50 Fun Facts About Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are nicknamed 'the North Siders'. Which team plays on the South Side of the city?

Wrigley Field is on the North Side; the White Sox' home is Rate Field on the South Side.

Before they were the Cubs, what was the franchise called when it was founded in 1870?

They were also the Colts and, after Cap Anson left, the Orphans; the White Stockings name went to the new American League team.

Which newspaper first called the team the Cubs in 1902, referencing the roster's youth?

The club made the name official five years later, in 1907.

Who was the first player credited with 3,000 hits and player-manager of the Cubs' 19th-century pennant winners?

He was released in 1897 after 22 years, and reporters called the leaderless team the Orphans.

The 1906 Cubs won a record 116 games but lost the World Series to which team?

The 'Hitless Wonders' beat them four games to two in the only all-Chicago World Series.

The Cubs won back-to-back World Series in which two years?

They then waited 108 years for the next one.

Tinker, Evers and Chance were immortalised as a double-play combination in a 1910 poem by whom?

'Baseball's Sad Lexicon' first ran in the New York Evening Mail.

Wrigley Field opened in 1914 under what name, built for a Federal League team?

The Chicago Whales folded after 1915; the Cubs moved in for 1916 and the Wrigley name came in 1926.

Wrigley Field is the second-oldest ballpark in the majors. Which is the oldest?

Wrigley is the oldest in the National League and the only surviving Federal League park.

Who planted the famous ivy on Wrigley Field's outfield walls in 1937?

The son of the club president was inspired by ivy at Perry Stadium in Indianapolis.

Wrigley Field was the last MLB park to add lights. What year was its first night game?

The first attempt was rained out after 3½ innings; the first official night game came the next evening against the Mets.

How many consecutive day games had the Cubs played at Wrigley before the lights were lit on August 8, 1988?

MLB had threatened to make the Cubs play postseason home games in St. Louis without lights.

Which NFL team shared Wrigley Field with the Cubs from 1921 to 1970?

The Chicago Cardinals also played there from 1931 to 1939.

At Wrigley Field, a ball landing in 'the Basket' atop the outfield wall is ruled what?

The basket went up a month into the 1970 season to stop fans jumping onto the field after wins.

The 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field is remembered for which Yankees moment?

The Cubs lost every World Series they reached in the 1929-38 'every three years' run.

Hack Wilson's 1930 season set the still-standing MLB record for runs batted in with how many?

He also hit 56 home runs that year on a club with six future Hall of Famers.

What was the name of William Sianis's goat, ejected from the 1945 World Series?

The Cubs lost that Series to Detroit and did not return for 71 years.

Which Cubs Hall of Famer was traded to the Cardinals for Ernie Broglio in 1964?

Broglio won just seven games in the next three seasons.

'Mr. Cub' Ernie Banks began his professional career in 1950 with which Negro leagues team?

He joined the Cubs in September 1953 after two years in the military.

Ernie Banks won back-to-back National League MVP awards in which years?

He was also the Cubs' first Gold Glove winner, in 1960.

Ernie Banks holds the MLB record for most games played without ever doing what?

He played 2,528 games for the Cubs and said he never regretted signing with them.

Complete Ernie Banks' famous catchphrase: 'It's a beautiful day for a ballgame...'

He wished he could play a doubleheader every day.

How many career home runs did Ernie Banks finish with?

His 277 homers as a shortstop were a record until Cal Ripken Jr. passed it.

Which team overtook the Cubs to win the NL East in the infamous collapse of 1969?

Leo Durocher's team led by 9½ games in mid-August before the 'Miracle Mets' ran them down.

Third baseman Ron Santo became known in 1969 for what celebration after home wins?

He played 15 seasons while secretly battling diabetes, which later cost him both lower legs.

In 1971 Fergie Jenkins became the first pitcher from which country to win the Cy Young Award?

He also played basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters in the off-season from 1967 to 1969.

Which song did Harry Caray famously lead Wrigley crowds in during the seventh-inning stretch?

After his death in 1998, celebrity guest conductors took over the tradition at Wrigley.

Before joining the Cubs in 1982, Harry Caray had spent 11 years broadcasting for which team?

He had earlier called 25 years of Cardinals games; his trademark cry was 'Holy Cow!'

Ryne Sandberg's 1984 'Sandberg Game' featured two game-tying homers off which Cardinals closer?

He hit them in the 9th and 10th innings on national TV and won the MVP that season.

Ryne Sandberg came to the Cubs in a 1982 trade with which team, packaged with Larry Bowa?

GM Dallas Green got the future Hall of Famer for shortstop Iván DeJesús.

Which team eliminated the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS after Leon Durham's Game 5 error?

The Cubs had led the series 2-0 before losing three straight on the road.

Rookie Kerry Wood tied the MLB record in 1998 by striking out how many Astros in a nine-inning game?

The feat earned him the nickname 'Kid K' and the NL Rookie of the Year award.

Sammy Sosa finished the 1998 home run race with how many homers, behind Mark McGwire's 70?

He set a record with 20 home runs in June alone and won the NL MVP.

Sammy Sosa was ejected from a June 2003 game when umpires discovered what?

MLB tested 76 of his other bats and found them all clean.

In the 2003 Steve Bartman incident, which Cubs outfielder was reaching for the foul ball?

The Cubs were five outs from the World Series with a 3-0 lead in Game 6 against the Marlins.

What did the Cubs give Steve Bartman after the 2016 World Series?

Players had long insisted their own play, not Bartman, cost them the 2003 pennant.

Which Chicago singer-songwriter wrote 'Go, Cubs, Go' in 1984?

He died four days before the Cubs clinched the 1984 division title; the song has played after every home win since 2007.

Which executive did new owner Tom Ricketts hire away from the Boston Red Sox in 2011 to rebuild the Cubs?

He had been an architect of Boston's curse-breaking 2004 title and brought Jed Hoyer as GM.

Kris Bryant, the Cubs' second overall pick in 2013, won which award in 2016?

He had been NL Rookie of the Year the season before.

Who managed the Cubs to the 2016 World Series title?

He became available in October 2014 when an opt-out clause triggered after Tampa Bay lost its GM to the Dodgers.

The Cubs beat which team in the 2016 World Series?

It was the first postseason meeting of the two franchises, and Cleveland's own drought stretched back to 1948.

What was the final score of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, won by the Cubs in ten innings?

A rain delay just before the tenth inning gave the Cubs time to regroup after blowing a late lead.

The Cubs came back from what deficit to win the 2016 World Series?

They became just the sixth team to rally from that far down in a best-of-seven Series.

Who was 2016 World Series MVP after the go-ahead hit in the tenth inning of Game 7?

He hit .357 in the series a year after winning a title with Kansas City.

How long was the Cubs' World Series championship drought that ended in 2016?

It was the longest such drought in any major North American professional sport.

Anthony Rizzo, the Cubs' first baseman for a decade, is a survivor of which illness?

He won the Roberto Clemente Award and founded a foundation partnered with Lurie Children's Hospital.

The Cubs-Cardinals rivalry is nicknamed after which highway that links the two cities?

It is also called the I-55 rivalry.

Since the 1980s, the 'W' flag flown after a Cubs win has had which colour combination?

Originally the W flag was blue with a white W; the colours were swapped to match the retired-number flags on the foul poles.

Which actor and lifelong Cubs fan led Wrigley's seventh-inning stretch song during the 2016 World Series?

He had also served as guest colour commentator on a 1987 broadcast.

Where did the Cubs hold spring training from 1921 to 1951, on land owned by William Wrigley Jr.?

He built a replica of Wrigley Field there; the team has trained in Mesa, Arizona, for most of the years since.