I've reached the end of the line. Actually, this is the start of the line (I've been working backwards from Ryne Sandberg). Leroy Herrmann was the first Cubs player to wear #23, as he was a part of the 1932 team, the first season the team sported numbers.
Herrmann pitched in seven games and was 2-1 but his ERA was a huge 6.39. He was also the first Cub player to abandon #23, switching to #21 in 1933.
And so ends our look at all of the Cubs who wore #23, from Leroy Herrmann to Ryne Sandberg. Other than Ryno, it was pretty much a collection of stiffs who had those digits on their back. I wonder how Ryno escaped the curse??
Here are what the numbers look like for all of the pitchers. They were a combined 73-75 with a 4.02 ERA in 322 games. Yuk!
| Player | Year | Games | Wins | Loses | ERA |
| Leroy Herrman | 1932 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 6.39 |
| Lynn Nelson | 1933 | 24 | 5 | 5 | 3.21 |
| Lynn Nelson | 1934 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 36.00 |
| Roy Joiner | 1935 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 |
| Clyde Shoun | 1935 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2.84 |
| Clyde Shoun | 1936 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12.46 |
| Vern Olsen | 1939 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Vern Olsen | 1940 | 34 | 13 | 9 | 2.97 |
| Vern Olsen | 1941 | 37 | 10 | 8 | 3.15 |
| Vern Olsen | 1942 | 32 | 6 | 9 | 4.49 |
| Vern Olsen | 1946 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2.79 |
| Doyle Lade | 1947 | 34 | 11 | 10 | 3.94 |
| Doyle Lade | 1948 | 19 | 5 | 6 | 4.02 |
| Doyle Lade | 1949 | 36 | 4 | 5 | 5.00 |
| Doyle Lade | 1950 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 4.74 |
| Andy Varga | 1951 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Dave Cole | 1954 | 18 | 3 | 8 | 5.36 |
| Bubba Church | 1954 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 9.82 |
| Bubba Church | 1955 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 |
| Jim Bronsnan | 1958 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3.14 |
| John Buzhardt | 1958 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1.85 |
| TOTALS |
| 322 | 73 | 75 | 4.02 |
The position players were just as bad. Less Sandberg, they combined for a .233 average.
| Player | Year | Average | Games | HR | RBI |
| Phil Cavarretta | 1937 | .286 | 106 | 5 | 56 |
| Phil Cavarretta | 1938 | .239 | 92 | 1 | 28 |
| Roy Hughes | 1944 | .287 | 126 | 1 | 28 |
| Roy Hughes | 1945 | .261 | 69 | 0 | 8 |
| Jerry Kindall | 1956 | .164 | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| Jerry Kindall | 1957 | .160 | 72 | 6 | 12 |
| Jerry Kindall | 1958 | .167 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Moe Thacker | 1958 | .250 | 11 | 2 | 3 |
| Art Schult | 1960 | .133 | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| Nelson Matthews | 1961 | .111 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Nelson Matthews | 1962 | .306 | 15 | 2 | 13 |
| Bobby Smith | 1962 | .172 | 13 | 1 | 2 |
| Nelson Matthews | 1963 | .155 | 61 | 4 | 10 |
| Don Young | 1965 | .057 | 11 | 1 | 2 |
| Carl Warwick | 1966 | .227 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Ron Campbell | 1966 | .217 | 24 | 0 | 4 |
| Manny Jimenez | 1969 | .167 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Jimmie Hall | 1969 | .208 | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| Jimmie Hall | 1970 | .094 | 28 | 0 | 1 |
| Adrian Garrett | 1970 | .000 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Ramon Webster | 1971 | .313 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Carmen Fanzone | 1971 | .186 | 12 | 2 | 5 |
| Carmen Fanzone | 1972 | .225 | 86 | 8 | 42 |
| Carmen Fanzone | 1973 | .273 | 64 | 6 | 22 |
| Carmen Fanzone | 1974 | .190 | 65 | 4 | 22 |
| Pete LaCock | 1975 | .229 | 106 | 6 | 30 |
| Pete LaCock | 1976 | .221 | 106 | 8 | 28 |
| Mike Gordon | 1977 | .043 | 8 | 0 | 2 |
| Mike Gordon | 1978 | .200 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Jim Tracy | 1980 | .254 | 42 | 3 | 9 |
| Jim Tracy | 1981 | .238 | 45 | 0 | 5 |
| TOTALS |
| .233 | 1268 | 60 | 334 |
Ryne Sandberg deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, if only for surviving as long as he did with #23 on his back.
Today we look another of the mediocre Cubs that wore #23, pitcher Clyde Shoun. Shoun's career would span 15 years and he even threw a no-hitter while with the Reds in 1944. But his time with the Cubs while wearing #23 was less than impressive.
Shoun broke into the majors with the Cubs in 1935 and was given #23. He spent the last two months of the season with the Cubs and appeared in five games. His stay in 1936 was a little shorter, only four games. And during those four games, he had an ERA of 12.46. It was time to change numbers!
In 1937, his last with the Cubs, he switched to #21 and stayed with the club the entire season. He posted a 7-7 record and had a pretty high ERA, 5.61.
In the spring of 1938, he was a part of the trade with the Cardinals that brought Dizzy Dean to the Cubs. He spent the next eleven seasons bouncing around between with the Cardinals, Reds, Braves, and White Sox before retiring in 1949.
Lynn Nelson (1933-34) and Roy Joiner (1935) also wore #23, but I've got nothing to show you of these guys.
This Bowman color card from 1953 shows Cavarretta at the Polo Grounds.
This card, from 1999, was given away by the Cubs. It is part of a series that honors the Cubs All-Century team. His more familiar #44 is shown in the upper right corner of the card.
Phil Cavarretta was a fixture with the Cubs for nearly 20 years and was a fan favorite. He was also a local boy, attending Lane Tech High School in Chicago, which is located on Addison Avenue, just a couple miles west of Wrigley Field.
Most old timers who know of Phil Cavarretta won't remember him as #23. He was much more known for #44. In fact, #44 was unofficially retired by the Cubs for a while, as no player wore #44 from the time Cavarretta left the team in 1953 until Burt Hooton was given the number in 1971.
When he came to the Cubs straight from Lane Tech in 1934, he wore #44. He switched to #23 for the 1937 and 1938 seasons. Do you want to guess in which season of his 22 year career he had his lowest batting average? That would be 1938 when he hit only .239 with #23 on his back.
He wisely dumped #23 for the 1939 season, switching to #3 for the next two years, before returning to his original #44 for the last fifteen seasons of his career.
This card from 1954 lists Cavarretta as the Cubs' manager. From 1951 - 1953 he was actually a player manager, though a part-time player. He was fired as manager after 1953 and moved across town to play two more seasons with the White Sox.
I had never heard of pitcher Doyle Lade, and it turns out that I have two of his cards. The one on the top is a Bowman reprint from the 1949 set. It looks like they took a black and white photo and colored it. And it wasn't a very good coloring job: the C in the Cubs logo was painted blue, instead of it's actual color, red.
The second card is a reprint from the 1951 set. Bowman started with the same photo that they did in '49, but used the photo to creating a painting. And this time they left the background in, the beautiful brick wall at Wrigley Field. Plus, this time they got the logo coloring right.
Doyle Lade pitched for the Cubs for five seasons, from 1946 (just three games) to 1950. Most of his career was as a swing man, mostly relieving but getting an occasional spot start. His best season was 1947, his first full season in the majors. He had career highs in starts (25) and wins (11). But his career ERA was high, 4.39, and he didn't make the team in 1951. Instead, he spent the next four years back in the minors. He never did return to the major leagues.
Andy Varga saw very limited time with the Cubs in 1951 wearing #23. Neither Topps or Bowman issued a card for him.
It looks like the picture on this card from Bowman 1955 was taken at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Dodger fans can help me out here, but I believe that the scoreboard over his right shoulder is from Ebbets.
Your given name is "Emory" and your nickname is "Bubba." So which do you go with? Tough choice!
Mr. Church went with Bubba. As far as I can tell, he is the only "Bubba" to play for the Cubs. Bubba came to the Cubs from the Reds in June, 1953. Assigned #33, he went 4-5 with a 5.00 ERA. Church somehow made the team the next season and was given #23. His new number didn't help his pitching numbers; he was 1-3 with a 9.82 ERA. In late May he was sent to AAA and spent the rest of the season in LA. He had good numbers there, going 11-9.
In 1955, it was the same story. He made the team out of Arizona, but didn't do well. He was used in only two games (no record, 5.40 ERA) before being sent back to AAA again. This time, he was there for good, never returning to the big leagues.
While Church was in the minors during the 1954 season, pitcher Dave Cole wore #23. Cole was 3-8 with a 5.36 ERA and was sold to the Phillies during spring training 1955. #23 went back to Bubba Church. Cole never had a Cubs card issued during his brief time with Chicago.
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?
Future author Jim Bronsan is our next #23. Jim wore three different numbers during his four seasons with the Cubs, including #23 during the 1958 season. After spending two seasons as a swingman in the bullpen, Brosnan became a full time starter with the 1958 Cubs. I wonder if that's why he switched uniform numbers?
But it was a short stay in the rotation. He made eight starts and posted a 3-4 record with a 3.14 ERA. That doesn't seem too horribly bad, especially for someone wearing #23. On May 18, he only went 3 2/3 innings against the Giants, giving up four runs. Two days later he was traded to the Cardinals and #23 went back into storage.
Brosnan is more well know for a couple of books he wrote. The Long Season detailed his 1959 season, which saw him again traded mid-year, this time to the Reds. It was the first "inside" look at baseball, though is was very "aw, shucks" when compared to Jim Bouton's Ball Four, which came out ten years later.
He also wrote The Pennant Race, which chronicles the Reds 1961 pennant-winning season. After he retired in 1963, he continued writing.
As a kid, I had this book of his, Little League to Big League, which had chapters on several professional athletes who played Little League as kids. Cubs Ron Santo and Rich Nye were among the featured players. Da Coach Mike Ditka also had a chapter.
Moe Thacker is next up in our look at all the Cubs who wore #23. Moe was a back-up catcher who spent parts of four different seasons with the Cubs and wore four different numbers. He sported #23 during his first run with the Cubs in 1958. Thacker spent the first two weeks of August with the Cubs filling in for starting catcher Sammy Taylor. Moe got seven starts and played in 11 games, hitting .250. But when Taylor was healthy, Thacker went back to the minors for the rest of the season.
Between 1958 and 1962, Moe played in a total 157 games for the Cubs. He hit a measly .177. The Curse of #23 continues!
Moe was one of several different Moes that Cubs had in the late '50's and early '60's. Here is what I wrote about them last year.
Our look at #23 is now into 1958 and the next player is the first pitcher we've had. Since we're working backwards, that makes John Buzhardt the last pitcher to wear the number.
Buzhardt came to the 1958 Cubs as a 21-year-old September call up. He pitched in six games and was pretty successful. After four relief appearances, he got to start two games and won them both. He pitched a complete game against the Dodgers on September 20, holding them to only two runs. Six days later, he again started against the Dodgers and did just as well, limiting them to one run in 8 1/3 innings. His record for the year was 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA. That was good enough to get him a rookie card in the 1959 set.
Maybe the Curse of #23 only applies to position players. If that's the case, then Buzhardt made a big mistake the next season. He switched to #38. His record dropped to 4-5 while his ERA soared to 4.97. After the 1959 season he was traded to the Phillies.
You would have thought that Topps would have used a picture of Art Schult with his eyes open!
Art Schult came to the Cubs in July of 1959, purchased from the Red Sox. He played in 42 games with the Cubs and hit a respectable .271. But Art made a fatal mistake. He switched uniform numbers.
He wore #43 during the 1959 season, but made the switch in 1960 to #23. It was a switch that would kill his career. He was with the Cubs through May, playing in 12 games. His average? It was a measly .133. Schult spent the rest of the season in AAA, and after the season, he was finished as a professional ballplayer.
The curse of #23 got another. Makes you wonder how Ryne Sandberg ever made it to Cooperstown!
Outfielder Nelson Matthews played in bits of four seasons with the Cubs, from 1960 - 1963. He wore #23 during the last three seasons. His only Topps card with the Cubs was this rookie card from 1963. None of the four featured did much, though one of the guys had a pretty decent NBA career.
It looks like Matthews was another of the many players the Cubs rushed to the majors, only to see them flop. He made his MLB debut in September, 1960, at the age of 18. The next two seasons saw him have September call ups also, and with these, he was wearing #23. His only full season with the Cubs was 1963. He started 35 games in the first half of the season, but hit only .156. His playing time was limited the second half, probably the result of that .156 average. He ended the year with a .155 average, 4 home runs, and 10 RBI's.
After the 1963 season, he was traded to the A's, where he would spend the last year and a half of his big league career. His final game was July 18, 1965, and he went out with a bang, going 2-4 with a home run.
Bobby Gene Smith also wore #23 in 1962. He was with the team for only 1 1/2 months, played in 13 games, and hit .172. The Cubs were the second of three teams he played for in 1962, and no Cubs card of him was made.
Next up in our look at all the Cubs that wore #23 is Don Young, who wore the number in an 11 game stint with the Cubs in 1965.
Don Young was signed by the Cardinals as a 17-year-old free agent in June of 1963. The next spring the Cubs grabbed him in the first year waiver draft. By 1965 he was in AA and hit .273 with 16 home runs. That was good enough to earn him a September call-up and a shot at the majors. He played in 11 games and had 36 at bats, but only two hits, which is a .057 average. The curse of #23 lived on!
Its interesting that an .057 average in 11 games was good enough to get him a rookies star card in the 1966 set.
In May of 1967 the Cubs sold him back to the Cardinals, but in two months the Cubs bought him back. I wonder what the story there was?
It would be four years before Young returned to the majors, as a member of the 1969 Cubs. This time around he was given #29. He played in 101 games and was involved in one of the most controversial events of the season. His baseball career ended after two season back in the minors.
#23 was worn by two utlility infielders in 1966. The first, Carl Warwick, was picked up in a trade at the end of spring training and was with the Cubs through June. He was then released, ending his six year career. His late arrival with the team and his early departure meant no card for Carl in a Cubs uniform.
After Warwick and his .227 batting average were cut, Ron Campbell was called up from AAA to take Warwick's roster spot and wear his number #23. This was actually Campbell's third trip to the majors. In his previous two stints, he wore two different numbers (#7 and #15). He stayed with the team the rest of the season and played in 24 games, though he hit only .217.
Those 24 games were enough to earn himself a card in the 1967 set. But those 24 games were his final ones in the major leagues. He spent all of 1967 and 1968 with the Cubs AAA team and the next two seasons with the Pirates top farm team before retiring after the 1970 season.
I would have to say that the curse of #23 continued on with the two guys who wore in in 1966.
In 1967 and 1968, #23 was assigned to Garry Jestadt, a top Cubs prospect. However, Jestadt was never called to the majors, so #23 just sat in a closet for two seasons. In December, 1968, Jestadt was taken by the Expos in the expansion draft, so that made #23 available.
Next up in our look at #23 is Jimmie Hall. He is one Cubs player that I have absolutely no recollection of. But there is probably a good reason for it. He joined the team on September 11, 1969. But by then my seven year old heart had already been crushed. The Cubs were in second place and I was back in school, a third grader trying to forget the season.
When I put my first Cubs team sets together in the late '70's, I was shocked by this card. I had no idea who Jimmie Hall was or that he played with the '69 Cubs. I remembered every other player with a Cubs card from the '70 set, but not this guy.
The Cubs were Hall's third team of the 1969 season, having also spent time with the Angels and the Yankees. It would be safe to say that your career is on it's last legs when you play for three teams in one season.
Hall came to the majors with the Twins in 1963 and hit 33 home runs, yet finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting, behind Gary Peters and Pete Ward of the White Sox. He was an All Star the next two seasons, but his home run numbers were dropping. After his average dipped to only .239 in 1966, the Twins traded him to the Angels. His first season with California was his last as an everyday player. After that he was a pinch hitter and reserve outfielder.
Though he played in only 11 games for the 1969 Cubs, Hall got a card in Topp's 1970 set. He returned to the team in 1970, but played in only 28 games and hit .094. In late June the Cubs sold him to the Braves, where he played in another 39 games. The Braves released him after the season and he never played major league ball again.
Hall was the second player to wear #23 in 1969. Earlier in the season, Manny Jimenez wore it. His stay with the team was barely a month long and Topps didn't make a card for him. He made only six pinch hit appearances and was held hitless.
Both Hall and Jimenez give you an idea of just how bad the players in #23 were. I put all of the players who wore the number in the '70's and '80's (except Ryne Sandberg) into a spreadsheet to total up their stats.
Here's what they look like:
Games...602
AB's...1360
Hits...302
Home Runs...37
RBI's...167
Walks...187
Strike Outs...267
Batting Average... .222
Those are some really horrible stats. We'll see if the guys from the '50's and '60's did any better.
This 1974 card is Garrett's only one in a Cubs uniform and its from his second stint with the team. That is why you see #25 on his back, not #23.Our next #23 is Adrian Garrett. He wore the number during a brief stay with the Cubs in the 1970 season. Originally a Braves farmhand, Garrett had moved through the Braves, Mets, and Phillies organizations before the Cubs obtained him off of waivers in December, 1969. He played in only three games for the 1970 Cubs in September and was 0 for 3 in three pinch hit appearances.
He went back to AAA for the 1971 season and was traded to Oakland in late August. A little more than a year later, in mid-September, 1972, the Cubs reacquired him. He would spend parts of the next three seasons with the Cubs and their AAA team. Like Pete LaCock, each time he got to Chicago he was given a different number. Since Carmen Fanzone had joined the team and was wearing #23, Garrett wore #25, #5, and #28.
During his four years with the Cubs, Garrett hit an anemic .163 in 86 at bats. After his time with the Cubs, he was just as bad for the A's and the Angels. When the Angels released him after the 1976 season, he tried his luck in Japan. There he finally found some success, belting 102 home runs over three seasons for the Hiroshima Carp.
And any post on Adrian Garrett has to have the obligatory mention of his little brother Wayne, who was an infielder for the lousy, no good dream wreckers, the 1969 Mets.
In between Garrett and Fanzone, Ramon Webster wore #23 for a very brief 16 game stint with the 1971 Cubs. He was released during the season and Topps never issued a card for him in a Cubs uniform.
This picture on this card from 1973 was taken in 1972, which was the first season the Cubs wore pullover jerseys. Their road uniform had a unique feature; the number was centered on the chest. I believe this is the only time any MLB team wore centered numbers on the front of a jersey. The next season the numbers were moved to the left side. They are still there today.
Utility infielder Carmen Fanzone had a four year run in #23, from 1971 - 1974. He is the first player I remember with that number. You may have never heard of Carmen Fanzone, but I have a very special memory of him that I'll share a little later.
First, a bit about the player. Fanzone was drafted by the Red Sox in 1964, and finally got a brief shot at the majors in 1970. After the season he was traded to the Cubs for another utility infielder, Phil Gagliano. Fanzone spent most of 1971 in AAA, but had a short 12 game stint with the big club. He spent the next three seasons as the Cubs main utility infielder, averaging about 70 games per season. He was on the team for his glove, not his bat, as his career .224 average would indicate. He slumped to a minuscule .190 in 1974 and he was released after the season.
Fanzone was also known for his trumpet playing ability. In the off-season he was a professional musician, and after his baseball career was over, he pursued music full time playing jazz. While with the Cubs he performed the national anthem.. You could say that Fanzone could hit the high notes but not a curveball!
It looks like this photo was taken during the same photo shoot as the picture used on the 1973 card. In the '74, the uniform he's wearing the uniform that the Cubs wore only in 1972. The red and blue stripes on the sleeves and neck were only on the 1972 uniforms.
This Topps 1975 card gives us a good look at the #23 painted on his helmet inside the C.
Now, my Carmen Fanzone story:
I grew up in Oak Lawn, a suburb just southwest of Chicago. I was the lone Cubs fan in a Sox family deep inside Sox country. My opportunities to go to Wrigley Field were few!
But I got one in 1972. The Certified Grocery Stores were having a contest, giving away free Cubs tickets. All you had to do was write your name and address on the back of a store receipt and put it in a box. The local Certified by us was Freshline Foods, on 95th Street (its still there today and I bet Steve at White Sox Cards knows exactly where it is) and my mom shopped there pretty regularly. I saved as many receipts as I could get from her and I even scrounged around the ground outside the store for others. I put my name on all of them, and in the great Chicago voting tradition, I stuffed the ballot box.
I'd like to think that it was a combination of my box stuffing and a lack of south side Cubs fans, because I won two free box seats! I was one thrilled ten-year-old. The tickets were for Sunday, July 30, against the Cardinals. And even better, it was a doubleheader. I don't think my Sox fan dad was too thrilled about it, but after church, we got dropped off at 63rd and Ashland and hopped the L to Wrigley.
The Cubs won game one behind the pitching of a rookie named Rick Reuschel. But it was in between games that I got my thrill. Our seats were boxes on the third base side, the Cubs dugout side. There were some players hanging around the wall signing autographs, so I made my way down there. When I got to the wall I just stuck my scorecard out and hoped someone would take it.
The scorecard and my pencil were grabbed by none other than Carmen Fanzone, who signed the front of the card! I had my very first Cubs autograph! I think I floated back to my seat and spent all of game two staring at the card. The Cubs won the second game too, but sweeping the Cardinals took a back seat to my Carmen Fanzone autograph!
The autograph has faded over the years, but it's still visible inside that white box I added to the card a few years after I got the autograph.
You can pick up a Carmen Fanzone autograph on ebay for less that $10, but I wouldn't let this one go for all the money in the world!
First, let's get the 7th grade humor out of the way.
Peter LaCock...what a name! Too bad he wasn't on the Cubs when Dick Pole was the pitching coach!
OK, now, on to the post.
LaCock was the Cubs first round draft pick in 1970. By 1972, he was already with the Cubs, although it was only for a September call-up. He also spent small parts of 1973 and 1974 with the team, though most of those seasons were spent in AAA. Each stint with the big team saw him with a different number. In '72, he wore #24, in '73 it was #25, and in 1974 he was given #22.
He stayed with the Cubs for the next two complete seasons, and wore #23 both years. His stats were nearly identical both years:
1975, 106 games, 249 ABs, .229 average, 6 HR, 30 RBIs
1976, 106 games, 244 ABs, .221 average, 8 HR, 28 RBIs
Those mediocre numbers caused the Cubs to give up on LaCock and he was traded to the Royals over the winter of 1976-1977.
I've got three other cards of Pete LaCock, but none give us a very good look at his number.
This SSPC from 1976 doesn't show his uniform, but you can see the "23" painted on his helmet inside the C
Topps 1975, a headshot
Topps 1976, another headshot, again, no look at the uniform.
And finally, any Pete LaCock post has to have the obligatory mention that he was the son of Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall. Here are some great quotes between Peter Marshall and Paul Lynde.
After Pete LaCock was traded, back up catcher Mike Gordon wore #23 for 8 games in 1977 and four more in 1978. His short stint was ignored by Topps.
This card from Donruss 1982 gives us a great look at #23.Before Ryne Sandberg, there was Jim Tracy.
You will never confuse the playing careers of the two, but they did wear the same number.
The Cubs drafted Tracy in the 4th round of the January draft in 1977. He worked his way up the Cubs chain and made his major league debut on July 20, 1980. His time as #23 was pretty brief; 87 games over two seasons. He had a .249 average with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs.
I have only two memories of Tracy's time with the Cubs, and they're not especially flattering. First, he was another in a long line of outfield prospect flops (Brian Rosinski, Scott Thompson, Karl Pagel). And second, I remember that big chin of his sticking out.
After the 1981 season, Tracy was traded to the Astros for outfielder Gary Woods. He didn't make the team and spent all of 1982 in AAA. He then went across the Pacific and spent two seasons as a player for Taiyo Whales in the Japanese League.
His managerial career began in 1987 when the Cubs hired him to run their Class A team in Peoria, a job he held for two seasons. He also spent time managing and/or coaching in the Reds and Expos organizations before he was named the manager of the Dodgers in 2001.
From there it was five years in LA, two with the Pirates, and he begins his second season with the Rockies in April.
Fleer 1981, Tracy in action at Wrigley Field.
Donruss 1981, more action at Wrigley Field.
Topps 1982, though Tracy was traded to the Astros on December 9, 1981.
Sandberg was the last Cub player to wear #23. The team officially retired it on August 28, 2005. I'm sure it was unofficially retired after Ryno's last season, 1997, since no one wore it after that.
As I wrote yesterday, before Sandberg, the number had been passed along to a host of scrubs. When he came to the Cubs for the 1982 season, I'd suspect that the team wasn't really sure what they had. He came to spring training as a player looking for a position. He was seen as either a center fielder or third baseman. It was third base he ended up at.
I vividly remember the very slow start he got off to at the beginning of his rookie season. It took him seven games and 21 at bats before he finally got his first hit of the season. When April ended, he was hitting .203. But the team didn't give up on him, and by the end of the season he raised his average to a respectable .271. The Cubs also wanted to see him at second base and that is where he spent the last month of the season....and the rest of his career.
From there, his career took off...
...1984 MVP
...9 Gold Gloves
...10 All Star Appearances
...league leading 40 home runs in 1990
...most career home runs of all second basemen (at the time he retired)
And he was a classy player. He played the game it was supposed to be played. I've always liked him and I was lucky enough to be in the upper deck on the first base side for his final game at Wrigley Field on September 21, 1997. In the bottom of the fifth, he got a single off of Curt Schilling. He was replaced by a pinch runner and as he made his way to the dugout, everyone in the park got on their feet and gave him a long, loud standing ovation. It was a goose bump moment and something I will always remember.
I've got 206 Ryne Sandberg cards. The ones here give you a good look at #23
Fleer 1983, shown at spring training 1982, the last time the Cubs wore their pajama uniforms. When the season started in April, they had their blue softball uniforms instead.
Leaf 1994
Bowman 1994
Score 1997
Select 1997
Upper Deck 1998
This is the card given out at Wrigley Field the day his #23 was retired.
