On the Katy Trail - St. Charles, Missouri

 

We're in the home stretch now, with a 27-mile ride to St. Charles yesterday.  We got rain for the first time, too.  We knew it was a possibility, so we left Augusta a little earlier than planned.  We felt the first drops with three miles to go.  Soon it got heavy and we pulled off under some trees.  It let up pretty quickly and we continued to for a mile before it got heavy again.  After a few minutes under a bridge it let up enough for us to go the last quarter mile.

This building was the first Capitol of Missouri.  We took a tour of it since we had also visited the current one in Jefferson City.

St. Charles is the biggest of the cities that we've been through and it has, by far, the most major leaguers.  There are 11 players that were born in St. Charles.  Even better, we finally get a Cub!

I'll start with the ten non-Cubs.  I'm skipping a bio for each since there are so many.  You can click on their picture to get to their Baseball-Reference page.

 

 

 

 

Now, on to the Cub.

There isn't much to say here, unfortunately.  Pitcher Jacob Turner was born in St. Charles in  1991.  He was the Tiger's first-round pick (9th overall) in the 2009 draft.  He made it to the majors by age 20, but ended up playing for five different teams over seven seasons.  He was one of those "Let's take a chance and see if he lives up to the potential" players that never lived up to his potential.

The Cubs picked him up in 2014 in a trade with the Marlins.  Turner pitched in eight games, six as a starter.  He posted a record of 2-4 with an ERA of 6.49.  He was placed on waivers after the season.

The card you see of Turner was made by me.  Topps had a 2014 card for him with the Marlins and they didn't include him in the update set as a Cub, a decision that I fully agree with.