100 Fun Facts About Chicago Cubs

The Wrigley family, whose name is on the Cubs' ballpark, made its fortune selling what?

Chewing gum began as William Wrigley Jr.'s free gift. He sold soap, then baking powder, and handed out gum as a bonus until customers wanted the gum more than the goods.

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

The White Stockings name outlived its first owners. When Charles Comiskey brought a rival club to the city in 1900, he took the discarded name for his own team.

A Chicago newspaper coined 'Cubs' in 1902 as a nod to the team's what?

Young players earned the name. New manager Frank Selee had filled the roster with youngsters, and the Chicago Daily News started calling them the Cubs.

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

Cap Anson was the biggest celebrity in the game. In 1895 he played himself on Broadway in a play written to cash in on his fame.

Which team in 2001 matched the 1906 Cubs' record of 116 wins in a season?

Seattle Mariners. Neither 116-win team took the title: the 1906 Cubs were upset in the World Series by a club nicknamed the Hitless Wonders, and Seattle fell to the Yankees in the playoffs.

Which team did the Cubs beat in both the 1907 and 1908 World Series?

Detroit Tigers. Their 20-year-old star Ty Cobb had just won his first batting title, but Cubs pitchers held him to a .200 average in 1907 and Chicago never lost a game.

A 1910 poem made the Cubs' Tinker, Evers and Chance famous for which feat?

Turning double plays. The poem was a rival's lament: New York columnist Franklin P. Adams wrote it as a Giants fan and called 'Tinker to Evers to Chance' the saddest of possible words.

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

Weeghman Park was named for Charles Weeghman, who got rich on quick-lunch counters. When the Federal League folded he bought the Cubs and moved them into his two-year-old ballpark.

Which ballpark is the only one in the majors older than Wrigley Field?

Fenway Park opened in Boston in April 1912, two years before the Cubs' future home. Its famous left-field wall, the Green Monster, was not painted green until 1947.

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

Bill Veeck, then a young Cubs employee, became baseball's great showman as a team owner. In 1951 he sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel up to bat as a stunt.

Wrigley Field's long-awaited first night game, on 8/8/88, was cut short by what?

Heavy rain stopped play after three and a half innings, so the game never counted. The first official night game at Wrigley was played the following evening.

The Cubs bought lights for Wrigley Field decades early, then gave them away after which event?

Pearl Harbor was attacked just after owner P.K. Wrigley had bought lights for the 1942 season. He gave the equipment to the war effort, and the park stayed dark for another 46 years.

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

The Chicago Bears squeezed a football field into the ballpark every autumn, with the brick outfield wall standing just inches behind one end zone.

At Wrigley Field, a fly ball that drops into 'the Basket' atop the outfield wall is ruled what?

A home run, because the basket hangs out over the field. The Cubs put the wire screen up in 1970 after rowdy bleacher fans leaped over the wall and onto the grass.

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

Babe Ruth's 'called shot' is still argued over. Film shows him gesturing before he homered, but Cubs pitcher Charlie Root always insisted that Ruth never called it.

Which Cubs slugger drove in 191 runs in 1930 to set a major-league record?

Hack Wilson, a 5-foot-6 outfielder, was credited with 190 for 69 years. In 1999 researchers found a run wrongly given to a teammate, and baseball raised his record to 191.

Which animal was turned away from the 1945 World Series, starting the Cubs' famous curse?

The goat, tavern owner William Sianis's pet Murphy, was turned away from Game 4 with the Cubs leading two games to one. Sianis is said to have cursed them, and they lost in seven and waited 71 years for another World Series.

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

Lou Brock helped St. Louis win the World Series that same October and went on to the Hall of Fame, while Broglio won only seven more games in his career.

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

The Kansas City Monarchs sold him to the Cubs in September 1953, and Banks reported straight to Wrigley Field without spending a day in the minor leagues.

Ernie Banks, later a first baseman, was the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1958 and 1959 at which position?

Shortstop. Banks hit 47 and 45 home runs in those seasons and became the first National Leaguer named MVP two years running, even though the Cubs had a losing record both times.

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

Appearing in the postseason eluded Banks through all 2,528 of his games, every one of them for the Cubs. He came closest in 1969, when Chicago fell out of first place late in the season.

Which catchphrase is 'Mr. Cub' Ernie Banks best remembered for?

'Let's play two!' meant a doubleheader, because one game a day was never enough for him. Banks even closed his Hall of Fame induction speech with the line in 1977.

Ernie Banks hit a record five of which in 1955?

Grand slams. Not bad for a boy who had so little interest in baseball that his father bribed him with nickels and dimes just to play catch.

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

The New York Mets were still chasing the Cubs at the start of September, then stormed past them and won the division by eight games.

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

Clicking his heels began by accident after a dramatic win, and the bleacher fans loved it. Santo dropped the routine for good when the Cubs collapsed that September.

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

Canada. Jenkins, from Chatham, Ontario, was a fine all-round athlete who spent his winters in the late 1960s touring with basketball's Harlem Globetrotters.

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

Take Me Out to the Ball Game caught on because Caray sang it badly. The owner who first put his voice on the loudspeakers said fans would join in once they knew they could sing better than he could.

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

Chicago White Sox. Caray became a South Side favourite there, sometimes calling games from a seat among the fans in the bleachers, a habit he later took with him to Wrigley Field.

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

Bruce Sutter was one of the game's dominant closers and a former Cub. Chicago had traded him to St. Louis in 1980 in the deal that brought Leon Durham the other way.

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

The Philadelphia Phillies gave up a prospect their old scouting chief knew well. Dallas Green had drafted Sandberg in the 20th round, and once he was running the Cubs he brought him to Chicago in the Bowa trade.

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

The San Diego Padres looked finished after losing the first two games in Chicago. Needing to win three in a row at home, they did exactly that.

Which Cubs rookie struck out 20 Astros in a 1998 game to tie the major-league record?

Kerry Wood was 20 years old and making only his fifth big-league start, and he allowed a single hit. A year later he missed the whole season after elbow surgery.

Sammy Sosa hit 66 home runs in 1998 but finished second to whom?

Mark McGwire finished with 70 for St. Louis. Sosa took the bigger prize, though: he was voted the league's Most Valuable Player after his 66 homers carried the Cubs into the playoffs.

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

A corked bat came to light when it shattered on a swing. Sosa said it was a batting-practice bat he had picked up by mistake, and X-rays of his other bats found no cork.

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

Moisés Alou slammed his glove down in anger. Chicago, five outs from the World Series with a 3-0 lead, then gave up eight runs in the inning and lost the series the next night.

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

A championship ring, personalized for him, came from the club's chairman in 2017. Bartman, silent in public since 2003, said he hoped it would start a healing process for everyone involved.

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

Steve Goodman, a lifelong Cubs fan, wrote it at the request of the team's radio station. He died that September, four days before the Cubs clinched the division title his song had cheered them toward.

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

Theo Epstein had already ended one famous wait, building the Boston team that won in 2004 after 86 years. In Chicago he began by losing 101 games, then won it all in his fifth season.

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

NL MVP, a year after he was Rookie of the Year. That November Bryant also fielded the grounder and made the throw that ended the World Series.

Who managed the Cubs to the 2016 World Series title?

Joe Maddon became a free agent in 2014 through an opt-out clause in his Tampa Bay contract. The Cubs moved fast, dismissing Rick Renteria after a single season to make room for him.

The Cubs beat which team in the 2016 World Series?

The Cleveland Indians were chasing their own first title since 1948 and came within one win of it, leading three games to one before the Cubs took the last three.

Which Cubs outfielder rallied his teammates with a speech during the delay before the tenth inning of 2016's Game 7?

Jason Heyward called everyone into a weight room during the 17-minute delay and told them they were the best team in baseball. The Cubs, who had just let a three-run lead slip, scored twice in the tenth.

Which Cubs closer got eight outs to save 2016 World Series Game 5?

Aroldis Chapman had never pitched so long in a big-league game. Three nights later, in his third straight game, he gave up the tying runs in Game 7 and still finished as the winning pitcher.

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

Ben Zobrist had won the World Series with the Royals only a year earlier, then signed with the Cubs that winter. He did it again at once, hitting .357 in the Series.

Who was US president in October 1908, when the Cubs won their last World Series before 2016?

Theodore Roosevelt. The Cubs reached that Series only after a Giant was called out for missing second base on an apparent winning hit, forcing a replayed game that Chicago won.

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

Hodgkin's lymphoma was diagnosed in 2008, when Rizzo was an 18-year-old in the low minor leagues. In remission by that September, he later set up a foundation to support families fighting cancer.

Which highway once linked Chicago with St. Louis, home of the Cubs' great rivals, the Cardinals?

Route 66 began in Chicago and ran through St. Louis on its way to California. Interstates replaced it piece by piece, and the old road was struck from the US highway system in 1985.

The 'W' flag flown at Wrigley Field after a Cubs win shows which colour combination?

Blue W on white means a win, and a defeat brings out the reverse, a white L on blue. The flags fly above the scoreboard so that neighbours and passing train riders can see the result.

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

Bill Murray had form at the microphone. When a stroke kept Harry Caray off the air early in 1987, the comedian was one of the guests who filled in on Cubs broadcasts.

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

Catalina Island lies off the California coast, close to Hollywood. A radio announcer covering the Cubs' camp took a screen test on one trip and signed with Warner Bros: Ronald Reagan.

Which 1989 film imagined the Cubs winning the 2015 World Series, one year early?

Back to the Future Part II has the Cubs beating a fictional Miami team called the Gators. The real Cubs fell in the 2015 playoffs and ended their drought a year later.

Which later US president broadcast Cubs games on Iowa radio station WHO during the 1930s?

Ronald Reagan travelled west with the Cubs for spring training, took a screen test on the trip and landed a seven-year contract with a Hollywood studio.

Which animal ran onto the field near Ron Santo during the Cubs' infamous September 1969 collapse?

A black cat ran out near Santo that September, and the Cubs, in first place for 155 days, went on to lose 17 of their last 25 games.

What happened to the Cubs' infamous Steve Bartman ball after a Chicago restaurant group bought it?

It was blown up in public by a special effects expert. A year later the restaurant boiled the remains and added the captured steam to a pasta sauce.

In which 1986 John Hughes comedy does the hero catch a foul ball at a Cubs game?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off shot its ballpark scenes during a real game against Montreal in September 1985, with the three leads sitting in the left-field stands.

Cubs outfielder Rick Monday became a 1976 hero by snatching what from protesters at Dodger Stadium?

An American flag was about to be set alight in the outfield when Monday dashed over and grabbed it. He was later given permission to keep it.

In which city did the Cubs open the 2000 season, the first major-league game outside North America?

Tokyo hosted the opener in its domed stadium before 55,000 fans, and the Cubs won 5-3. They went back to open the 2025 season there too.

Which nickname for Wrigley Field was popularised by longtime Cubs star Ernie Banks?

The Friendly Confines stuck as the park's best-known nickname, and a statue of Banks was unveiled outside it in 2008.

Which 1980 film has a character give Wrigley Field's address, 1060 West Addison, as his home?

The Blues Brothers has Elwood register the ballpark as his home address, so the Illinois Nazis hunting him turn up at Wrigley Field's main entrance instead.

Which rock frontman, a lifelong Cubs fan raised in Evanston, wrote the 2008 tribute 'All the Way'?

Eddie Vedder wrote it in one night after Ernie Banks asked him for a Cubs song at the team's fantasy camp, and first sang it at a Pearl Jam show in Chicago.

Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was the first major-league player to do what in three separate seasons?

Hit 60 homers is a feat Sosa managed in 1998, 1999 and 2001, yet he failed to lead the league in any of those three seasons.

Which pitcher won his first Cy Young Award with the Cubs in 1992, then left and won the next three?

Greg Maddux was the first pitcher to win the award four years running, and he came back to Chicago in 2004 to earn his 300th career victory as a Cub.

Which outfielder handed the Cubs a blank contract in 1987, then led the league in runs batted in?

Andre Dawson let the Cubs fill in his salary after other clubs made no offers, then hit 49 homers and was voted the league's best player on a last-place team.

Which pitcher went 16-1 for the Cubs after a June 1984 trade and won the Cy Young Award?

Rick Sutcliffe cost the Cubs a package that included young outfielder Joe Carter, and he took the award by a unanimous vote.

Which Cubs first baseman collected more hits than any other major leaguer during the 1990s?

Mark Grace piled up 1,754 hits in the decade and also led all players in doubles, with 364.

Which Cubs outfielder from Whistler, Alabama, set a National League mark of 1,117 consecutive games?

Billy Williams played every game from September 1963 to September 1970, and his league record stood until Steve Garvey passed it in 1983.

Which closer, drafted by the Cubs in 1975, retired as baseball's career saves leader with 478?

Lee Smith was the first pitcher to reach 400 saves, and his career mark stood from 1993 until Trevor Hoffman passed it in 2006.

Which Cubs ace posted a record-low 0.75 ERA after the 2015 All-Star break and no-hit the Dodgers?

Jake Arrieta won 22 games and the Cy Young Award that year, then threw a second no-hitter in April 2016, a 16-0 rout of Cincinnati.

Cubs third baseman Ron Santo hid which medical condition from the public until 1971?

Type 1 diabetes was hard to monitor in the 1960s, so Santo judged his blood sugar by his moods. He revealed the illness on Ron Santo Day at Wrigley Field.

Javier Báez, a slick-tagging infielder on the Cubs' 2016 champions, has which Spanish nickname?

El Mago means the Magician, and Báez, whose quick tags were rated among the best ever, chose the name for his Players Weekend jersey in 2017 and 2018.

In which 1993 family film does a boy's badly healed broken arm make him a star Cubs pitcher?

Rookie of the Year was the first feature directed by Daniel Stern, who also appears in it, with John Candy in an uncredited role.

By tradition, what do Cubs fans at Wrigley Field do when they catch a visiting player's homer?

Throw it back onto the field is the unwritten rule, and fans out on the street beyond the outfield wall sometimes do the same.

The Cubs' bear mascot, introduced in 2014, is named after which street bordering Wrigley Field?

Clark runs along the third-base side of the ballpark, and the cub named after it, the club's first official mascot of modern times, greets fans in a backwards cap.

Which Chicago superstation beamed Cubs games to cable viewers nationwide from the late 1970s?

WGN went up on satellite in November 1978 as the country's second superstation, and its Cubs telecasts became popular far outside the Midwest.

Which national honour did Barack Obama present to Cubs legend Ernie Banks in 2013?

The Medal of Freedom went to Banks alongside 15 other people that year, among them Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey.

Which manager, newly arrived from San Francisco, took the 2003 Cubs within five outs of a pennant?

Dusty Baker won a division title in his first season in Chicago, and with it the club's first playoff series victory since the 1908 World Series.

Which fiery former Yankees outfielder managed the Cubs to division titles in both 2007 and 2008?

Lou Piniella was voted the league's Manager of the Year in 2008, yet his Cubs were swept out of the playoffs in both seasons.

Which manager, nicknamed 'The Lip', was in charge of the Cubs during their 1969 collapse?

Leo Durocher took the job in 1966 declaring that he was not the manager of an eighth-place team, and the Cubs promptly finished tenth.

Which wild-card team rallied from three games to one down to beat the Cubs in the 2003 NLCS?

The Florida Marlins scored eight runs in the eighth inning of Game 6, won Game 7 as well and went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series.

Which club joins the Cubs as the only surviving charter members of the National League from 1876?

The Atlanta Braves began life in Boston, which leaves the Cubs as the only club to have played in one city ever since the league was formed.

Which catcher homered in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, his last game, and later managed the Cubs?

David Ross was 39 when he went deep, the oldest player to do so in a World Series Game 7, and he took over as Cubs manager for the 2020 season.

Dartmouth graduate Kyle Hendricks, a starter on the Cubs' 2016 champions, earned which nickname?

The Professor is a nod to his Ivy League education, and in 2016 he lived up to it with the lowest earned run average in the majors.

Which Arizona city has been the Cubs' spring training base for most seasons since 1952?

Mesa residents voted to pay for the Cubs' new park there, which opened in 2014 as the biggest spring training stadium in the majors, with 15,000 seats.

Which outdoor NHL showcase did Wrigley Field host on New Year's Day 2009, its first hockey game?

The Winter Classic matched the Blackhawks with the Red Wings, and the rink stayed up for days afterwards so the public could skate at the ballpark.

Which Cubs batting champion of 1980 later made a famous World Series fielding error for Boston?

Bill Buckner hit .324 to take the batting crown, and the Cubs traded him to Boston in May 1984 for pitcher Dennis Eckersley.

In which neutral city did Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano no-hit Houston in 2008 after a hurricane?

Milwaukee lent its ballpark after Hurricane Ike damaged Houston, and Zambrano's 5-0 gem became the first no-hitter thrown at a neutral site.

Which 1977 play, from an idea by actor Joe Mantegna, follows a group of die-hard Cubs fans?

Bleacher Bums was written collectively by Chicago's Organic Theater Company, and Mantegna starred in the original cast alongside Dennis Franz.

Which Cubs pitcher, drafted second overall in 2001, won 18 games in 2003 before injuries struck?

Mark Prior was picked right behind Joe Mauer and finished third in Cy Young voting in 2003, but he never pitched in the majors again after 2006.

Cubs ace Mordecai Brown got which nickname after a boyhood farm machinery accident mangled his hand?

Three Finger was a headline writers' invention, and not quite accurate: counting the thumb, Brown had four digits on his pitching hand.

Which announcer called Cubs games on Chicago television from 1948 to 1981 without the team winning a pennant?

Jack Brickhouse was the first face seen on Chicago's Channel 9 when it signed on in 1948. In 1945, the one Cubs pennant year of his career, he was calling White Sox games instead.

Which Cubs catcher-manager hit the 1938 "Homer in the Gloamin'" as darkness fell on Wrigley Field?

Gabby Hartnett connected on an 0-2 pitch with the score tied in the ninth, the last inning the umpires would allow, and the win put the Cubs in first place.

Which Giants rookie's failure to touch second base in 1908 handed the Cubs a replay and the pennant?

Fred Merkle was 19, the youngest player in the league, and his out turned a winning hit into a tie. The Cubs won the makeup game and finished one game ahead.

In 1961 the Cubs replaced the manager's job with a rotating eight-man committee known as what?

The College of Coaches passed the head coach's job between four men in 1961 and three in 1962, a season in which the Cubs lost 103 games.

Which long-gone ballpark was home to the Cubs when they won the World Series in 1907 and 1908?

West Side Park stood across the street from Cook County Hospital, and the Cubs played there for nearly a quarter of a century before moving north in 1916.

What occupied the site of Wrigley Field at the turn of the 20th century?

A Lutheran seminary held classes there from 1891, but as the district turned urban it went looking for somewhere quieter and sold the land in 1909.

Which golf great once hit Wrigley Field's centre-field scoreboard with a two-iron shot?

Sam Snead reached it with a golf ball, a feat no batter had matched with a baseball in the decades since the board went up in 1937.

The Ricketts family, who bought the Cubs in 2009, made a fortune from which Omaha-born brokerage?

TD Ameritrade grew out of First Omaha Securities, which Joe Ricketts and a few partners started in 1975 by putting in $12,500 each.

Which Negro leagues veteran did the Cubs make the first Black coach in the major leagues in 1962?

Buck O'Neil had joined the Cubs as a scout, but as a coach he was given no in-game base coaching duties and was never allowed to run the team.

Which Cubs pitcher lost a 1972 perfect game by walking the 27th batter on a full count?

Milt Pappas completed a no-hitter anyway, but for decades afterwards he blamed the umpire for calling two close pitches balls.

Which pitcher won 47 games for Chicago's 1876 pennant winners and co-founded a sporting goods firm?

Albert Spalding opened his first store in Chicago with his brother that same year, and within a few years the firm had outlets from Oregon to Rhode Island.