Broadway Joe Namath - almost Wrigley Joe??

by Bears31765 on Feb 16, 2012 5:06 PM CST

HBO Sports is showing a documentary entitled "Namath" which contains an obscure piece of Cubs history that I had not heard before. Joe was a highly regarded baseball player at Beaver Falls High School and didn't even play football until his Junior year. During his Senior year, several pro baseball teams scouted him and the Cubs offered him a $50,000 contract. Nothing to sneeze at in 1961. He talked to his Mom and older brother (Joe's Dad had divorced his Mom and was no longer in the picture). His Mom said "Well, Joe I always hoped that you would go to college". Hearing that, his brother said "That's it - you're going to college!" Interestingly, Alabama was NOT his original choice. He had planned on going to Maryland, but his college boards score was 30 points below their required minimum for admittance. The Maryland coach was friends with Bear Bryant and convinced him to offer Joe a scholarship.

Who knows how sports history might have changed had Joe's Mom told him to take the cash and play for the Cubs?

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Maybe he would have "guaranteed" a World Series win!

"It's cold in April and nobody likes hard stuff in April. You go right after them and get in on their hands and get them unexpected, and it's a lot of fun." -- Matt Garza, 3/2011

by CaughtInTheVines on Feb 16, 2012 6:51 PM CST reply actions

well, it would've been the right year....

Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."

by ballhawk on Feb 16, 2012 9:44 PM CST up reply actions

In a parallel universe, the Cubs won the WS in 1969

with Joe walking off the field towards left field, waving his index finger in the air…Ronnie clicking his heels…and Ernie telling everyone while being interviewed by Jack Brickhouse “the Cubs DID shine in ’69!”

"IN THEO WE TRUST"

by BigJohnAZ on Feb 17, 2012 6:39 AM CST up reply actions

Wow.

That would be a cool idea for a historical fiction novel.

"[The Cubs] have a very famous tradition in baseball, and it will be nice to be part of turning it around." ~ Jamie Quirk, Bench Coach

by daver on Feb 17, 2012 8:55 AM CST up reply actions

It's so far parallel,

Namath might have been able to still move around despite his knees.

10-25-2011. Theo Epstein joins the Cubs. Now, the fun begins.

by timh815 on Feb 17, 2012 10:18 AM CST up reply actions

What position did Namath play in baseball?

Did the documentary say?

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by Al Yellon on Feb 17, 2012 7:10 AM CST reply actions

I'll

lay odds he was a pitcher. Good question.

by wild bill on Feb 17, 2012 7:26 AM CST up reply actions

yep, he was quite the "pitcher"...

from head

to toe

Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."

by ballhawk on Feb 17, 2012 7:47 AM CST up reply actions

What a woman...

…they don’t make ’em like her anymore.

by Easy Ed on Feb 17, 2012 11:20 AM CST up reply actions

Looks like he mostly pitched

It doesn’t go in to much detail, but his Mom talks about helping him warm up at home before games, and that she had to put a sponge inside her glove to soften the blow. Tough old bird.

He was also a standout basketball player. Just a natural athlete.

Its a pretty good showing of his life – warts and all. Namath talks about his drinking, Suzy Kolber incident etc. etc.

"I'm just giving the fireworks guy time to re-load".
~ Former Pitching Coach Billy Connors

by Bears31765 on Feb 17, 2012 8:11 AM CST up reply actions

I bet a lot of beaver fell at his high school

"You win because of the quarterback. We have to get that position stabilized. We're fixated on that." -- Jerry Angelo (12.30.2008)

Jerry Angelo trades for Jay Cutler! (4.2.2009)

by SackMan on Feb 17, 2012 9:39 AM CST reply actions

Rimshot!

http://instantrimshot.com/

Yeah, I know there should be an apostrophe in "Vails," but punctuation wasn't an option when I signed up.

by Mike Vails Evil Twin on Feb 17, 2012 10:12 AM CST up reply actions

Joe Willie and Joe Pep

Namath and Pepitone both on the Cubs? That would have been one swinging clubhouse.

by FrostyMalt on Feb 17, 2012 11:10 AM CST reply actions

Hard to think of a more overrated athlete that Namath.

Threw almost 50 more INTs than TDs for his career.

It was cool when he won that one game though. Being in NY didn’t hurt either. If Jeremy Lin had done for the Sacramento Kings what he’s done for the Knicks for the past two weeks, the story would be a small fraction of what it is now.

by the nth on Feb 17, 2012 5:13 PM CST reply actions

Yep. One good season and a Super Bowl.

Otherwise, his stats are the essence of mediocre (granted, in his day QB’s tended to throw a lot more intercepcions). His being in the HOF has always seemed like a joke to me.

by bluekoolaide on Feb 17, 2012 10:30 PM CST up reply actions

While Namath's entire career wasn't that great

… you cannot underestimate the impact of that one game. That’s why Namath is in the Hall, and IMO, he deserves it for that.

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by Al Yellon on Feb 18, 2012 8:08 AM CST up reply actions

Interesting...

What if Kerry Wood’s 20K game had instead been a Game 7 of the World Series? And he had brashly predicted victory beforehand. And then the rest of his career played out as it has. Does he get into HoF?

Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."

by ballhawk on Feb 18, 2012 9:03 AM CST up reply actions

Still borderline, but probably. Even now, if he winds up closing again and puts together...

…a couple of Eck-style lights-out seasons that include a Cubs WS appearance, he’ll get plenty of votes.

"Started hummin' a song from 1962..." – Bob Seger
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – Faulkner

by ernaga on Feb 18, 2012 10:18 AM CST up reply actions

no, and nor should he

I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures.
~Earl Warren

by lookingdeadred on Feb 18, 2012 1:18 PM CST up reply actions

Same reason Roger Maris isn't a Hall of Famer.

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by Al Yellon on Feb 18, 2012 1:35 PM CST up reply actions

so Namath gets in for a singular event, but Maris (and Wood in above fantasy scenario) don't?

I hope there’s more to the reasoning than just being different sports.

Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."

by ballhawk on Feb 18, 2012 2:07 PM CST up reply actions

bad comparison, really bad

Namath had a successful career, Wood had a what could have been career

I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures.
~Earl Warren

by lookingdeadred on Feb 19, 2012 8:58 AM CST up reply actions

If the HoF standards that existed when Maris retired in 1968 were still in place...

…he wouldn’t belong. But now, given the relaxed standards of today, he certainly should be in. Even beyond the home run chase of ‘61, his back-to-back MVP seasons on those great ’60-’‘61 Yankee teams should be enough to insure his election by a Veterans’ Committee.

He was a tremendous all-around player, the Jim Edmonds of his time with a swing ideal for the old Yankee Stadium. The combination of his career performance and the impact Maris had on the game makes him at least as worthy as dozens of current HoF members. If Hack Wilson belongs, so does Rog.

"Started hummin' a song from 1962..." – Bob Seger
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – Faulkner

by ernaga on Feb 18, 2012 3:10 PM CST up reply actions

Two great seasons puts him in the Hall?

Sorry, no. Edmonds was a FAR better all-around player than Maris, and Edmonds doesn’t belong, either.

For that matter, neither does Hack Wilson, really.

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by Al Yellon on Feb 18, 2012 3:36 PM CST up reply actions

Canton isn't Cooperstown

Cooperstown generally inducts on the stats. Canton inducts on fame and championships. (They have to. There just weren’t stats for linemen until very recently.)

Don Larsen isn’t in the Hall of Fame and Kerry Wood would not go in either. But Canton doesn’t operate the same way.

by Josh Timmers on Feb 19, 2012 2:10 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs

Agreed....but

His knee was pretty much destroyed while he was at Alabama and he played his pro career on one good leg. Obviously, professional team doctors back then didn’t know what they do now, otherwise no team would have touched him. What he did to his body off the field didn’t help much either.

As far as playing in N.Y., Joe definitely is on a LONG list of professional athletes who’s careers were inflated by the N.Y. media hype machine.

"I'm just giving the fireworks guy time to re-load".
~ Former Pitching Coach Billy Connors

by Bears31765 on Feb 18, 2012 8:08 AM CST up reply actions

A couple of things about this story make it hard to believe:

• If the Cubs did make Joe a $50K offer around 1960, it likely would have been big news, similar to what surrounded the Danny Murphy signing. The Cubs weren’t exactly known for spending on amateur talent, and on those occasions when something big was in the works, Phil Wrigley understandably wanted to milk it for the last drop of favorable publicity.

• Once Namath became the most famous athlete on the planet in ’69, we surely would have heard this story from someone associated with the Cubs, from Chicago media, or from Joe himself.

What seems more likely is that the Cubs made Joe a bonus offer of $5,000 or less to ride the buses in Lancaster, Ponca City or Magic Valley, along with a promise that if he did good, he’d get a shot at playing for the Wenatchee Chiefs in ’61.

"Started hummin' a song from 1962..." – Bob Seger
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – Faulkner

by ernaga on Feb 18, 2012 8:21 AM CST reply actions