The featured player today is pitcher Steve Trout, aka Rainbow. Although there have been many players who have played for both the Cubs and Sox, Trout is one of only a few who had extended and successful stays on both sides of town. He spent five seasons with the Sox and 4 1/2 with the Cubs and was good with both.
The son of former big league Dizzy Trout, and a Chicago area native, Steve was drafted by the Sox in the first round of the 1976 draft. Only two years later, he was on the mound at Comiskey Park, going 3-0 in four games at the end of the 1978 season. In 1979 he was inserted into the starting rotation and started 88 games over the next four seasons and was 37-40 during his time on the south side.
Topps 1980, this is his first card as a big leaguer. He looks really young.
His final card with the Sox, Topps 1983
The Cubs acquired him in January, 1983, in a trade that involved a total of six players. That, too, was unusual, in that the Cubs and Sox did very little trading with each other, especially mutliplayer deals. New Cubs GM Dallas Green was throwing all the old rules out.
Trout would put up the best numbers of his career while with the Cubs, going 43-38 over 138 games. He was an important part of the 1984 Eastern Division championship team, with a 13-7 record that year. He started game 2 of the NLCS and got the win for the Cubs. The victory put the Cubs up 2-0 in the series, and as the teams moved on to San Diego, all the Cubs needed was one win in three games to move on the the World Series....a win they never got.
But he peaked in 1984 and would never win more than nine games the rest of his career. In 1987 he was traded mid-season to the Yankees, but went 0-4 in the Bronx. He spent the last two seasons of his career with the Mariners before being released in June, 1989.
Trout's first Topps card with the Cubs was in the 1983 traded set.
From Donruss 1984, making a pitch at Wrigley.
Fleer 1986, a head shot.
And his final Topps Cubs card, 1987
I always thought that Steve Trout looked like a grandmother on his 1986 Topps card.
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