It was a pretty good season for rookies at Wrigley Field in 1960. The hapless Cubs were at their lowest point ever, but somehow they were finding some talent in their farm system. If things went well, the lowly Cubs might, within a few short years, evolve into a baseball dynasty.
These two Hall Of Famers later joined Ernie Banks and some other great players (Kessinger, Beckert, Jenkins, Hundley, Holtzman to name a few) to make up the best team to ever fail to make the NL playoffs. The whole infield from Hundley all the way around to Santo made the NL All Star team in that 1969 season.
The Cubbies were in first place for most of the year. Then, on September 9th, a photo was published in the New York newspapers of a black cat crossing in front of Santo, who was in the on-deck circle at Shea Stadium during a game against the Mets.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The manager was Leo “the Lip” Durocher. That was 1969, the year of the Miracle Mets.
However, this card is set 9 years earlier in 1960.
The Cubs started off in ’60 with Charlie Grimm as manager, but he was let go early and Lou Boudreau took his place. What a switch, from laid-back fun-loving banjo-playing Good Time Charlie to an intense no-nonsense Boudreau.
This was the season when Santo won the starting job at 3rd base. Talk about Brooks Robinson til you’re blue in the face – I’ll take Ron Santo any day. He was the most reliable third baseman of the era.
And Billy Williams? He would have to wait another season to break in as a starter, but once he made the lineup, he was consistently excellent. He was probably the the most underrated guy in baseball during his career.
The 1960 Cubs ended up in 7th place, then in ’61 finished in 7th again, this time with 4 different managers.
I created this card in 2009 when I was making the Pastime Series. I found out in researching this one that Santo started off as a catcher. I also found out that he drove his Rambler station wagon from Houston to Chicago at midseason of 1960 when he was promoted to the big leagues. The first day he arrived in the windy city, the car was stolen!
I can vividly remember that summer of love in 1969 when the Cubbies were on the verge of winning it all. Fergie Jenkins, perhaps occasionally under the influence of a mild marijuana habit, was eating up the innings and piling up victories. Bill Hands was having his one and only 20 win season. Ken Holtzman was on his way to a 17-13 record. The old “Tinker to Evers to Chance” double play combo had been supplanted by Kessinger to Beckert to Banks. Catcher Randy Hundley was showing some power, with a career-high 18 home runs. Power, average, and solid fielding were all displayed by the two players above – Santo & Williams. The boys from Chi town were knocking at the door to baseball destiny….
Then, it all fell apart. And we had the Miracle Mets instead.