Five Cubs players I’m thankful I got to see play in my lifetime

Coming out of Thanksgiving, here are five Cubs players I’m thankful for.

My daughter learned several Thanksgiving poems at school over the past few weeks and even a little pre-meal “grace” about blessings she makes all of us say before dinner. While this year has brought numerous unforeseen and unexpected obstacles or challenges to all parents, kids, workers, and even sports fans, it’s definitely a reminder that we should always count our blessings and appreciate what we have over what we might be missing.  More than any other year, this Thanksgiving season is a season to reflect upon those blessings and what we should be thankful for in our everyday lives.

In that vein, it seemed apropos to discuss what I’m thankful for in regards to the team I root for and write about it. And, since it’s hard (at the moment) to be thankful about the current state of affairs and the change that is looming on the horizon for the Chicago Cubs, let’s look back on players many fans were thankful for during their time on the north side.

While many of the current Cubs hold a special place in my heart, I’m going to refrain from including any players from the recent window of contention. We tend to look back on former players with a softer lens and let nostalgia cloud or mask any negativity we once held for each one, regardless of their actual effect on the team at the time. Then again, some people are better at harboring ill will and grudges, but I can’t help that.

Without further ado, here are five ballplayers I’m thankful laced their spikes up in the Friendly Confines for the home team.

Chicago Cubs: D-Lee was a de-light in a Cubs uni

If you could bottle up a good player who went on an incredible run for a season or two, but was not quite the same player before or after, several really talented Cubs would come to mind.

Jake Arrieta was the undisputed best pitcher in baseball at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016; you would have handed him the ball in pretty much any game against any lineup. Granted, it didn’t work out so swell in the 2015 NLCS against the Mets, but that was hardly his fault as Daniel Murphy somehow exhumed Babe Ruth and made him take his shape. Arrieta had flashes and periods of very good pitching sprinkled in with bad and mediocre swaths, but he was never again the guy we saw throwing no-hitters and manhandling the Pirates in the 2015 Wild Card game.

Derrek Lee was another of these good but not quite Hall of Fame career players who just absolutely morphed into an all world player in 2005 with the Cubs. Lee had good seasons in 2003 and 2004, but he was literally seeing beach balls at the plate in ’05. He had always been a nice all-around player who was a great fielder at first base and more of a doubles kind of gap hitter at the plate. He had a good eye, was a really great athlete and baserunner for his size, and actually reminds me of healthy Kris Bryant.

Lee also seemed like a good guy and good teammate, often smiling and looking happy to play the game. I remember going to old Yankee Stadium during that 2005 season just to see him play, and even the Yankees fans were begrudgingly talking about how awesome he was hitting in between pouring beers on and singing a parody of Y.M.C.A. about Cubs fans in the right field bleachers. I was thankful to be there and get to watch D-Lee (he was hitting .389 at the end of the series), even if the Cubs themselves weren’t all that great.

Chicago Cubs: The OG Professor

Letting Greg Maddux go to Atlanta will live forever as former-Cub GM Larry Himes’ biggest blunder. Maddux began his career as a Cub and even came back to Chicago after his wildly spectacular run with the Braves, and is the best pitcher to ever pitch for the Cubs. With all due respect to Fergie Jenkins and Mordecai Brown, “The Professor” is on the short list of best pitchers to ever face MLB lineups.

When my cousin recently asked me about how good Maddux was, I made the comparison to a current Cub who shares a nickname, success, and repertoire with the former legend. That current Cub is, of course, Kyle Hendricks. What I added, however, is that Maddux was basically Hendricks from Opening Night of 2020 throwing a few ticks harder with even more consistent control and stuff. When modern or young fans who didn’t get to see Maddux work think about how good Hendricks is when he’s on, that’s a pretty comparison.

For fans who saw Maddux pitch, Hendricks even being mentioned in the same sentence is probably offensive.

With the ability to create and control whatever pitches he wanted, an extra favorable zone in his prime, and his bulldog mentality that gave him his other moniker “Mad Dog,” Maddux was a guy I was thankful for who management let get away. Sounds like a complaint generations of Cubs fans have had…

Chicago Cubs: The Hall of Famer could do it all as a player

Growing up as a little kid in Midlothian and Oak Forest, Van Halen and the Chicago Cubs were about the coolest and hottest things going in the early 80s. In 1984, both the band and the team were about as hot as could be, and Eddie and Diamond Dave had nothing on the guy who owned the Chicago diamond, Ryne Sandberg. What Eddie Van Halen could do on an axe was mirrored on the field when “Ryno” came to the plate or flashed the leather.

Sandberg is the best Cubs player of my lifetime, and his Hall of Fame status still has all of the current guys (who haven’t even come close to his career as of yet) beat by a large margin.  A defensive whiz at the keystone, Sandberg could not only handle his glove, he could also run like a deer and great into his power as a guy who went from hitting lots of doubles and triples early in his career to a masher in the middle of his career.

Ryno was beloved by fans for his hard-nosed play, performance, and the fact that he never went anywhere else once coming over from the Phillies. He was a Cub for life, played on some of the most exciting squads in ’84 and ’89, and now has a flag flying at Wrigley. Heck, after an unsuccessful stint managing the Phillies, he’s even come back home and seems to have embraced being a part of Cubs history and who’s not thankful for that?

Chicago Cubs: Slammin’ Sammy was one of a kind

Come on. Seriously. Get over it. You don’t have to forget or excuse what Sammy Sosa did at the end of his tenure with the Cubs. But, just for a second, think about how exciting he was and how he carried the ballclub on his back for the better part of a decade.

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The dude should be a Hall of Famer at some point, and he’ll go into Cooperstown as a Chicago Cub. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sosa was as electric a player as there was in all of sports, let alone baseball. Following in the wake of Michael Jordan’s last championship run in Chicago, Sosa (and McGwire) took the world by storm in 1998, bashing home runs like it was 1961.

Sammy didn’t just hit home runs either; he ran hard, he swung hard, and smiled more than any player the Cubs have ever had. He was a star on so many levels and was embraced by the city like no other.

While many fans may have muddled thoughts and memories because of the unsavory ending to his career, no one will be able to take away all of the epic seasons Sosa put up as a Cub. He hit at least 49 home runs in five straight seasons, including 63, 64, and 66 (the only guy to hit 60 three times).

He was an unstoppable force disguised as a fun-loving baseball player who just happened to flame out like many juggernauts at the end. As an optimist, I tend to remember and am thankful for the good times and great seasons slammin’ Sammy was a part of in Chicago.