Sunday Cubs Fact: 51 Players In One Season

The 2000 Cubs will not go down in history as one of the better Cubs teams. In fact, it may have been one of the worst. The 1998 team won the wild card, but in 1999 the North Siders went south and manager Jim Riggleman was fired. Don Baylor was hired as the new skipper and it was an optimistic spring. But the team was just as bad under Baylor as it was with Riggleman, finishing in 6th place with a 65-97 record and two fewer wins than in 1999.

The only thing notable about this team is that there were a whopping 51 players who made an appearance for the Cubs that season, setting the club record. When you have that many players pass through the clubhouse, you know it will not be a very successful year.

I dug through my Cubs sets and found cards of 41 of the players pictured in a Cubs uniform, and 30 of those cards are from 2000. I also found cards of nine of the rest in various Topps complete sets I've got. The only player of the 51 I had no card of was Mike Mahoney, so I borrowed a picture from Beckett for him.

So take a look, nine at a time, at the 51 players of the 2000 Cubs:




Rick Aguilera, Shane Andrews, Jamie Arnold, Tarrik Brock, Brant Brown, Roosevelt Brown, Damon Buford, Scott Downs, and Kyle Farnsworth



Daniel Garibay, Joe Girardi, Ross Gload, Raul Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Willie Greene, Mark Guthrie, Ricky Gutierrez, and Felix Heredia



Glenallen Hill, Jeff Huson, Matt Karchner, Jon Lieber, Cole Liniak, Andrew Lorraine, Oswaldo Mairena, Dave Martinez, and Mike Mahoney



Gary Matthews, Chad Meyers, Joey Nation, Jose Nieves, Phil Norton, Will Ohman, Augie Ojeda, Corey Patterson, and Ruben Quevedo



Steve Rain, Jeff Reed, Henry Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jerry Spradlin, Kevin Tapani, Ismael Valdez, Todd VanPoppel, and Rondell White



Brian Williams, Kerry Wood, Tim Worrell, Danny Young, Eric Young, and Julio Zuleta


When the season was over, some major housecleaning took place. As best as I can figure, only 16 of the 51 played for the Cubs in 2001. And today, only 5 of the 51 are still active major leaguers: Kyle Farnsworth, Gary Matthews, Will Ohman, Augie Ojeda, and Kerry Wood.

New millennium, same results. 2000 was one of many forgettable years for the Chicago Cubs.