all the late greats

Incidentally, here's a picture of Renfroe. This is from a 1988 Iowa Cubs set:

TUFFY RHODES!

i root for the theriot/fontenot DP combo, both because they've been together for many years and also because and i hope they chatter to each other in bayou french ("et tu" to signal 'you cover' in case of a steal attempt).

is it me, or does fontenot bear a strong resemblance to mickey morandini?...minus the peach-fuzz mustache.

as for the card pic, thanks.  the posed delivery is wonderful.  he's much skinnier there than i recalled but the set is iowa '88 which would make the photograph from '87, four years earlier than his unfortunate debut.

i think i have a bruce bochte from that iowa '88 set.  penguin swag.

but somewhere, lurking in a box, is my '88 Iowa Cubs Billy Bathe card.  It's only value, except as tinder, is that for 20 years I've been under the impression that Oakland A's traded him to the Cubs for Ron Cey, which would've made him "Penguin Swag" if I hadn't been wrong.  So it's worth nothing but aren't most of my old baseball cards?  Anybody out there want a 1989 Donruss Drew Hall?

And yeah, Tuffy Rhodes.  I recall that Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes became a prodigious power hitter in Japan, which makes me gloomy about those projections for Fukedome to hit 25 homers....290/.330/.435, 12 HR, 70 RBI.  The OBP is low because he'll press, have we seen one Japanese hitter in MLB that works the count?  In the spirit of comparison, Kosuke will prove to be a Japanese Dave Martinez, fitting as he also wears #1.

All-Time Cub:  Dave Martinez (my aunt knew him)

• Paul Popovich (my first autograph)
  
• Willie Smith (the '69 home run)
  
• Nate Oliver (not sure why)
  
• Carmen Fanzone (great name)
  
• Joe Wallis (his nickname was Tarzan)
  
• Pete LaCock (he looked good)
  
• Ray Burris (I thought he was another Fergie)

1.  Can anyone give me an eyewitness account of Fanzone playing the national anthem on his trumpet?
2.  Fanzone isn't dead.  Presumably he can still play the trumpet.  Could he come out to the park and use his jazz skills to lead us into the seventh inning stretch?

Not only Nate Oliver, the Cubs also had Gene Oliver - and I remember an overheard conversation at Wrigley where some clueless person was going on about how it was so hard to tell them apart.

For those not of "a certain age", Nate Oliver was a light-hitting speedster, and Gene Oliver was a lumbering catcher.  Oh yes, and Nate was a black guy, Gene was white.  I still am not sure whether Gene Oliver or Barry Foote was the slowest Cub in my memory.

Also, a now-obscure reliever named Rich Nye - a genuinely nice guy.  When we were kids, we'd hang out by the players' lot and harangue them for autographs on their way to their cars.  Rich Nye signed regularly.  Don Kessinger always seemed to be carrying something...

It's the ellipsis that intrigues....

Carrying what exactly? A basketball? Bottle of scotch? His mistress's handbag?  Kessinger fans want to know....

I was always the guy on that cusp, right on the edge of making the team or not - right on the edge of starting or sitting, in every sport I played.  Usually I was the second best player at my position, and I was smaller than everyone else my age, so I had to fight harder to keep my spot.  I think that's why I identified with Hector, Dougie, Sanchez, and Brown.  

The other guys just came up with big hits in key situations in moments that, for whatever reason, were particulary memorable to me.  A lot of the images in my head from last season are Jacque Jones and Angel Pagan - not the stars, but big moments that stuck in my brain for some reason.

I think all of us like rooting for the little guy, or the nice guy, or the one that took the time to sign an autograph.  It's interesting to see though, that most of us stop having these favorites after we grew up - and started watching (and understanding) stats a little more.  To me, as a little kid, Henry Cotto and Dave Owen were the go to guys, always ready with a big hit - looking at the numbers, that's not quite so, but at 9, I couldn't figure out why they didn't start.

Now, The Riot.

After having a decent '76, he faded badly the next year and was traded to Cleveland (which was then like being sent to Siberia) for Mike Vail.

Who I also liked. I thought Vail might have become a good everyday outfielder if they'd just let him play.

Others that I liked from that time period: Damon Berryhill, Bob Tewksbury, Bill Landrum. Who can forget the hype that surrounded Lance Dickson's first major league start. Of course, he only made two or three more major league appearances.

Manny Trillo, who I only remember from his second stint with the Cubs as a reserve. Chico Walker, if for no other reason than his name.

Modern candidates? Well...the recently departed Angel Pagan has one of the great baseball names, so I'll go with him.

Candy "Manny Colorado" Maldonado was the first in an ever-increasing line of Cub players that I simply loathed.  I know that I'd been frustrated with players before that, such as Dunston.  But Candy came along when I was at the height of adolescense and the innocent optimism of my childhood was rapidly exiting in favor of cynical angst.  I recall that the news of his trade broke during a game, so it was announced on the broadcast, and I was overjoyed but also dumbfounded that another team saw fit not just to take Maldonado but GIVE us a player in EXCHANGE for Candy Freaking Maldonado...

...and the icing on that cake was that Glenallen Hill hit like he was Babe Ruth for the rest of that season.

More than anybody else, Roosevelt Brown was the guy that I was the most disappointed about him not getting a full-time gig.  When Rondell White left, I thought he'd get the LF job, but then Moises came along....  I never was able to really like Moises for that reason.

I guess I also have to include Glenallen Hill on my list.  Everytime he came to the plate, I got excited to see how far he might hit the ball, especially after the roof shot.

Warren Brusstar, George Frazier, Ray Fontenot.  (First middle-relievers I remember getting pissed at on a regular basis because they were so bad)

Dave Gumpert.  (A decent middle-reliever, as I recall, on a really bad team)

Guy Hoffman (an obscure middle-reliver, and the only reason I remember him was he was the first pitcher I ever saw used as a pinch-runner.  I remember asking my father, "Can they do that?")

Steve Christmas (mentioned already, but I specifically remember his one big hit.  Harry Caray said something to the effect that he looked like "a kid on Christmas morning.")  

Brian Dayett. (First pinch-hit grand slam I ever saw.  Played a few years with the Cubs as a decent bench player).

Paul Noce and Mike Brumley (filled in admirably, if not spectacularly, at 2B and SS respectively in 1987 when Sandberg and Dunston got hurt within a few days of each other).  

Julio Zuleta was Pedro Cerrano sprung to life.

Henry Cotto was pretty valuable to the 84 team, as you need a good defensive outfielder if you're starting Moreland and the Sarge out there.  For me, I loved him because of the way Milo Hamilton would say name his name.  I can't think of way to do it justice in type.

Yeah, that Steve Christmas hit.  For the rest of that season, I was always wondering, "where is Steve Christmas?"  

Christmas also illustrates a larger point about almost all the really obscure players we've mentioned which is that we remember a specific instance of their success, or failure, or just Harry mispronouncing their name.  I can comb through lists of Cub players from the 80s and 90s pick out lots of guys that I don't remember but they're balanced out by the Laddie Renfroes.

Thanks for everybody's submissions, especially the older readers.  Like most fan sites, BCB seems to be dominated by folks roughly my own age, say 20-35.  Which is why I especially like seeing the references to Al Spangler, Joe Wallis, Rich Nye, etc.  For me, part of being a Cub fan was hearing my late father describe the relatively obscure Cubs of his own childhood: Peanuts Lowery, Frankie Baumholtz, and listening on the radio to Toothpick Sam Jones's no-hitter.  Even today, I can get my older brother worked up by telling him that Mick Kelleher actually wasn't all that good.

So thanks again.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199204200.shtml

Third baseman that year were Luis Salazar, Chris Jose Viscaino, Chico Walker, Scott, and Doug Stange.  Yick.