Here's something that ought to get you excited about baseball games in less than a month -- the complete numerical spring training roster. I have also listed the retired numbers so you can get an idea of what numbers are available. Seems doubtful they'll reissue #34 anytime soon, and there are rumors #31 may be retired as soon as this summer. That means the only truly "available" numbers lower than 50 are #24 (vacated by Henry Blanco), and #47 (formerly Scott Eyre's). Non-roster players are listed in italics.
This is also an opportunity for me to plug the book that I have co-written with BCB reader kaseyi (Kasey Ignarski) and Matt Silverman, "Cubs By The Numbers", a complete history of the Cubs since 1932 (when they first wore numbers), with each chapter being about the players who wore a specific number. It's not out yet, but you can pre-order it. Scheduled release date, as noted on the page, is March 2. And no, it won't say "Cubbies" on the front. We took care of that.
1 Kosuke Fukudome 2 Ryan Theriot 3 Alan Trammell (bench coach) 4 Joey Gathright 6 Micah Hoffpauir 7 Aaron Miles 8 Mike Quade (3B coach) 9 Reed Johnson 10 Ron Santo (retired) 11 Ivan DeJesus (special assistant) 12 Alfonso Soriano 13 Jake Fox 14 Ernie Banks (retired) 15 Mark Johnson 16 Aramis Ramirez 17 Mike Fontenot 18 Geovany Soto 19 Richie Robnett 20 Luis Rivas 21 Milton Bradley 22 Kevin Hart 23 Ryne Sandberg (retired) 24 Paul Bako 25 Derrek Lee 26 Billy Williams (retired) 27 Sam Fuld 28 Gerald Perry (hitting coach) 29 Jeff Samardzija 30 Ted Lilly 32 Mike Stanton 33 Jason Dubois 35 Lester Strode (bullpen coach) 36 Randy Wells 37 Angel Guzman 38 Carlos Zambrano 39 Matt Sinatro (1B coach) 40 Rich Harden 41 Lou Piniella (manager) 42 retired by MLB for Jackie Robinson 43 Michael Wuertz 44 Chad Fox 45 Sean Marshall 46 Ryan Dempster 47 Aaron Heilman 48 Neal Cotts 49 Carlos Marmol 50 Larry Rothschild (pitching coach) 51 Luis Vizcaino 52 Jeff Stevens 53 Rich Hill 54 David Patton 55 Koyie Hill 56 Brad Snyder 57 Chad Gaudin 58 Jose Ascanio 59 Andres Blanco 60 Mitch Atkins 61 Matt Smith 62 Marcos Mateo 63 Kevin Gregg 64 Justin Berg 65 Darwin Barney 66 Doug Deeds 67 Rocky Roquet 68 J. R. Mathes 70 Andrew Cashner 71 Esmailin Caridad 72 Welington Castillo 73 Bobby Scales 74 Steve Clevenger 75 Bill White 76 Jason Waddell 78 Ed Campusano 88 Ken Kadokura 99 So Taguchi