them.

Unlike previous relievers of that type, who would often post gaudy victory totals when they’d come in trailing and their team would come back and win, Franks would only put Sutter in the game if the Cubs were tied or leading, a precursor to today’s closers who only throw the ninth inning when their teams are ahead.

The heavy workload—99 or more innings each of his four full seasons with the Cubs from 1977–80—began to wear on Sutter, as throwing the splitter put stress on his arm. He spent some time on the DL in ’77, one of many reasons that team fell out of the race, and had to be rested from time to time the following years. But it wasn’t the injuries that sent him out of Chicago, it was money. The Cubs were creaking to the end of the P.K. Wrigley ownership era, and Sutter, the best reliever in baseball and coming off the NL Cy Young Award, submitted an arbitration request before the 1980 season. He was awarded $700,000, which may not seem like a lot of money today for a ballplayer, but it was at that time the largest arbitration award yet given. Wrigley said the Cubs couldn’t afford him and sent him to the Cardinals for Leon Durham and Ken Reitz after the 1980 season. The trade, at least, brought a productive player, but Cubs fans were crushed to see Sutter help lead the Cardinals to the 1982 World Series title.

The Cubs got some measure of revenge in the aforementioned 1984 “Sandberg Game,” and also later that year when, on September 30, the last day of the season, Sutter needed to save the game to top Dan Quisenberry’s then-record 45 saves. The Cubs came back and won in the last of the ninth, denying Sutter the record. When Sutter went into the Hall of Fame in 2006, however, it was with a Cardinals cap on his plaque.

Other 42ers, mostly pitchers, have been an up-and-down lot. Jim Brosnan (1956–57), who also wore #27 and another retired number, #23, had two good years as a reliever and spot starter for the Cubs in ’56 and ’57, but he was also becoming a good writer, eventually publishing two diary-style books, The Long Season and Pennant Race, after he was traded from Chicago. Chuck “Twiggy” Hartenstein (1965–68), so nicknamed for his skinny build (5-foot-11, 165), was also an effective relief pitcher, saving 10 games in 1967 (that may not seem like many today, but that ranked seventh in the NL that year) and backing up Phil Regan as a setup man in ’68. Then, in one of the least popular and most inexplicable trades of the era, the Cubs shipped him to the Pirates, along with Joe Campbell, for thirty-year-old outfielder Manny Jimenez, who had six Cubs at-bats with one hit. Twiggy saved 10 games for the ’69 Pirates. The ’69 Cubs could have used him. Dave Smith (1991–92) had been an effective closer for the Astros for a decade, but when the Cubs signed him as a free agent, he was awful, posting a 6.00 ERA in ’91 and then pitching in mop-up duty the next year before retiring. The Cubs failed to learn their lesson, signing washed-up closers Doug Jones and Mel Rojas before ceasing this practice.

Others weren’t even that good: Walter Stephenson (1935–36) had only 38 at-bats for the Cubs before being shipped to the Phillies; Hy Cohen (1955) pitched in seven games with a 7.94 ERA; Elmer Singleton (1958–59) won more than 100 games in the Pacific Coast League in the 1950s, but he was thirty-eight before he donned a Cubs uniform (originally wearing #20), going 3–2 in 28 games (three starts); Lou Jackson (1959), who also wore #22 in 1958 and part of 1959, went 1-for-4 wearing #42 in 1959; and Freddie Burdette (1962–64), who was not Lew Burdette’s brother nor in his league, but they were on the same staff in 1964. Freddie, a decade younger, got his lone major league decision that year—a win!—in a sixteen-inning game in which the soon-to-be-loathed Ernie Broglio got his first career save.

In the 1980s, more pitchers wore #42, but none had any lasting impact: Rich Bordi (1983–84) had a good year in ’84, posting a 3.46 ERA with a 5–2 record and four saves; he was left off the playoff roster in favor of Dallas Green’s former Phillies favorite Dick Ruthven. Shout if you’ve heard this before: The Cubs could have used him. Bordi was traded to the Yankees the following offseason along with Porfi Altimirano, Henry Cotto, and Ron Hassey for Ray Fontenot and Brian Dayett. Lary Sorensen (1985), the man with the seemingly misspelled first name (where’s the other “r?”), took over #42. A former eighteen-game winner with the Brewers, Sorensen’s North Side tenure was short a few “W’s” as well as the “r”— a 3–7, 4.26 mark earned his release. Bob Tewksbury (1987–88) was next. The Cubs never really gave him a chance, as his Chicago tenure happened when he was rehabbing from an arm injury. Let go after only eight appearances and an 0–4 record, he was signed by the Cardinals, where he had his best year: a 16–5 mark in 1992, walking just 20 batters in 233 innings and finishing third in the Cy Young balloting. He won exactly 100 games over ten seasons after his release by the Cubs.

Talk about the bait and switch. In the 1980s, #42 went from Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter to pain(ful) reliever Rich Bordi.

Number 42 went out the way it came in, on a coach’s back. Charley O’Leary wore #42 in ’32 when the uniforms were handed out and coaches Moe Drabowsky (1994) and Dan Radison (1995–97) finished the shift. It was officially retired by MLB to honor Jackie Robinson on April 15, 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, at which time Radison moved over to #3. A decade later, in 2007, Cliff Floyd, Jacque Jones, Derrek Lee, and Daryle Ward, plus coaches Gerald Perry and Lester Strode donned #42 for one day in honor of Robinson. Major League Baseball wound up getting so many requests that all uniformed personnel now wear #42 every April 15.

MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR #42: Jim Qualls (1969). The last guy off the bench on the 1969 club, Qualls hit a respectable .250 in 43 games. After Don Young was benched at the beginning of July, Qualls started most of the games that month in center field, and on July 9 (the day after Young had dropped two catchable fly balls that cost the Cubs a game at Shea Stadium), he singled with one out in the ninth to break up a perfect game being thrown by Tom Seaver. It would take the Mets until 2012 to finally notch their first no-no. As for Qualls, this bit of history didn’t get him any more play for the Cubs; he was traded to the Expos the next April and eventually had a handful of at-bats for the 1972 White Sox.

GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE #42: Tony LaRussa (1973). At the time, no one would have thought anything about a guy whose name wasn’t even printed on the Opening Day scorecard. (Your co-author, Al Yellon, hand wrote it on his scorecard.) But LaRussa, who had been acquired from the Braves the previous offseason in exchange for reliever Tom Phoebus, was sent in to pinch-run for Ron Santo after Santo had reached on an error in the bottom of the ninth. The Cubs were trailing 2-1 and had a runner already on first. Three walks later, LaRussa scored the winning run. Shortly afterward, he was sent to Triple-A and never again played in the major leagues. An infielder with 176 career at-bats—none as a Cub—as a manager he won 2,728 games, six pennants, three world championships, and a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame Cubs

When you’re dealing with a franchise that was formed during the Ulysses S. Grant administration, there’s a lot of ground to cover. With their long lineage, the Cubs are well-represented in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with fifty-one past Cubs having plaques in Cooperstown. That number includes everyone who’s played for the team or managed it at some point, from Grover Cleveland Alexander (elected in 1938) to Greg Maddux (elected in 2014). Maddux wore #31 and it was retired—for himself and fellow Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. Tony LaRussa also made the Hall of Fame in 2014, with the least known part of his Cooperstown résumé being his one game as a Cub to open the 1973 season. They all count, whether they played in Chicago for a day or a lifetime.

Here’s a list of the Cubs in the Hall of Fame who played before there were uniform numbers:

Cub	Year of Induction:
Grover Cleveland Alexander	1938
Cap Anson	1939
A.G. Spalding	1939
Hugh Duffy	1945
Roger Bresnahan	1945
King Kelly	1945
Frank Chance+	1946
Johnny Evers	1946
Joe Tinker	1946
Clark Griffith	1946
Rube Waddell	1946
Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown	1949
Rabbit Maranville	1954
Joe McCarthy*	1957
John Clarkson	1963
George Kelly	1973
Hack Wilson+	1979
William Hulbert^	1995
Frank Selee*	1999
Hank O’Day*	2013
Deacon White	2013

Below are the Hall of Famers who served the Cubs in uniform after numbers were added in 1932 (the order of the uniform numbers is the order in which each player wore them).

Cub	Year of Induction	Uni#
Rogers Hornsby	1945	9
Frankie Frisch*	1947	3
Jimmie Foxx	1951	16, 26
Dizzy Dean	1953	22
Gabby Hartnett+	1955	7, 9, 2
Burleigh Grimes	1963	16, 21
Kiki Cuyler+	1968	3
Lou Boudreau*	1970	40, 5
Monte Irvin	1973	39
Ralph Kiner	1975	4
Billy Herman+	1975	2, 4
Robin Roberts	1976	36
Fred Lindstrom	1976	7
Ernie Banks+	1977	14
Chuck Klein	1980	6, 4
Lou Brock	1985	24
Hoyt Wilhelm	1985	39
Billy Williams+	1987	4, 41, 26
Ferguson Jenkins+	1991	31
Tony Lazzeri	1991	15
Leo Durocher	1994	2
Richie Ashburn	1995	1
Dennis Eckersley	2004	40, 43
Ryne Sandberg+	2005	23
Bruce Sutter	2006	42
Rich Gossage	2008	54
Andre Dawson	2010	8
Ron Santo+	2012	10
Tony LaRussa	2014	42
Greg Maddux	2014	31
* Denotes manager only. + Signifies the player wears a Cubs hat on his plaque. ^William Hulbert was owner of the club and helped found the National League in 1876. Numbers are not included if players wore different numbers as nonplaying coaches.