This '59 card gives a small view of the back of his jersey and we can see the "2" from the "23."
This one has the same photo that was used as the insert picture on the 1960 card.
Jerry Kindall spent parts of five different season with the Cubs. For three of the seasons, 1956 - 1958, he wore #23. He played in 104 games during that time, and his average during the three years was .164, .160, and .167. The Curse of #23 lived on with Jerry Kindall.
Things go so bad that he spent the entire 1959 season in the minor leagues. When he returned to the Cubs in 1960, he wised up and switched his number to #16. And, guess what happened to his average. Yup, it went up, up 80 points to .240. That's still not very good, but its a whole let better that where he was at before the switch.
Kindall would be traded to the Indians after the 1961 season, and would also spend some time with the Twins before his career ended in 1965. According to Wikipedia, he had the lowest career average (.213) of any player with more than 2000 at bats. Can this be blamed on #23?
Jerry Kindall went on to be one of the greatest college coaches ever. The ASU field is named after him. You can see him on the Big Ten Network doing some color commentary on baseball games. I had a chance to spend the good portion of an hour with him during a rain delay, and he was a delightful man with many tales of the Cubs, Indians and the '65 Twins.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! Any idea what uniform number he wore at ASU? Based on his success, I'm guessing he didn't wear #23!
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