Where does Patrick Wisdom rank all-time among Chicago Cubs rookies?

Chicago Cubs Greatest Rookie Seasons of All-Time – #4: Billy Williams (1961)

Billy Williams remains a Cubs legend, having an amazing career with the team and gaining election into the Hall of Fame. He started all that off with a tremendous rookie campaign in 1961.

WIlliams had gotten into a little big league action in both 1959 and 1960, seeing 86 combined plate appearances. He still had rookie eligibility in 1961 and played in 146 games that year, batting .278 with 25  home runs and 86 RBI. He also hit 20 doubles and seven triples while posting an .822 OPS. Williams would win NL Rookie of the Year honors that year, the first of back-to-back such honors for the Cubs (Ken Hubbs would win the award in 1962).

The next year, 1962, Williams made the All-Star team, the first of six such honors for him. His 1961 season also started a streak of 13 straight years in which he would hit at least 20 home runs (He would hit at least 30 home runs in five of those years). And while he never won an MVP award, he did finish as the runner-up twice.

Of course, Williams was right in the middle of those good (but unfortunately not great) Cubs teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s. His final career totals: 2,711 hits, 426 home runs, and 1,475 RBI. He played for the Cubs through 1974 and spent his final two season with the Oakland Athletics, where he saw postseason action but never got that elusive championship.

We tend to forget that Williams won Rookie of the Year in 1961, but it was the start of one of the all-time great Cubs careers.