Remember when the Cubs dumped all their players back at the trade deadline in 2021? Yeah, one of my favorite all time memories, let me tell you. I chuckled when people said that we’d resign one/some of them after the season was over. Once you’re gone, you ain’t coming back. I was reminded of this when Anthony Rizzo resigned with the Yankees this week. I knew he wasn’t coming back; none of them are.
I guess I shouldn’t say this NEVER happens. Of course, there are some pretty popular players that left and came back; two of the biggest ones wore the same number, that same number that flies atop one of the flag posts at Wrigley to this day. Yeah, Greg Maddux was the first one that came to my mind. Started his career off pretty well here, before going to Atlanta for their glory years, including one World Series title; bravo for Mad Dog. He’s one of my favorite pitchers of all time. Not only the fact that he didn’t have to throw hard to get you out, but his fielding was amazing; 18 Gold Gloves is good for most EVER! One of his highlights came across my Twitter feed the other day; my son was amazed when he saw it. It was that bouncer that went over his head, that he leapt for, grabbed, turned and fired to first; yeah, it was impressive. It was nice to see him return home, on the downside of his career… He did record a pretty big milestone in Cubbie blue when he notched his 300th all time win on August 7th, 2004 against the Giants in San Francisco. He wasn’t even that great, but it doesn’t matter; 300 is 300… only 2 guys have received that pinnacle since then; his teammate Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson. I’m not sure there will ever be another… Verlander is sitting at 244; he has the best shot. Greinke at 223 and Scherzer at 201 feel light years away. It is a very exclusive club to say the least. The other Cub who wore 31 who returned to the club was Fergie Jenkins of course. For all his greatness, he came up just short at 284; only 4 guys between him and that 300 milestone. I see Fergie around, on Twitter… maybe he can throw on a uni and get a handful of wins out of the bullpen for us? He still looks good enough to pitch. He was a workhorse in his hey day. Another guy that came back to the Cubs is one that I didn’t even recall; that guy is Kerry Wood. Do you remember when he left to go to the Indians only to return a few years later to retire with the Cubbies? I must have blocked that out of my memory… everything with Kerry, and the Cubs for that matter, was a little fuzzy for a while after the 2003 season… There are others on that list, but not too many. Funny enough, maybe the best Cubs pitcher of all time falls into this category; Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown left and came back; he had 239 career wins. Most importantly, he was part of the only other World Series Cubs winning teams before 2016; the repeat Cubs of 1907-1908. And oh yeah, he only had 3 fingers… look it up; crazy.
There were others, but it’s not a big list… nobody that I can think of since Kerry Wood about 10 years ago; maybe you have an obscure name… don’t think I’m missing anybody big. The only article I could find on this was from NBC Sports about 5 years ago. But yeah, don’t plan on any of our 2016 winners that we kicked to the curb to come back any time soon. You can hold out hope all you want, and obviously, if anybody from the 2016 roster returns, they’ll be welcomed with open arms, but… it ain’t going to happen.
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