Source: twitter.com
Excellent group of MLB Hall of Fame inductees this year with Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriquez and Jeff Bagwell. I am particularly pleased about Raines, who is one of my all time favorites. He had a stellar career with the Montreal Expos and along with Andre Dawson, was a standout on 1980′s Expos teams that had several exciting players. I always enjoyed watching Raines when the Expos played the Cubs and I was thrilled when he joined the White Sox (a few years after Dawson had joined the Cubs.) He had some good years with the Sox, although I think he may have been better off without Walt Hrininak as a hitting coach. While Hriniak worked wonders with some players, molding a young Frank Thomas and extending the career of Carlton Fisk by teaching them how to spray the ball to all fields, I thought tinkering with “Rock’s” batting style was a mistake. Raines came to the Sox after a 13 year career at Montreal where as a switch hitter, he had a batting average of .301. He already knew how to use all fields and his speed, so I’m not sure why you would mess with that. Still, in five years with the Sox, he hit .283 with peaks .294 in ‘92 and .306 in ‘93. He finished his 23 year career with a .294 batting average, 2,605 hits, 808 stolen bases, 170 home runs and 980 RBI’s. I know I am more “old school” with baseball stats, but it my book, that is one awesome Hall of Fame career.
1969 was the year the Chicago Cubs were supposed to win the World Series. There were high expectations right from the start of the season.
On April 13 of that year (46 years ago today), me and my buddy Chris, along with our friend Danny, headed down to Wrigley Field on a Sunday afternoon for what, if I remember correctly, was their 5th game of the young season. While Chris and I usually took the bus (Central Ave. and Addison Street), Danny (a couple of years older than us) showed us how to take the “L” traveling the Lake Street line and the Howard line (now the Green and Red lines.) Chris and I usually sat in the bleachers for $1.00, but Danny convinced us to get better seats. We ended up sitting in the front row along the left field line behind the Cubs bullpen. Being so close to the field, we had easy access to the players, resulting in several autographs on my score card. Just before the game started, Ron Santo was trotting to his position at 3rd base. He spotted a loose ball on the field, picked it up and flipped it toward the stands. I reached out and snagged it before it crossed the wall.
The Cubs played the new expansion team, the Montreal Expos. Going into the 9th inning, the Cubs were down 6-4 but they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. That win put them into first place in their division where they stayed until the infamous September collapse. The overly-excited fans (including us) stormed the field in celebration. It was pure pandemonium which the meager security staff could not control. There was no destruction, but we spent about 15 minutes running around the field before additional security started moving everyone out.
The above photos are my score card from that day, along with the official game stats (correcting a few of my scoring errors). The autographs, clockwise from the top, are:
· Alec Distaso – relief pitcher whose entire major league career consisted of two pitching appearances for the Cubs in 1969.
· Gene Oliver – back up catcher.
· Adolpho Phillips – center fielder who was traded later that season after falling out of favor with Cubs manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher.
· Don Young – rookie center fielder who was pressed into service after the Phillips trade and who unfairly became the goat for the Cubs 1969 collapse after he misplayed a pair of fly balls during a July game against the Mets. He finished the season with the Cubs and never played Major League Baseball again.
· Joe Niekro – relief pitcher spent a couple of years with the Cubs and was traded early in the 1969 season. Like his brother, Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, he threw a knuckle ball, although that came a bit later in his career.
· Rich Nye – left handed relief pitcher who became a veterinarian after his playing career.
· Ron Santo – Hall of Fame third baseman.
· Gary Ross – right handed relief pitcher.
· Billy Williams – Hall of Fame left fielder.