(Photo by Jim McIsaac /Getty Images)
Take a look around the major leagues, team by team, and there are numbers that define the franchise.
In Boston, it is Ted Williams’ familiar No. 9.
No. 44 in Atlanta is synonymous with Hank Aaron.
And in New York, well...in New York, the Yankees have too many to mention.
On May 3, the Chicago Cubs will be adding a new number to their team’s historic legacy. Joining Numbers 10 (Ron Santo), 14 (Ernie Banks), 23 (Ryne Sandberg), 26 (Billy Williams), and 42 (Jackie Robinson) will be Number 31.
However, the Cubs aren’t just retiring No. 31 for one player...they’re doing it one better and retiring it for two.
Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux.
The case for both is pretty easy to make.
Jenkins made his way to the Cubs on April 21, 1966 (a week after Maddux was born coincidentally), along with John Herrnstein and Adolfo Phillips. In return, the Phillies received Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson.
Now, I’m not entirely sure how Buhl and Jackson panned out for the Phillies, but considering they were out of baseball shortly after Richard Nixon was elected suggests that the Cubs MIGHT have made out like bandits.
But what exactly did Jenkins accomplish while wearing No. 31 on his back for the Lovable Losers?
Well...
Jenkins was 167-132 with a 3.20 ERA in two stints (10 seasons) with the Cubs. In 1971, he brought home the National League Cy Young Award, while three other times he was either the runner-up (1967) or finished third (1970 and 1972).
All in all, Jenkins threw six straight 20-win seasons between 1967 and 1972 (the longest streak in the Majors since Warren Spahn did the same between 1956 and 1961) during his first stint with the Cubs.
In 1982, after eight seasons away from Chicago and stops in Texas and Boston, Jenkins returned to the North Side to push his career wins total to 284, which, at the time, ranked him 19th all-time. Twenty-five full seasons after his retirement, he is sitting at 29th all-time.
Prior to the 1984 season, Jenkins was released and left the Cubs as their all-time leader in games started and strikeouts. His 167 victories as a member of the Cubs are the most for the team since 1941.
What’s interesting about Jenkins is that he didn’t want No. 31 when he first joined the Cubs. Originally, he requested Number 30, but Cubs clubhouse man Yosh Kawano informed Jenkins that young lefty Kenny Holtzman already wore that number. “My birthday is December 13, so I reversed the numbers to make it 31,” Jenkins once told a reporter.
Given the crazy reasons that other people have had (Omar Olivares wore No. 00 to display his initials, Bill Lee wanted 337 so people could read his name while he stood on his head), reversing your birth date makes perfect sense to me.
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