Behind every major failure in baseball stands a Chicago Cub
By RON BERLOW
Special to The Globe-Democrat
Each year a small number of major-league baseball players struggle with a flaw so tragic that it is actually painful to watch as their seasons unfold.
Crazy things happen to them on the field. They trap fly balls with their baseball caps. They sit out games complaining of "stuck eyelids." They lose their hairpieces while attempting to score.
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Jim Brosnan as a Cub in the 1950s: "You have to have a certain dullness of mind and A spirit to play here." |
They are ex-Chicago Cubs, the Jonahs of baseball. Ill fortune dogs them wherever they go. "It's a label you wear forever," says a rueful Dennis Lamp, a pitcher now with the White Sox.
Just 41 remain in big-league ball. As it happens, three (Goeff Zahn, Steve Renko, Mick Kelleher) are with the California Angels, four (Tim Blackwell, Jerry White, Ray Burris, Woodie Fryman) are with the Montreal Expos and five others (Greg Gross, Bobby Molinaro, Manny Trillo, Ivan DeJesus, Mike • Krakow) are Philadelphia Phillies.
These seem trivial observations, but they mean doom for the contending Angels, Expos or Phillies should any reach this year's World Series.
According to The Ex-Cub Factor, an obscure baseball theorem, it is virtually impossible for any team with three or more ex-Cubs to win the championship. (Only the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates (Gene Baker, Smokey Burgess, Don Honk) have beaten the jinx.)
No doubt this comes as startling news to the baseball public-that behind every major failure in the sport stands a Chicago Cub. But let's look at the record.
There have been 613 men who have called themselves Cubs since the team last won a pennant, in 1945. In that time, any number of World Series losers have been cursed by Cubness. These include the 1948 Boston Braves (Eddie Stanky, Marv Rickert, Clyde Shount, the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers (Russ Meyer, Ben Wade, Rube Walker), the 1958 Milwaukee Braves (Andy Pafko, Bob Rush, Casey Wise), the 1961 Cincinnati Reds
(Jim Broman, Dick Gernert, Bill Henry), the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers (Jim Brewer, Lou Johnson, Wes Covington), the 1967 New York Yankees (Oscar Gamble, Ken Holtzman, Elrod Hendricks), the 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers (Burt Houton, Mike Gamnan, Rick Monday) and the 1980 Kansas City Royals (Pete LaCock, Larry Gum, Jose Cardenal).
None, however, has suffered greater indignity than last years New York Yankees (ex-Cubs Rick Reuschel, Oscar Gamble, Barry Foote, Bobby Murcer, Dave LaRoche), who entered the Series as prohibitive favorites, and were then humiliated as only one team has ever been humiliated before.
Like the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers (Burt Houton, Rick Monday, Bill North), they lost the World Series in tour straight games, after leading two games to none.
No team had ever attempted to win a Series with so many ex-Cubs, and Yankee owner George Steinbrenner served notice his club would never try such a thing again. "Had I believed for one minute that my Cubs had done me in, I can assure you I would have gotten rid of them immediately. And if we get to the World Series next year and lose, I will get rid of them."
Like Stembrenner, some ballplayers agonize over their Cubness. "I knew I was in, trouble," recalls Barry Foote, a catcher who escaped the team in 1981, "when I went to negotiate my contract and Mr. Wrigley's advisor had to ask me what position I played."
"Its hard to put a finger on it," ponders Jim Brosnan, a writer who pitched for the Cubs in the 1950s. "You have to have a certain dullness of mind and spirit to play here. I went through psychoanalysis, and that helped me deal with my Cubness."
Others, however, have come to terms with their malady. A few weeks ago, Philadelphia outfielder Greg Gross matter-of factly assessed his team's chances in the coming World Series.
"We've got no chance" he said "We have four ex-Cubs. (Ex-Cub Bobby Molinaro is ineligible (or series play.) I'm the only one they could possibly get rid of, because the others are so good, and that would still leave us with three. So they might as well keep all four of us and let me play in the Series. It wouldn't bother me at all to get there and lose."
Amazingly, some baseball men remain unconvinced of The Ex-Cub Factor. Gross's manager is a pugnacious man named Pat Corrales. Earlier this season, Corrales nearly bit the head off a reporter who suggested that this club has too many ex-Cubs to win the upcoming championship.
"Oh yeah?" he snarled menacingly. "Well, you just watch pal!"
Tell it to Mr. Steinbrenner.
