Originally founded in 1869, the Chicago Cubs became a charter member of the National League in 1876. Over the next 150 seasons, the Cubs have played more than 22,000 games, scored over 103,000 runs and recorded more than 200,000 hits, more than any other team in baseball history. Nearly 2,300 players have worn a Cubs uniform, earning eight division titles, 17 NL pennants, and three World Series championships.
Fans have witnessed generations of unforgettable players, from historical heroes like Joe Tinker, Gabby Hartnett, Ernie Banks, and Billy Williams to more recent stars like Ryne Sandberg, Derrek Lee, Kerry Wood, and Anthony Rizzo. The team has called Wrigley Field home for 110 of those 150 seasons.
To celebrate this milestone, the Cubs are holding a fan vote to select the franchise’s anniversary team. Each week, we will go through the provided options for each position and declare who should, and, if different, who will, win the fan vote. We start today with the eight selections for second baseman.
Glenn Beckert was called up by the Cubs in 1965, spending the next nine seasons as the team’s second baseman. He won the Gold Glove in 1968 and was a four-time All-Star. His best offensive season came in 1971, when he finished third in the NL with a career-best .342 batting average.
Johnny Evers played for the Orphans/Cubs from 1902 through 1913. Known as “The Human Crab” for his combative play and fights with umpires, he earned a place in baseball history as part of the famous “Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance” double-play combination thanks to the poem Baseball’s Sad Lexicon. Evers was responsible for alerting umpires to the baserunning mistake that would come to be known as “Merkle’s Boner”. He was part of three NL pennant winners with the Cubs, winning the championship in 1907 and 1908, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946.
Billy Herman spent the first eleven years of his career with the Cubs, hitting over .300 in seven of his first nine seasons. He led the league in games played (twice), hits, doubles, and triples across his nine full seasons. During that time, he was named an All-Star seven straight times, beginning in 1934. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1975.
Later today, a woman is scheduled to umpire a regular season major league game for the first time. Jen Pawol, who has been a minor-league umpire since 2016, is being called up for a doubleheader between the Marlins and the Braves, working the bases in place of the home plate umpires, who only work the one game. She is then slated to work behind the plate for Sunday’s series finale.
Former Cubs manager Lee Elia, who became an infamous part of baseball history following an epic rant in 1983, passed away Tuesday just shy of his 88th birthday. Born in Philadelphia, Elia spent all of his short major league career in Chicago, in 1966 with the White Sox and in 1968 with the Cubs. Following the end of his playing career, Elia was a coach for the Phillies in 1980 and 1981 under manager Dallas Green. When Green was hired by the Tribune Company to be their new executive vice president and general manager for the recently acquired Cubs, he hired Elia to be the team’s new manager.