Backing Up the Truck: Jim Hickman

Jim Hickman was the next '69 Cub to go in the great purge of 73-74.  He was traded to the Cardinals on March 23, 1974.  

Hickman's playing time had been decreasing the past couple years, and in 1973 his power disappeared.  He went from 19 and 17 homers in '71 and '72 to just 3 in 1973.  At 37 years old, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see him go.

In return the Cubs got Chicago native Scipio Spinks.  Scipio was battling arm problems and he never pitched for the Cubs.  He spent the next two years in AAA and AA ball for three different organizations, but his arm was never the same.

Hickman didn't have a card in the 1974 set despite playing in 93 games.  Spinks played in just 8 games in 1973 and Topps included him, with the Cardinals.  I made the above Cubs version,  Notice the ugly hat I made.  I also left remnants of the Cardinal uniform visible to give it an authentic, ugly 1974 Topps look.

Backing Up the Truck: Ken Rudolph

Not even the backup catcher from the '69 Cubs was immune to the purge after the 1973 season.  Ken Rudolph played in a career high 64 games for the 1973 Cubs.  He was a decent defensive catcher but had a noodle for a bat.  He hit just .206 for the Cubs that season.

  

He was traded to the Giants during spring training, on March 19, 1974.  The Tribune article on the trade mentions that Rudolph was one of the last remaining '69 Cubs.  In return the Cubs got lefty Willie Prall, who spent the 1973 season in AA ball.  Prall's big league career would consist of just three games in 1975. Rudolph would play for another four years as a back-up catcher.

The Prall card is a homemade job.  His three game career netted him nothing on Topps cardboard.

2016 Bowman Scouts Top 100 Cubs

Topp 100,  Top 100, Bowman Scouts Top 100...many names over the past few years, but the same insert set.

The Cubs managed to land three prospects on the top 100 list, despite all the young players that have moved on to Chicago recently.

Glyeber Torres lands on the 15th spot.  Just 19 years old, he is in his third season in the Cubs organization.  Right now he is in high A ball in Myrtle Beach.  He's off to a slow start, hitting just .223 in 27 games.

Catcher Willson Contreras was #68.  He had a very good camp in Arizona and when Miguel Montero got hurt, there was talk of bringing Contreras up.  Joe and Theo shot that down, though, not wanting to rush his development.

The Cubs #1 pick in the 2015 draft, Ian Happ, zoomed halfway up the list, to #49.  He is hitting .280 in Myrtle Beach.

Backing Up the Truck: Ron Santo

The next of the '69 Cubs to be jettisoned was Ron Santo.  He was traded to the Angels on December 4, 1973.  The Cubs got pitchers Andy Hassler and Bruce Heinbechner.

But they didn't.

Ron Santo became the first player in MLB history to exercise his right to refuse a trade.  The recent players agreement gave a 10 year veteran with five years on the same team the right to refuse a trade.  Santo had no interest in going out west.  He had been in Chicago for 14 years and his roots were deeply entrenched in the Windy City.

He told the Cubs GM John Holland that he had no interest in playing anywhere except Chicago.  If the Cubs were going to move Santo, their only option was the White Sox.  And the Sox knew it, too.

All Star slugger Bill Melton was the Sox third baseman.  They had no reason to get Ron Santo.  And if they wanted to get him, knowing that he would only take a trade to the South Side, the Sox should have been able to get him for a bag of balls and a slice of Ron Santo pizza.

Somehow, the Cubs were able to work out a trade and send Santo across town.  He was moved on December 111, 1973.  The shock to me with the traded is that the Cubs got four players in return: Pitchers Steve Stone, Ken Frailing, Jim Kremmel, and catcher Steve Swisher.  The Cubs got more from the Sox than what they were going to get a week earlier from the Angels.

Kudos to the Cubs GM for this one...he got more from the team that had him over a barrel than from the Angels.

 

 

Turns out everyone pretty much got a whole lot of nothing with the trade:

Santo with the Sox... 117 games, .221 average, 5 HR, 41 RBI

Steve Stone with the Cubs... 23-20, 4.04 ERA

Ken Frailing with the Cubs...9-16, 4.16 ERA

Jim Kremmel with the Cubs... 0-2, 5.23 ERA

Steve Swisher with the Cubs...366 games, .217 average...but he was an All Star in 1976...because the Cubs were really bad that year and there had to be at least one All Star from each team.  Sparky Anderson needed a third catcher and the Cubs needed and All Star.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,218 Cubs cards from 108 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1979 Galasso Glossy Greats #59 Charlie Root  You can read more about this set here.  Charlie Root is forever known as the guy that gave up the called shot to Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series.  He went to his grave trying to debunk the "legend".  After looking at home movies of the event, I tend to agree with Root.

1980s: 1989 Perez Steele Celebration #42 Billy Williams  This full-sized post card is in my Billy Williams collection and is one of my favorite pieces.

1990s: 1996 Team-Issued #5 Mike Campbell One nice thing about the team issued cards is that they may be the only Cubs card of guy who had brief stays with the Cubs.  Campbell pitched in just 13 games for the 1996 team.  As far as I know, there are no other cards that show his with the Cubs.

2000s: 2001 Upper Deck #177 Jon Lieber  Lieber was the man for the 2001 Cubs, winning 20 games and losing just 6.  He was an All Star and finished 4th in Cy Young balloting.  It was a sell your soul to the devil season, though.  He messed up his elbow and pitched in just 22 games the next year and missed all of 2003.

2010s: 2016 Topps Berger's Best #64 Kris Bryant  The guy is in just his second season and already has a reprint card.  Yikes.

Backing Up the Truck: Randy Hundley

The ’69 Cubs catcher was the next to go. Randy Hundley was traded to the Twins on December 6, 1973. It was a straight-up catcher-for-catcher deal. The Cubs got George Mitterwald.

 

 

This trade was the first of the Cubs many deals that off-season that was included in the 1974 Topps Traded series. If you’re looking for lots of bad airbrushing all in one convenient location, 1974 Traded is the place for you.

It wasn’t a big surprise to see the Cubs trade Hundley. He was injured for most of the 1970 and 1971 seasons, and was never the same. The 1969 season was the peak of his career.

Backing Up the Truck: Glenn Beckert

A month after Fergie Jenkins was traded, Glenn Beckert was the next to go. I’m sure that he saw the handwriting on the wall when the Cubs acquired Vic Harris in the Jenkins deal. Beckert was aging and had an injury-filled 1973 season.

Beckert was moving west, to the Padres. In return the Cubs got outfielder Jerry Morales.

 

The deal led to a couple of the oddest-looking cards in the 1974 set. Topps spared us the bad airbrush job.  But it doesn't look right to have a Cub uniform on a Padres card and vice-versa.  Also, on the Morales card Topps forgot to change the border color from yellow to blue.

The strange thing with all of this is that the deal was made fairly early in the off season, November 12. Topps put trades made later into the traded set. I’m wondering why this deal was left out.

Here’s another weird thing with the trade. The baseball-reference page for the players list the trade date as November 7, 1973. I looked in the Tribune from the following day for information on the trade, but found nothing. Maybe the deal was made late in the evening of the 7th, past the paper’s deadline. I checked the paper from the 9th --- nothing there either. An article on the trade didn’t appear until November 13. And from reading the article, it seems like the trade was just made. So was the trade made on November 12 or November 7?

I always assumed the deal was a straight up swap of the two players. But according to baseball-reference, the Cubs also included another player, Bobby Fenwick.

Who???

Bobby Fenwick is a name I had never heard of before. Turns out that the Cubs had him for a very short time. In 1973, Fenwick spent time in the Cardinal and Astro organization before the Cubs signed him off of waivers in July. Three organization in three months is not usually an indication that your career is going well.

Fenwick spent the rest of 1973 in AAA and then was included in the Becket trade. He played in 52 games for the Padres AAA team in 1974 and that was his final professional season.