100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (24 page)

73. Root for Charlie

It’s about time Charlie Root is remembered for what he did than for what Babe Ruth might have done.

What Root did was make more appearances, pitch in more innings, and win more games than anyone else ever has in a Cubs uniform. He also held the Cubs’ strikeout record for four decades until Ferguson Jenkins passed him in 1971, a few months after Root’s death at the age of 71.

As for Ruth and the supposed Called Shot he hit off Root in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, there’s far more evidence that Ruth was merely gesturing toward Root in anger than pointing toward the seats in center field where his blast ended up.

That part of the story actually makes perfect sense. Root was a tough-as-nails right-hander who backed down to nobody. During the famous at-bat, Root and his teammates were jawing at Ruth. The called shot? It never happened according to Woody English, a Cubs shortstop and third baseman from 1927 until 1936.

“I was right close to it,” English says in
Wrigleyville,
Peter Golenbock’s oral history of the Cubs. “He’s got two strikes on him. The guys are yelling at him from our dugout. He’s looking right in our dugout, and he holds up two fingers. He said, ‘That’s only two strikes.’

“But the press box was way back on top of Wrigley Field, and to the people in the press, it looked like he pointed to center field. But he was looking right into our dugout and holding two fingers up. That
is
the true story.”

Many others who were at the game give similar accounts, but one who differed was longtime Cubs’ public address announcer Pat Pieper who was in his customary spot down the third base line at the time. In 1966, Pieper told the
Chicago Tribune
’s David Condon that Ruth was talking to Cubs pitcher Guy Bush, who was on the bench, when he said, “‘That’s strike two, all right. But watch this.’ Then Ruth pointed to center field and hit his homer. You bet your life Babe Ruth called it.”

The legend of the Called Shot had grown to mythical proportions by 1938 when Ed Froelich, a longtime baseball trainer, asked Ruth if he had, indeed, predicted his homer by pointing to the stands. According to Froelich, Ruth’s answer was no.

“I may be dumb, but I’m not that dumb,” Ruth said. “I’m going to point to the center field bleachers with a barracuda like Root out there?”

Root never stopped telling people the Called Shot never happened and even refused to play himself in the 1948 film,
The Babe Ruth Story
. A couple of grainy films of the historic at-bat were discovered decades later, which made for fun television but resolved little else.

Author Roger Snell, who wrote the richly detailed
Root for the Cubs: Charlie Root & the 1929 Chicago Cubs
, was sympathetic to Root in his portrayal but after viewing film shot by Matt Kandle Sr., he wasn’t able to say with certainty what happened.

“The film refutes the exaggeration of Ruth standing defiantly at the plate, pointing toward the fence, obviously calling his shot,” Snell writes. “Instead, it is more obvious that Ruth was yelling back to the heckling Cubs that he was going to get even. His bat did the rest.”

Root pitched in four World Series for the Cubs, going 0–3 with a 6.75 ERA, and started one of the Cubs most painful losses ever, a 10–8 defeat to the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1929 World Series in which the Cubs led 8
–0 in the seventh inning.

When he finally hung up his cleats after the 1941 season, he was 42 years old and had 201 career wins. Given that kind of longevity, it’s not surprising his 156 losses are the most by a Cub since 1900. Was he the greatest Cubs right-hander ever? Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, Ferguson Jenkins, and Greg Maddux might have something to say about that.

But Root was certainly one of the best, even if he won’t be remembered that way. He knew this, too, which he told his daughter, Della, on the day he died.

“Isn’t it funny?” he said. “I gave my whole life to baseball, and I’ll be remembered for something that never happened.”

Top 10 All-Time Winningest Pitchers Since 1900

If you include the seasons prior to 1900, a couple of 19
th
-century pitchers would be on this list. Bill Hutchison won 180 games from 1889 to 1895, and Clark Griffith won 152 from 1893 to 1900. However, those were very different times. In 1892, for example, Hutchison went 36–36 and threw 622 innings, completing 67 complete games.

1. Charlie Root, 201

2. Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, 188

3. Ferguson Jenkins, 167

4. Guy Bush, 152

5. Hippo Vaughn, 151

6. Bill Lee, 139

7. Ed Reulbach, 136

8. Rick Reuschel, 135

9. Greg Maddux, 133

10. Grover Alexander, 128

74. The Legend of Tuffy Rhodes

“Tuffy Rhodes” is the answer to one of the great Cubs trivia questions: Which Cubs player once hit three home runs on Opening Day off Dwight Gooden?

“No” is the answer to a related Cubs trivia question: Did the Cubs win the game?

It’s unbelievable but sadly also true. In 1994, the Cubs got three homers from their new center-fielder in one of the most electrifying Opening Day performances in baseball history yet still managed to come out on the wrong end of a 12
–8 contest.

That is so Cubs.

Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes was a classic “4-A” player. He tore up Triple-A in 1993, hitting .318 with 30 homers and 89 RBIs in just 123 games but never proved he could hit major league pitching. In parts of four seasons with Houston, he hit .219 with a pair of homers and 15 RBIs.

Rhodes was in the Royals farm system when the Cubs picked him up in a 1993 trade deadline deal that sent lefty reliever Paul Assenmacher to the New York Yankees then impressed the Cubs in a late-season call-up by hitting .288 with three home runs.

He came to spring training with the leadoff job his to lose and easily kept it, finishing at .318 with a pair of homers and 11 walks. New Cubs manager Tom Trebelhorn had his Opening Day center fielder.

Dwight Gooden’s career had entered its downward trajectory when he got the start to face the Cubs on Opening Day, but the year before he’d won 12 games and had a 3.45 earned-run average.

Rhodes didn’t waste any time. He homered in each of his first three at-bats with a 22-mph wind at his back. All three homers went into the left-field bleachers, and after the third an onslaught of hats—a hat trick, get it?—rained down from the stands.

Said Mets manager Dallas Green, “We made him a legend.”

“After the first home run, I was geeked. You know, geeked. That’s slang for excited,” he said after the game. “After the second one, I was a little more calm. I never thought I could hit two homers in a game. Then when I hit the third one, I was frightened.”

Imagine how he would have felt if he hadn’t walked and singled in his final two plate appearances. All in all, it was a productive day for the 25-year-old. Unfortunately, there weren’t many more to follow.

Rhodes finished April with six homers, including a pair he hit against the Astros on April 28, but then he hit just .194 in May and was out of the Cubs’ starting lineup by the end of June. He only hit two more before a player’s strike ended the season in early August, and in 1995 he didn’t break camp with the team and was claimed on waivers by Boston on May 26, less than 14 months after his historic three-homer game.

In 1996, Rhodes went to Japan to play and became a legend once again. His 474 home runs in the Nippon Baseball League are the most ever by a foreign-born player.

75. Attend the Cubs Convention

It’s hard to believe this hasn’t been around since the dawn of sports, but it wasn’t until 1986 that the Cubs began the first fan convention, setting the stage for nearly every professional sports franchise to develop their own.

The annual Cubs Convention, which has been held in recent winters at the Chicago Hilton, takes place over three days in January and enables Cubs fans to meet players and coaches, go after autographs, and buy as much memorabilia as their piggy banks will allow.

It can sell out months in advance depending on the state of the Cubs. Coming off consecutive playoff appearances, the 2009 convention sold out in less than half an hour. Coming off consecutive miserable seasons, the 2011 convention never sold out but still had thousands in attendance.

Aside from the scope, the convention hasn’t changed much since the first one was held at the Hyatt Regency. There were Q&A’s that year with Cubs president and general manager Dallas Green, legendary Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, and one of the Cubs’ wives held a discussion on being a baseball widow during the long season.

Today, the conventions are still highly organized events with opening ceremonies and moderated sessions with names like “Meet Cubs Baseball Management” and “The Ricketts’ Family Forum.”

The Cubs often hang onto some news sure to please the fans, like in 2005 when they announced Ryne Sandberg’s No. 23 would be retired and in 2011 when it was revealed that Ron Santo, who had died over the winter, would be getting his own statue outside Wrigley Field.

The fans have their own ideas about what they want to talk about and often use the Q&A with management to make their feelings known. Players have been called “whiners” and “prima donnas” in the past, but it’s mostly respectable.

Harry Caray (center right) posed with Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa (left), first baseman Mark Grace (center left), and catcher Rick Wilkins (right) at the opening ceremonies of the Ninth Annual Cubs Fan Convention on Friday, February 11, 1994, in Chicago. The Chicago Cubs unveiled their new road uniforms for the 1994 season at the convention and also paid tribute to Caray as he began his 50th year as a major league broadcaster. (AP Photo/John Swart)

One of the highlights is an evening at Kitty O’Shea’s, an Irish pub located in the Chicago Hilton and a must-visit for any Cubs fan attending the convention. You’ll find ex-Cubs, media members, bloggers, and fans who flew in from Alaska all mingling together and enjoying more than a few adult beverages.

All you have to do to get into a raging discussion about Aramis Ramirez’ WAR (that’s Wins Above Replacement if you’re not into sabermetrics) is turn to the patron next to you and strike up a conversation. There’s barely room to move and lines are out the door, but there’s no better place to relax with fellow Cubs fans after a long day meeting your heroes and seeking autographs.

If you can’t get tickets to the convention, this is the next best thing. And often better.

76. Tom Trebelhorn’s Town Meeting

There is exactly one lasting memory from Tom Trebelhorn’s
113-game tenure as Cubs manager, and it didn’t take place at Wrigley Field or any other major league ballpark.

It took place at a Wrigleyville fire station with Cubs security guards genuinely concerned for Trebelhorn’s safety.

In 1994, the Cubs were not expected to be competitive and to be sure, they weren’t. They got swept by the New York Mets in their season-opening three-game series at Wrigley, and by the time they returned from a late April road trip they were a measly 6–14, including 0–8 at home.

Following the last game of the trip, Trebelhorn made a vow: “If we don’t beat Colorado tomorrow, I’ll be on the park bench in front of the [Waveland Avenue] fire station holding a fan conference after the game,” he said. “I’ll be taking all questions after the game. When we win, I’ll be there to accept congratulations. Rain or shine, I’ll be there.”

A pretty nice show of confidence from a guy whose team just didn’t have the horses. Aside from 25-year-old Sammy Sosa, who would finish this strike-shortened season with 25 homers and 70 RBIs, they had little offense. Ryne Sandberg was still a Cub, but his heart wasn’t in it and he would retire a few weeks later.

The pitching staff, led by 23-year-old rookie Steve Trachsel, was too young and too ineffective. The only thing that could prevent this team from chugging along in last place was a work stoppage, but that relief was still 3½ months away.

When the Cubs lost to the Rockies for their ninth straight home loss, their worst start ever at Wrigley Field, Trebelhorn was on the hook to talk to some angry fans. Not that going 1
–8 to start the season would have assuaged the 200 or so fans who came out to greet Trebelhorn about an hour after the game.

The mood was tense when he arrived flanked by a quartet of Cubs’ security guards. Some fans, perhaps greased by a few Old Styles, were burning copies of the Tribune Co.-owned
Chicago Tribune
and chanting epithets.

Cubs players and coaches are public figures, so it’s not rare to come across one of them in public and give them your two cents. That’s something everybody is used to. What nobody had ever seen was a manager take it upon himself to face fed-up fans who for years lived with an absentee owner in Phil Wrigley and a faceless corporate owner in the Tribune Company.

Trebelhorn not only took it like a man but the former teacher won over the crowd. His opening line of, “Okay. Now what do you want to know?” didn’t settle down the loose cannons right away, but after a few minutes he was engaging them with actual dialogue. Instead of screams and jeers, Trebelhorn took questions and answered them as honestly as he could, even saying, “The guy was a dumb [expletive]” to describe a recent bad decision by one of his players.

The entire episode lasted 30 minutes and ended with Trebelhorn getting applauded by the crowd for meeting them and then having a chicken dinner with the Engine Co. 78 firefighters.

If this had been the movies, Trebelhorn would have walked off to the sounds of up-tempo music with a quick cut to a montage of the Cubs winning game after game. Instead, they lost three more in a row at home and finished 49–64, the second-worst record in the National League, and Trebelhorn was fired.

But at least he survived.