Cubs Retiring Maddux, Jenkins' No. 31
Club honoring legends with fifth number ever retired
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Greg Maddux's time as a Cub bracketed his best years, but the team is honoring him all the same.
When Greg Maddux started playing baseball for the Chicago Cubs, he didn't have any idea about the number he was wearing:
"I remember walking down the stairs there at the clubhouse. I got called up in September from Des Moines and it was just right there in my locker," Maddux said of the No. 31. "Being 20 years old at the time the last thing I was going to do was complain about my number. I was just happy to be there." A few weeks later Maddux learned he had been given the same number that Jenkins wore with the Cubs.
Two decades later, Maddux is among the greatest pitchers to ever live, not to mention being one of the most entertaining -- his combination of power and accuracy was unmatched in his heyday. When the velocity went away, Maddux kept winning games by refining his game to a science, moving the ball all over the place and cerebrically ruining hitter after hitter. He was a fearsome sight.
Fergie Jenkens -- who played until 1984, two years before Maddux entered the major leagues -- was just as fearsome. Yesterday, the Cubs announced that the both pitchers, who shared No. 31, will have the number retired jointly, in both their names. It's only the fifth number ever to be retired by the Cubs.
It's a small gesture, to be sure, but it's one that might assuage whatever residual anger Cubs fans have over trading Maddux, who left the Cubs just in time to enter his legendary prime. He's still a Cub, even if he wasn't at his most productive in Chicago. The retired number proves it.
As for Jenkins, well, it was a long time coming. Congrats, Fergie.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger who wishes he was friends with Greg Maddux. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, FanHouse, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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