Based on the logo location. It isn’t a reversed negative.

It is tough to make out in the picture. It could have spring training and he was a minor leaguer. That will make it harder to identify.

Based on the Maddux style stir-ups

Where is Sherlock Holmes?

Maybe this was an Iowa Cubs player. Didn’t they have similar uniforms, with Iowa on the caps and maybe shoulders?

The Cubs had almost no black pitchers in the 1970’s and 1980’s — and most of the ones they DID have were right-handed.

I went all the way back to 1972, the first year of that style belt. There are only two other black LHP in that era that haven’t been mentioned — Juan Pizarro and Lynn McGlothen. But it isn’t either of them.

Here’s a question: is the background of that photo clearly Wrigley Field? If it’s not, maybe it’s a spring training photo, a guy who pitched only for the Cubs in March and never made the major league roster.

Is there any chance you could take the photo out of the frame, scan it and post a higher-resolution copy?

but rather a position player that took the mound in a blowout. Just a suggestion that maybe we should look at entire rosters and not just pitching staffs from that era.

and the shoes you might be able to date the picture more by dating the models of those items…. of course this assumes he uses a new glove/new shoes every year and the models are unique to a year.

Other piece of evidence is that the game being pitched in is either an Early Season or a Late Season game passed on the long sleeves.

This would be a good weekly game to play here…Who’s that Cub? Sometimes it could be a picture, sometimes it could be obscure stats, etc, etc.

or does the background look more like bare trees behind the wall, rather than fans or bleachers? I have a feeling this isn’t at Wrigley.

It’s a bullpen mound, and he’s making a throw on a ball in play?

You started this. We need a better picture!

The angle of the pic suggests that the third base line is behind him. The dugout looks too high to be “dug out” — I really don’t think that this is Wrigley Field.

My guess is a spring training game.

one of the most amusing/frustrating/thought-provoking parts of my week…Glad to share it with you guys :)

Someone at a random photo store..taking his obsession to a new level..

THAT IS ALL!

I think

When did they ever wear pullovers?

A quick search on BR’s play index tells us that 23 left-handed pitchers appeared for the Cubs between 1979 and 1989. Out of that group, I can eliminate 21 of them based on either memory or google searches. That leaves two pitchers, as I don’t remember what Steve Engel or George Riley looked like.

Actually, I think that I recall Engel (who appeared in 11 games for the Cubs in 1985) but the memory is so vague that I don’t want to say, absolutely, that it isn’t him. Riley, who pitched in 26 games in ’79 and ’80, was before my time.

If in fact that is Wrigley Field, then another possibility is that the photo was taken during one of the old “Crosstown Classic” exhibition games that they would play against the White Sox before interleague games were added to the schedule. As those games were mid-season exhibitions, the Cubs would call up minor league players so that they could rest the real big leaguers. So we might be looking at someone that wore a Cubs uniform at Wrigley but never appeared in a regular season game.

The more I stare at the picture, the more he starts to look like…Alfonso Soriano.

… from the original picture to zoom in on the hat or shoe to see if a number was on there?

throwing lefty

I can’t come up with a name either. My guess is it is someone who ‘almost’ made the roster either from a White Sox game or some other exhibition game.

My first 2 thoughts were Jessie Hollins and Willie Banks, but they are both righties and wouldn’t have pitched in this uniform as major leaguers.

This could also possibly be a draftee…alot of them are taken to the stadium and put in uniform? Although if there is a large crowd in attendence, it would discount that as a theory.

I won’t say it’s driving me crazy because I am crazy so it’s driving me crazier.

I feel for you my friend. I carried around a picture I bought in a group of pictures for 2 years before finding out who it was. (Micah Bowie)

If it is Wrigley, based on the shoddy uniform, it looks like it could almost be a shot from when a movie was being filmed at Wrigley.

Did you check the glove? Is there anything written on it?

that you can definitely over analyze something

an hour on Cubs.com looking at the all time roster, and no one from the 70’s-80’s resembles that man.

through my collection of cub team sets from 86-92 and nothing.

Here are the LHP draft picks between 1979 and 1989

I’ll do some further research and see if any are good matches…some of the guys made it to the majors so its easy to know if they were white or black. Of course its not a guarantee that he was taken by the Cubs in the draft. But here is a list to work from. I’ll do some googling and research and see if I can come up with anything plausible.

1979
Thomas Morris 9th round BYU
Brian Hardy 17th round BYU
Bryan Oelkers 20th round Pattonville HS (Bridgeton, MO) – not him he is white
Dough Huffman 31st round NC state
Michael Thompson 32nd round Farleigh Dickinson
William Trapani 39th round Bellevue College

1980
Craig Lefferts 9th round Arizona – not him he is white
Brian Roerden 10th round Adelphi University
Todd Shulte 22nd round Winfield HS (Old Monroe, MO)

1981
Vance Lovelace 1st round Hillsborough HS (Tampa, FL) – not him he is white
Bill Hobbs 11th round Arroyo HS (El Monte, CA)
Robert HOok 21st round Victor Valley Cc
Derril Lewis 28th round San Bernadino College

1982
Guy Normand 6th round Gresham Union HS (Gresham, OR)
Eric Nolte 7th round Hemet HS (Hemet, CA) – not him he is white
Rudy Serafini 12th round Shippensburg University
Stephen Young 13th round Amadoro HS (Pioneer, CA)
Jim Boudreau 22nd round Arizona State

1983
Steve Engel 5th round Eastern Kentucky – not him he is white
John Cox 6th round UC-Berkely
Eric Bauer 18th round Clackamas College

1984
Drew Hall 1st round Morehead State – not him he is white
Jamie Moyer 6th round St. Joseph’s – not him he is white
Myron Hunter 15th round Springfield HS (Springfield, IL)
Frank Spear 21st round UCSB
Tim Rice 22nd round Clemson
Bill Blount 28th round San Diego State

1985
Joe Kraemer 16th round Vancouver – not him he is white
John Horn 28th round Georgia Tech
Mark Jefferson 29th round North Marion HS (Worthington, WV)

1986
Pat Gomez 4th round San Juan HS (Citrus Heights, CA) – not him he is white
Mike Curtis 10th round – Ohio State
Steve Parket 12th round – Arkansas
Phil Harrison 16th round – Nebraska
Greg Burlingame 31st round – Hawaii

1987
Gregg Patterson 5th round LSU
Gabby Rodriguez 14th round UC-Irvine
Derek Stroud 22nd round Fresno State
Sean Reed 28th round Linn-Benton CC
Bill Lantrip 35th round Overton HS (Memphis, TN)
Tom Thombe 38th round Edison HS (Huntington Beach, CA) – not him he is white

1988
Dennis Gray 9th round Banning HS (Banning, CA)
Tim Ellis 28th round Rosemont JC
Mike Sodders 29th round Alabama

1989
Scott Teague 28th round North Carolina-Asheville
Eric Jacques 29th round Indiana
Don Gillespie 33rd round Eisenhower HS (Rialto, CA)

Hopefully one of the name ring a bell

the logo looks like real fake. Other then that I think it looks like Dunston throwing lefty.

At least he was a lefty, but I am reaching here.

Could this be Cubs bullpen coach Lester Strode? According to the records he spent part of his 1988 season with the Iowa Cubs and he was a left handed pitcher.

I’m really bad with faces unfortunately, but I can’t automatically rule him out.

Here are some of the other Left Handed Pitchers that either were drafted by the Cubs or played for Iowa between 1979-1989…I tried googling the names but many are fairly common names and there weren’t alot of results other than from the school websites listing players that had been drafted over the years:

Michael Thompson 1979 32nd round pick played 4 seasons in the minor leauges making it to Double A in 1982

Carl Hamilton 1983 January draft 8th round…played 5 seasons in Cubs minor league system. Played with Iowa in 1987.

Tim Rice 1984 22nd round pick….pitched 3 seasons in the minor leauges last year double A in 1987

Steve Parker 1986 12th round pick..pitched 5 years in Cubs minor league system AAA in 1989 and 1990.

Phil Harrison 1986 16th round pick..pitched 5 seasons in Cubs minor league system AAA in 1990

Bill Earley pitched for the Cubs minor leagues for 7 years AAA Iowa in 1980-1984. Also had a cup of coffee with the Cardinals in 1986.

This would have been taken in the era of the first Ho Ho Kam Park. I only attended one game there (and the pix are are stored somewhere) I recall the old field was much farther away from Center St — there was no RF berm, as the fences went back to the housing development. (There, you still had rooftop seating)

I think there was a CF/LF berm, but I really don’t recall….So, this would be kinda looking toward CF…I think there was a green tarp covering the chain-link fence….with some ads on the fencing…which doesn’t seem to be visible….

Or, this is just a fake pix.

I believe it’s a reversed image of Heathcliff Slocumb.

check out this pic:

To me, the nose gives it away!

http://peoriachiefs.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/25th20Team20Images/slocumb.jpg

we need to go to the Under the Sea dance and punch Biff—and quickly. Otherwise, he’ll disappear from the picture.

but I really really hate it. I’ve spent hours on this. I’m down to going through old baseball cards and looking at trade info on the back of them, then googling them. I cant stop! plz someone crack the mystery.

It really is the only option left. He’s probably a AA or AAA guy who is wearing his minor league or hand-me-down jersey for his one appearance on the big league mound.

Anybody remember what he looked like? We’re getting out of the 79-89 era, but since we’re all running out of ideas ….

would go back to the real stirups

the form, I don’t think there is anyway that it is a “fake” or “souvenir” picture, as people have suggested…

Cubs Patch changed in 1979 to have a thicker border (Like present) See Photos of DeJesus in 1978 and Then Lee Smith (Photo was taken in 1981).

Info on uni changes courtesy of Hall of Fame
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database.htm

I think it is Lester Strode guys. Would explain why the Cubs would still have a picture around of his minor league days since he is a major league coach now.

Again this is a much needed break from what has been a very difficuilt day (see my sig)

jeff_pico mentioned him above. I know he’s in the 1987 Iowa Cubs team set, which I have. When I get home, I’ll dig it out and hopefully post a picture.

I think we’ve solved this mystery. The only thing we don’t know is whether the pic was taken at spring training or at Wrigley Field during the Crosstown Classic.

In doing some research about Hamilton, it seems like Jamie Moyer was quite impressed with him early in his career and thought he wasn’t as good as him :)

From a link in google books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=B9E9Ubqum1sC&pg=PA168&dq=Jackie+Davidson,+Carl+Hamilton

in The Sporting News 1986 Baseball Yearbook article on “Stars on the Rise.”

Maddox debuted September 3, 1986.

Pitchers named (in the following order) — Lance McCullers, Juan Nieves, Randy Myers, Jose Guzman, Barry Jones, Calvin Schiraldi, Eric Plunk, Duane Ward, Bill Wegman, Paul Assenmacher, Terry Ferreira, Rob Woodward, Mark Grant, David Cone, Greg mathews, Rich Yett, Greg Mayberry, Carl Hamilton, Edwin Correa, John Habyan, Chuck Cary, Charlie Kerfeld. Number of Maddux mentions – 0.

Taken from Any Team Can Have A Bad Century (Minor League News)

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/sportscolumnists/ci_11183485

I have the team set of baseball cards for the 1986 Pittsfield Cubs, with Maddux, Moyer, Palmeiro, and yes, Carl Hamilton. I bought it about 20 years ago. I’m not sure how much I paid for it, but it couldn’t have been more than $10. Today, I found a listing for one on ebay at $225.

the sheer horsepower that you put into this question would surely have been able to light up Chicago for about 10 years .. i salute you baseball scoliastes!