Stay updated with breaking news from Bob Scheffing. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Until a video review overturned the umpire's call of safe, Tony Wolters appeared on Sunday to have become the first Cubs catcher to steal home in nearly 55 years. It would have been only the Cubs'...
Cubs' top pinch hitters, Part 1 By JohnW53 on Mar 17, 2021, 6:13am CDT + Pinch hitting has not exactly been the Cubs' strength down through the years. In the 105 seasons since 1916, the first for which baseball-reference.com has batting splits, Cubs pinch hitters rank 20th of the 30 Major League teams in batting average (.223), 26th in on-base percentage (.302), tied for 22nd in slugging (.323) and tied for 24th in on base plus slugging (.625). Their OBP is the lowest of any non-expansion team. The 4 teams below them are the Astros, Padres, Royals and Marlins. The all-time le...
145-year chain of Cubs pitchers and catchers By JohnW53 on Dec 21, 2020, 5:59am CST + Or fascinating. I lean toward fascinating: There is a nearly unbroken chain of pitchers and catchers from the Cubs' first National League game in 1876 all the way to the last week of the 2020 schedule. ... This incredible chain consists not just of a pitcher and catcher who were ON the team in the same season. It consists of a pitcher and catcher who were on the field together in the LAST GAME either the pitcher or catcher played for the Cubs, under their team's various names, through 145 season...
14 Cubs form chain that spans 145 seasons By JohnW53 on Dec 20, 2020, 7:35am CST 1 Some years ago, an enterprising baseball historian figured out how to make a chain of just 9 players that spanned the history of Major League Baseball. It began with Harry Wright of the 1869 Cincinnati Reds, the first professional team. In his final season, another player was a rookie, and it that player's final season, a third player was a rookie, and so on to the current season. (I hunted for the story online but could not find it.) I wondered how few players it would take to do something similar...