Cubs by the Numbers

ALL-TIME #45 ROSTER:
Player	Years
Ed Hanyzewski	1942
Hank Wyse	1942–43
Lou Novikoff	1943–44
Garth Mann	1944
Ed Sauer	1945
Billy Jurges (player-coach)	1946–47
(coach)	1948
Merv Shea (coach)	1949
Frank Hiller	1950
Don Kaiser	1955–57
Morrie Martin	1959
Ben Johnson	1959–60
Jim Brewer	1960
Mel Wright	1960–61
Dave “Jug” Gerard	1962
Bobby Shantz	1964
Fred Norman	1964
Billy Connors	1966
Len Church	1966
Dick Calmus	1967
John Upham	1967
Bobby Tiefenauer	1968
Alec Distaso	1969
Bob Miller	1970–71
Ray Newman	1971
Oscar Zamora	1974–76
Jack Bloomfield (coach)	1977–78
Karl Pagel	1978–79
Jay Howell	1981
Dave Gumpert	1985–86
Al Nipper	1988
Paul Assenmacher	1989–93
Randy Veres	1994
Kent Bottenfield	1996–97
Terry Mulholland	1997–99
Tim Worrell	2000
Tom “Flash” Gordon	2001–02
Trenidad Hubbard	2003
Ben Grieve	2005
Will Ohman	2005
Sean Marshall	2006–11
Adrian Cardenas	2012
Rob Deer (coach)	2013
Logan Watkins	2014

In Cubs lore, #45 is like a bad UHF channel that has poor reception and never has anything good on. Take Billy Jurges, the regular shortstop for three Cubs pennant winners while wearing other numbers. Returning to the North Side in 1946 as a player-coach, he took #45 and retired after two years of part-time play, remaining one more year as a full-time coach. He’s the star in this cast.

Many of the other #45s were one-shot pitchers who either never made it or made it elsewhere. Dave “Jug” Gerard (1962) toiled for seven years in Chicago’s farm system, only to have his sole major league year be with the horrible 1962 Cubs, who lost a franchise-record 103 games. As bad as that team was, Gerard was used almost always in mop-up time: the Cubs were 7–32 in games in which he appeared. The origins of his nickname are lost to the mists of time, as was the reason he also wore #31.

Fred Norman (1964), was like a guest star on a TV show of the day—for the hell-like quality of the College of Coaches regime, let’s call it the gritty black-and-white World War II drama, Combat! Norman makes a cameo and based on his 0–4, 6.54 performance, maybe his only lines are in German, but he later becomes a familiar face in the colorful, prime-time 1970s hit, “The Big Red Machine.” Billy Connors (1966) had no such future stardom in his arm—he never won a game in three seasons in the bigs (and posted a stratospheric 7.31 ERA for the ’66 Cubs)—though he became a fine pitching coach.

Also starring, in order of appearance: Dick Calmus (1967); John Upham (1967); Bobby Tiefenauer (1968), who had a 6.08 ERA in nine Cubs appearances after several good years as a Milwaukee Brave; Alec Distaso (1969); Bob Miller (1970–71), whose main claim to fame came as a 1962 Met, when he was continually confused with another guy named Bob Miller who played for the same team (the Bob Miller here went 1–12 as an original Met and had, by comparison, a perfect 0–0 mark as a not-so-original Cub); and featuring Ray Newman (1971) as Mop-up Guy out of the Pen #45.

Quickly cancelled were Karl Pagel (1978–79), older brother of NFL quarterback Mike Pagel, Karl hit 39 homers in Triple-A in ’78, but struck out in his only three Cubs at-bats and at last report was driving a UPS truck in Phoenix; Trenidad Hubbard (2003), who had almost 4,000 minor league at-bats, but over 10 major league seasons averaged only 76 trips to the plate a year; and 1998 AL Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve (2005), who never lived up to the hype of being the second player chosen in the draft. His 20 Cubs at-bats in #45 in ’05 resulted in a .250 batting average.

There were other failed pilots, too. Ed Sauer (1945) was the wrong Sauer—Ed hit 283 fewer homers than his better-known sibling Hank, who came to Chicago four years later. Ben “Not the (Cheating) Sprinter” Johnson, whose full name was Benjamin Franklin Johnson, spent a decade in the minor leagues before the Cubs gave him 21 appearances in 1959 and 1960. He made his last appearance on June 12, 1960, and only weeks later the #45 shirt was given to the almost-identically sized Jim Brewer (both were 6-foot-2; Johnson was listed at 190 and Brewer 195 pounds). Brewer, who also wore #38 and #48, was wearing #45 when, on August 4, 1960, he threw a pitch high and tight to Billy Martin, then playing for the Reds. Martin charged the mound and punched Brewer in the face, breaking his cheekbone and putting him out for the season. The Cubs and Brewer sued Martin for $1 million for “loss of services” in regard to Brewer’s injury. The suit dragged on for nine years before being settled for $10,000, and it was said that the bad blood between Martin and the Cubs made them reject the idea of signing him as manager after one of his many firings by George Steinbrenner. Oscar Zamora (1974–76) debuted well, posting a 3.12 ERA in ’74, but the 5-plus ERA’s he put up in ’75 and ’76 had Cubs fans sadly singing, “If the pitch is so fat, that the ball hits the bat, that’s Zamora” (to the tune of “That’s Amore”). Jay Howell (1981) posted 155 major league saves; unfortunately, none of those came as a Cub. He had been acquired in a steal of a deal from the Reds (for backup catcher Mike O’Berry) but was sent to the Yankees a year later; he didn’t round into closer form until New York traded him to Oakland. Al Nipper (1988) was acquired along with Calvin Schiraldi in the lamentable Lee Smith deal. Nipper had won 10 games for the 1986 AL champion Red Sox, but his Cubs career was nipped in the bud—2–4 in 22 games (12 starts), after which he was released. Tim Worrell (2000)—the wrong Worrell; brother Todd was the star of the family, although Tim did have a 38-save season for the Giants in 2003 after the Cubs sent him there for Bill Mueller.

A couple of relief pitchers wore #45 with some positive impact. Paul Assenmacher was a solid middle reliever after his acquisition in late 1989 (for a couple of minor leaguers who never made it); he helped the club to the ’89 NL East title and then saved 33 games over the next three seasons. The Cubs wouldn’t have won the 1998 Wild Card without Terry Mulholland, who made 70 appearances, including six spot starts, had three saves, and a 2.89 ERA and was known for having the best move to first base of any pitcher of his era.

A buy-one-get-one-free sale brought Al Nipper, above, from Boston with Calvin Schiraldi, but the price was Lee Smith. No returns.

Tom “Flash” Gordon could have been a longtime Cub, and was the best Cubs pitcher ever to don #45. He had gone back and forth between starting and closing in his career with the Royals and Red Sox (12–9 as a starter in 1996; 46 saves in 1998). He had an injury-plagued 1999 season with Boston and didn’t pitch at all in 2000, after which the Cubs signed him as a free agent. He was still hurt when 2001 began and Jeff Fassero filled in admirably in April. Flash did a fine job until September came; he saved 27 of 29 chances until a disastrous outing in Florida on September 5—Preston Wilson crushed a three-run, walkoff homer—revealed further arm problems. Shut down until July 2002, he returned but by then had been supplanted as closer by Antonio Alfonseca. He sulked until the Cubs traded him to the Astros in August.

Kent Bottenfield (1996–97) threw competent middle relief for the Cubs for two years and then signed with the Cardinals as a free agent. His 18-win season in 1999, by far the best year of his career, got him traded to the Angels for future Cub Jim Edmonds, one of the worst deals in Angels history. Bottenfield went 7–8, 5.71 in half a year in Anaheim before being shipped to Philadelphia, and since his departure from baseball he has become a well-known Christian music singer.

Sean Marshall (2006–11) lasted longer than any #45, beginning his career as a ballyhooed 6-foot-7 southpaw starter, then becoming a swingman, and evolving into a lefty specialist. In six seasons he had a 3.96 ERA and pitched 292 times as a Cub. Marshall was sent to the Reds two days before Christmas 2011 and the Cubs found an even better lefty under the tree: Travis Wood.

MOST OBSCURE CUB TO WEAR #45: Len Church (1966). Lane Tech High School, located less than two miles from Wrigley Field, produced Phil Cavarretta, a star right out of school at age eighteen and for many years after. The Cubs tried this again in 1957 when they signed Jim Woods and put him on the field at Wrigley a few months after graduation. Woods, though, was no Cavarretta; he played in only two games as a Cub, both as a pinch runner, wearing #48, and was out of baseball by age twenty-one. So when the Cubs signed Len Church out of Lane (along with his classmate John Felske), it wasn’t until after college and seasoning in the minors for a couple of years before Church made his major league debut on August 27, 1966. The Lane magic had apparently run out—Church got pounded in his four relief appearances, posting a 7.50 ERA. He did face five Hall of Famers in those four games: Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski. He gave up a single to Morgan, a double to Mazeroski, and retired the other three. Sent back to the minors, he retired after 1969 to become a golf pro in Texas, where he died, far too young, of a heart attack in 1988, only forty-six years old.

GUY YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF AS A CUB WHO WORE #45: Bobby Shantz (1964). Everyone remembers the Brock-for-Broglio deal. But what you may not remember is that there were four other players involved in that trade: pitchers Jack Spring and Paul Toth went to St. Louis, and outfielder Doug Clemens and Shantz, a right-handed pitcher, came to the Cubs. None of the four had any impact on their teams, and the Cubs, typical for those days, were trying to recapture the long-gone glory years of a former All-Star. Shantz, one of the smallest players in modern baseball history at 5-foot-6, 142 pounds, had won 24 games in 1952 and been named AL MVP, leading the Philadelphia Athletics to their last winning season. (He was, in fact, the last Philadelphia Athletic active in the majors.) Shantz was an effective middle reliever for the Yankees, pitching in the World Series in 1957 and 1960. But by 1964 he was playing out the string at age thirty-eight, and posted a 5.56 ERA in 20 Cubs appearances. Two months after the disastrous Brock deal, he was sold back to Philadelphia—this time, to the Phillies, where he finished his career with Philly’s fabled fall from first.

Quantity, Not Quality

When we put together this list originally in 2008, #45 held the spot as most used number by Cubs pitchers, one pitcher ahead of #33 and #38, and two ahead of #32 and #37. Well, some of these numbers just seem to draw pitchers like overripe bananas draw fruit flies. And the buzz has brought #32 to the fore with six Cubs pitchers wearing it from 2010–15. Dallas Beeler, yet to win a game for the Cubs in parts of two seasons, did win the honor for #32 over #33. The number of pitchers keeps changing, but one number that won’t be added to is #31, which was retired in 2009 for two of the best pitchers to wear any Cubs numbers, much less the same one: Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux.

Uniform #	Number of Pitchers
32	36
33	35
37	34
45	32
38	32