The Ones That Got Away: Cubs, Part 1

Of the three dozen or so most prominent examples of players, coaches, and/or managers who left Chicago early in their careers and went on to greater glory elsewhere, escapees from the Cubs outnumber those of our other local franchises. The most noteworthy from before World War II are recalled below.




Rube Waddell
Cubs, 1901

     Although he ranks among the greatest lefthanders of all time, Rube Waddell is remembered as much for his eccentricities as for his pitching. For example, he loved to chase fire engines, and would do so even during games. He came to Chicago in 1901 after two partial seasons with Louisville (which was then a major-league club) and a full year with Pittsburgh. He went 13-15 for the Cubs before his erratic behavior got him suspended for the last month of the season.
     Sold to Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, Waddell averaged 22 wins over the next six years and became the most proficient strikeout artist the game had ever seen. In 1903, when Waddell struck out 302 batters, no other pitcher in the league struck out even 200. His 349 strikeouts in 1904 established a record that stood for 61 years. He entered the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1946, whereupon Mack said, “I have seen all of the best lefthanders since the late 1890s, but none was greater than Waddell.”




Fred Toney
Cubs, 1911 - 1913

     The man who won the only double no-hitter in major-league history did so against his former teammates. Fred Toney broke in with the Cubs in 1911 and appeared in a total of 34 games between then and 1913, winning four and losing five. He didn't pitch at all in the majors in 1914, but he resurfaced with Cincinnati in 1915 and won 135 games over the next nine years for the Reds, Giants, and Cardinals.
     Toney's best year was 1917, when he racked up 24 wins, including complete-game victories in both ends of a July doubleheader. On May 2 of that year, he outlasted Hippo Vaughn and the Cubs in the greatest pitchers' duel of all time. Neither Toney nor Vaughn allowed a hit for the first nine innings, but the Reds finally broke through with a run on two hits in the top of the tenth. Toney retired the Cubs 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the frame to record a ten-inning no-hitter.





Cy Williams
Cubs, 1912 - 1917

     On the day after Christmas in 1917, the Cubs traded Cy Williams to Philadelphia for another veteran outfielder, Dode Paskert. Williams, one of the National League’s foremost home-run hitters in 1915 and 1916, was coming off a sub-par season in which he had batted just .241 with 5 homers and 42 RBIs. Paskert was an eleven-year man who had never attained stardom but could be a solid contributor on the right ballclub. The trade looked like a gift in 1918, when Paskert hit .286 and knocked in a career-high 59 runs for the pennant-winning Cubs while Williams continued to struggle. Between 1920 and 1928, however, Williams belted 197 home runs—more than any National Leaguer except Rogers Hornsby. When he retired in 1930, he had hit 251 homers and had topped the 1,000 mark in both runs scored and RBIs. Paskert had already been out of baseball for nine years.




Joe McCarthy
Cubs, 1926 - 1930
    
     Joe McCarthy never played in the major leagues and had never managed there either when he was hired as skipper by Cubs president Bill Veeck, Sr., in 1926. His veteran players never let him forget either of these facts—they called him “bush leaguer” or “busher.” Nonetheless, McCarthy showed his mettle early on by trading the fabled pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander when it became clear that the two couldn’t get along. The Cubs won the pennant for McCarthy in 1929, but he was fired after a second-place finish in 1930. He hooked on with the New York Yankees, for whom he won eight pennants and seven World Series (including two four-game sweeps of the Cubs). McCarthy’s career total of nine pennants tied the record held by the legendary John McGraw; it was later surpassed by Casey Stengel’s ten. McCarthy and Stengel share the record for world championships with seven. McCarthy ranks first all-time in winning percentage for both the regular season (.615) and World Series (.698). He entered the Hall of Fame in 1957.




Dolph Camilli
Cubs, 1933 - 1934     
    
     The trade of Dolph Camilli to the Philadelphia Phillies for another slugging first baseman, Don Hurst, early in the 1934 season was in keeping with the Cubs’ philosophy of going with tested veteran players. Camilli had played in only 48 big-league games, while Hurst had been a top run producer for years—leading the league with 143 RBIs in 1932. But the trade soon proved a disaster. Hurst played only 51 games for the Cubs, hitting .199, and never appeared in the majors again. Camilli had an eight-year stretch with the Phillies and Dodgers during which he scored 88 or more runs every year, hit 23 or more homers every year, and knocked in 100 runs five times. His league-leading 34 homers and 120 RBIs in 1941 carried Brooklyn to its first pennant in 21 years, and Camilli was selected the National League’s Most Valuable Player.




Eddie Stanky
Cubs, 1943 - 1944
    
     When the Cubs dealt second baseman Eddie Stanky to the Brooklyn Dodgers, the move attracted little notice, and not only because it occurred on D-Day—June 6, 1944. But “the Brat,” as Stanky was called, soon made his mark. He employed all kinds of tricks to annoy and distract his opponents, and they usually worked. He led the National League in walks three times and in runs scored once, and played a key role with pennant winners in Brooklyn (1947), Boston (1948), and New York (1951). Leo Durocher said that Stanky “can't hit, can't throw, can't run—all he can do is beat you.”
     “If you had the bases loaded in the ninth with two out, and the pennant depended on it,” Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey used to ask his rookies every spring training, “who would you want up to bat for you?” The youngsters would name the usual suspects—Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, etc. Then Rickey would exclaim, “Wrong! You’d want Ed Stanky!”

Dave Duerson, 1950 - 2011

    

DAVE DUERSON

     When rookie safety Dave Duerson, a third-round draft pick out of Notre Dame, was informed that he had made the Bears' roster at the close of training camp in 1983, he did not receive the good news from defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan in quite the way that he'd imagined. He wasn't told, "Welcome aboard; we're glad to have you!" Instead, the crusty Ryan told him, "You better be good. I had to cut my best friend to make room for you." Ryan was referring to Doug Plank, the human missile whose uniform number had given the famed "46" defense its name.
     Duerson, who passed away last week at the age of 50, turned out to be pretty good. He played seven years for the Bears, the last five as a starter. He made the Pro Bowl in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988. In 1986, he set a record for defensive backs by recording seven sacks. In 1987, he received the NFL's Man of the Year award, which goes to the player who best combines excellence on the field with a commitment to community service (the award was renamed for Walter Payton after his passing in 1999).
     Duerson "stepped in and did a great job for us," said Bears head coach Mike Ditka. It was no fault of Duerson's that he was not as famous in Chicago as most four-time Pro Bowlers would have been, because the Bears of those days were well stocked with larger-than-life characters (starting with Ditka himself) who, intentionally or not, tended to attract the spotlight.
     After leaving the Bears, Duerson served as a backup with the New York Giants and the Phoenix Cardinals, wrapping up his 11-year career in 1993. He was one of only three 1985 Bears to earn two Super Bowl rings. It is well known and still lamented that the Super Bowl XX champions never returned to the pinnacle--but Duerson picked up a second ring with the 1990 Giants, as did Richard Dent with the 1994 49ers and Jim McMahon with the 1996 Packers.
     The intelligent, ambitious Duerson became a successful entrepreneur after his playing days, and for some time he was viewed as a role model for retired athletes wishing to make a smooth transition to other careers. Duerson later suffered reversals that included financial difficulties and a domestic-battery complaint in 2005, but former teammates who saw him at the 1985 Bears' reunion last November said he looked fit and seemed to be in good spirits. They were stunned to learn that his death has been ruled a suicide. "I knew he had some problems," Ditka said, "I knew he lost his business. I knew all that. [But] it's just a tragedy."
     "For someone to leave us at age 50, very young, active, and in great shape, that's tragic," said former linebacker Jim Morrissey. "It's way too early for someone to pass. We were just hoping he would have said something, that we could have helped."
     Although Duerson did not reach out for help himself, it's possible that his untimely passing will eventually help others. He donated his brain to further research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative neurological disease that has afflicted many former NFL players.

'Twas Twenty Years Ago: Chicago Sports Memories of 1991

    

MICHAEL JORDAN (foreground)
and MAGIC JOHNSON

     After losing the Eastern Conference finals to the Detroit Pistons in both 1989 and 1990, the Bulls vowed that it would not happen again in 1991. They won 20 out of 21 games during a late-season surge that saw them overtake Detroit for the division title. Michael Jordan, in his seventh season, earned his second Most Valuable Player award, while fourth-year men Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant emerged as key contributors.
     In the postseason, the Bulls made quick work of the New York Knicks (three games to none) and Philadelphia 76ers (four games to one) to set up the opportunity that they had waited for all year: a rematch with Detroit in the conference finals.
     The Bulls not only won the series; they swept it in four straight games. They trailed for just 13 of the 192 minutes played. Detroit coach Chuck Daly frankly admitted that his team had no answer for the Bulls' quickness, athleticism, and desire. As the clock ticked down in the final game, Detroit's Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, Mark Aguirre, and Dennis Rodman embarrassed themselves more thoroughly than the Bulls' dominance had. They left the bench and slinked into the locker room before the game was over. "[The Bulls] still haven't proved anything," Rodman said. "They've got to win about five or six championships before they're a great team."
     Even by Rodman's impossibly lofty standard, of course, the Bulls qualified for greatness before the decade was out.
     They dispatched Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers with surprising ease in the NBA Finals to capture their first world championship. Jordan cradled the trophy in his arms and wept for joy, but also for relief that he was no longer a superstar whose team had never won a title. He didn't know yet that this first ascent to the pinnacle was not the culmination of his career, but just the beginning of a new phase.

     The Blackhawks sailed through the 1990-91 season with a record of 49-23-8, racking up 106 points and capturing the President's Trophy as NHL regular-season champions. Ed Belfour won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and the Vezina Trophy as the league's outstanding goalie. Laconic veteran right wing Steve Larmer and brash young center Jeremy Roenick were the club's top offensive threats, and Chicago native Chris Chelios, newly arrived from Montreal in a trade for star center Denis Savard, anchored the backline. The Hawks went into the postseason with justifiably high hopes—but they failed to advance beyond the first round. They lost the first series to the Minnesota North Stars, four games to two.

     In Mike Ditka's 10th year as their head coach, the Bears went 11-5 and qualified for the NFL playoffs as a wild-card entry. The streaky Bears won their first four games, lost two, won five, lost two, won two, and lost one. Somewhat infamously, they were routed 52-14 by San Francisco in the season finale on Monday Night Football. The 49ers (who finished at 10-6) had already been eliminated from the postseason, and they took out their frustration on the Bears before a national audience.
     The Bears lost to Dallas, 17-13, at Soldier Field in the divisional playoff round. It turned out to be their last playoff game under Ditka, whose postseason record ended up at 6-6. The Bears sent five players to the Pro Bowl: running back Neal Anderson, center Jay Hilgenberg, linebacker Mike Singletary, strong safety Shaun Gayle, and free safety Mark Carrier.

     The White Sox moved into the new Comiskey Park (now known as U.S. Cellular Field), directly across 35th Street from the site of their previous home. They drew over 2.9 million to the new park, not just breaking the franchise attendance record, but shattering it by 800,000. Coming off an excellent showing in 1990, the Sox slipped a bit in the standings, going 87-75 to finish eight games behind the world-champion Minnesota Twins. On the plus side, a pair of 23-year-olds, first baseman Frank Thomas and third baseman Robin Ventura, established themselves as rising stars. Both would be fixtures on the South Side for years to come.
     On August 11, 21-year-old lefty Wilson Alvarez made his White Sox debut a memorable one, tossing a no-hitter at Baltimore. (He had started one game for the Texas Rangers in 1989, becoming the first person born in the 1970s to play in the major leagues.) The 7-0 victory put the Sox 20 games over .500, but they proceeded to drop 15 of the next 17 and never threatened thereafter.

     The Cubs came into the season with three new big-name, big-money free agents on the roster—outfielder George Bell, starting pitcher Danny Jackson, and closer Dave Smith. None of them performed up to expectations, and manager Don Zimmer didn't last through May. Club president Don Grenesko mentioned to reporters that Zimmer, like every employee of the Tribune Company, would be subject to an annual performance evaluation. When Zimmer (who was not familiar with or agreeable to the practices of corporate "suits" like Grenesko) took offense and demanded that he receive his evaluation then and there, Grenesko obliged by firing him.
     Zimmer's replacement was Iowa Cubs skipper Jim Essian, a catcher on the White Sox' "South Side Hit Men" team of 1977. Essian guided the Cubs to a 59-63 mark for the remainder of the season and never managed in the majors again. General manager Jim Frey was also shown the door after the season, and he too was replaced by a White Sox alumnus, Larry Himes.

     Owned by suburban car dealer Jeff Sullivan and trained by Chicago fixture Ernie Poulos, Black Tie Affair won his last six starts—all in graded-stakes competition—to take home Horse of the Year honors. He was the first Chicago-based Horse of the Year since the 1950s, he remains the last to date, and (given the lamentable state of racing in Illinois), he might well have been the last of all time.

     They passed away in 1991: William "Dick the Bruiser" Afflis, 62, professional wrestler; Luke Appling, 83, White Sox shortstop 1930-1950, Hall of Famer; Smoky Burgess, 64, Cubs catcher 1949 and 1951, White Sox pinch hitter 1964-1967; Leo Durocher, 86, Cubs manager 1966-1972; Harold "Red" Grange, 87, Bears halfback 1925 and 1929-1934, Hall of Famer; Paul Thompson, 84, Blackhawks left wing 1931-1939 and head coach 1938-1945.

Chuck Tanner, 1929 - 2011

    

CHUCK TANNER, 1971

     Chuck Tanner played for the Cubs, managed the White Sox, and approached everything he did with infectious optimism. He passed away last Friday at the age of 81.
     Tanner made his big-league debut as a player for the Milwaukee Braves on Opening Day in 1955, cracking a home run on the very first pitch he saw. The blow did not portend greatness, however, for Tanner's eight-year career produced totals of 21 homers, 98 runs scored, and 105 runs batted in, to go with a .261 batting average. More than half of Tanner's hits, homers, and RBIs came in a two-year stint with the Cubs in 1957 and 1958.
     Tanner resurfaced in the majors when he was named skipper of the White Sox late in the 1970 season. After 17 consecutive winning seasons from 1951 to 1967, the Sox had fallen on hard times. They bottomed out in 1970, losing a club-record 106 games while drawing only 495,000 fans to Comiskey Park. The Sox went 3-13 under Tanner as they limped to the finish line.
     It looked like more of the same in 1971, as the White Sox lost 38 of their first 60 games and occupied last place into July. But the Sox went 12 games over .500 for the rest of the way to finish at a respectable 79-83. Tanner's positive attitude and relentless cheerleading helped, but not as much as his decision to convert knuckle-balling lefty reliever Wilbur Wood into a starter. Wood won 22 games and finished third in the voting for the Cy Young award (for the rest of Tanner's tenure as manager, Wood led the league in games started every year; he won 106 games in five seasons). A pair of 20-year-olds, lefty Terry Forster and righty Rich "Goose" Gossage, anchored the bullpen, and third baseman Bill Melton led the league with 33 home runs.
     Thanks to the Sox' improved play on the field and the arrival of the ultimate baseball-and-beer salesman, Harry Caray, in the broadcast booth, attendance increased nearly 70 percent.
     In 1972, first baseman Dick Allen was acquired in a trade for pitcher Tommy John. Having worn out his welcome with three other clubs in the past three years, Allen flourished with the White Sox. He skipped batting practice, traveled separately from his teammates, and smoked on the bench, but Tanner didn't mind. He blithely admitted that he had one set of rules for Allen and another for the rest of the team. The moody slugger responded with a then-club-record 37 homers to go with 113 RBIs and a .308 average and won the Most Valuable Player award as the Sox finished just five and a half games behind the Oakland A's, who won the world championship. Tanner was named American League Manager of the Year.
     A particular highlight of that season was a doubleheader sweep of the Yankees on June 4 before a Bat Day crowd of 51,904 at Comiskey Park. In the nightcap, the Sox were trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth when Allen blasted a three-run pinch-hit homer into the upper deck in left field.
     The White Sox were relevant again. Attendance ratcheted up to 1.17 million in 1972 and 1.3 million (third highest in club history at the time) in 1973.
     Tanner was let go when Bill Veeck reacquired the franchise after the 1975 season. He managed the A's for one season, then piloted his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, for nine years, winning the World Series in 1979. He concluded his career with the Atlanta Braves in 1988. Phil Garner, who played for Tanner with the Pirates and later became a manager himself, said, "Chuck Tanner taught me nearly all I know about baseball."

Robinson vs. LaMotta: "The Second St. Valentine's Day Massacre"



JAKE LaMOTTA (left) VS. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON

     
     The sensational middleweight title bout between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta on February 14, 1951, went down in Chicago boxing lore as “the second St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”
     When Robinson stepped into the Chicago Stadium ring that night, his record as a professional was a stupendous 122-1. LaMotta was responsible for the “1”; he had defeated Sugar Ray in the second of their eventual five meetings. Now, after six years, their paths crossed again because Robinson had outgrown the welterweight class, of which he was world champion, in two ways—it was difficult for him to stay under the 147-pound weight limit, and it was impossible for him to find worthy challengers.
     Both fighters were 29 years old, but that was all they had in common. Robinson was tall, lean, lithe, and even elegant; he was now carrying 154 pounds on his five-foot-11 frame, but his chest was only 36½ inches and his waist 28½. LaMotta was built like a fireplug; though only five-foot-eight, he sported a 42-inch chest and 33-inch waist. After strenuously reducing for several weeks, he came into the fight just half a pound below the middleweight maximum of 160.
     The fight drew a crowd of 14,802 and a national television audience of millions. From the opening bell, LaMotta forced the issue. The man later portrayed by Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull stalked Robinson, battering him with body blows and forcing him to retreat from lefts to the head. LaMotta dominated for the first eight rounds.
     The tide turned in the ninth. Now LaMotta’s spirit was willing, but not his body. All of a sudden he was a stationary target for Robinson’s harassing jabs and punishing shots to the midsection throughout the ninth and 10th rounds. LaMotta flashed back to life in the 11th, briefly backing Robinson into a corner and flailing at him with both hands. When Sugar Ray broke free, he took command for good. “I came out fast and got going after that,” he said.
     “LaMotta was finished,” Wilfrid Smith wrote, “but he would not quit. Throughout the 12th round Robinson hit the fading champion with either hand. He jabbed and hooked, and all that saved LaMotta was an ingrained desire to walk toward the man who dealt him punishment.” LaMotta did not land a meaningful punch in the 12th, but he absorbed plenty. Late in the round, Robinson was hammering him so savagely that George Gainford, Robinson’s manager, yelled, “Stop the fight! Stop the fight!” Referee Frank Sikora, however, did not act.
     LaMotta had never been knocked down in his career, and against Robinson he retained this distinction by sheer stubbornness. By the 13th round he was completely defenseless. For two minutes Sikora glanced nervously at the Illinois boxing commissioners sitting ringside, as if looking for advice, while Robinson continued to pound LaMotta. Jake was bleeding from the mouth and from the left eye when he staggered back against the ropes with his arms at his sides. Finally, Sikora moved in and stopped the contest. Robinson was awarded a technical knockout. It was later suggested that LaMotta’s reputation for occasional brutality in the ring had led Sikora and the other officials, perhaps unconsciously, to allow him a taste of his own medicine before calling a halt to the carnage.
     Despite taking a terrible beating, LaMotta remained defiant. “I didn’t go down, Ray,” he told Robinson before leaving the ring. “You didn’t get me down.”
     LaMotta admitted that this had been the toughest of his six fights with Sugar Ray. “I just ran out of gas,” he said. He had lost 17 pounds in the past few weeks, including four pounds the day before the bout, in order to get under the 160-pound limit. The drastic weight loss had sapped his strength, and no fighter could hope to beat Sugar Ray Robinson at less than a hundred percent. After the fight, it took more than two hours for the exhausted LaMotta to summon the energy to get dressed and leave the Stadium. Robinson spent a portion of that time soaking his left hand in a bucket of ice. “No bones broken,” Dr. Vincent Nardiello assured reporters. “He just hit Jake so hard and so often with it that it’s thoroughly bruised.”
    
Reprinted from Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports
(c) by Christopher Tabbert