5 Hall of Fame players that were briefly Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs: Only three of his career 534 home runs were in a Cubs uniform.

Another Philadelphia legend, Jimmie Fox spent 11 of his 20 MLB seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics. He also spent seven years with the Boston Red Sox. In addition to his 534 home runs, Foxx hit .325/.428/.609 with a 1.038 OPS, 158 wRC+ and was a 101.8 fWAR player in his incredible career. Foxx also was a three-time MVP winner, two-time batting champion, two-time World Series champion and the 1938 Triple Crown winner.

In June 1942 the then 34-year-old slugger was selected off waivers by the Cubs from the Red Sox. Foxx came to Chicago but did not see much action, only appearing in 70 games. He hit .205 with three home runs in 205 at-bats. He was no longer an everyday player in ’42 and he did not play in 1943. He did return to play again with the Cubs in 1944, but he only appeared in 15 games.  Foxx was released in July of 1944 after recording just one hit in 20 ABs.

Foxx ended his career back in Philadelphia, but with the Phillies in 1945. He was just one year shy of being part of the 1945 Cubs pennant-winning team. Had Foxx not had some health issues that resulted in his decline in his early 30s, who knows what more he could have done.

Chicago Cubs: His brief stint with the Cubs came after a stretch on the South Side

Hoyt Wilhelm appeared in 1,070 games in 21 seasons in the majors. He made his debut at age 29 and pitched until he was just shy of his 50th birthday. “Old Sarge” was able to do what he did for so long thanks to his use of the knuckleball. He appeared mostly out of the pen and pitched to a 2.52 ERA, 3.06 FIP, 1,610 strikeout and 228 saves in 2,254.1 innings in his career.

He played for nine different teams and appeared in more games in a White Sox uniform than any other team. He did however return to Chicago briefly in 1970 to play with the Cubs.

In September 1970, Wilhelm was selected off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. He was an NL All Star earlier that season with Atlanta and things were going well for him. Wilhelm with the Cubs appeared in just three games (3.2  innings) and he gave up four earned runs. His career ERA with the Cubs is 9.82. Three of those runs came on a walk-off three-run homer by Mets infielder Wayne Garrett at Shea Stadium.

Wilhelm was traded back to the Braves in November for Hal Breeden. His final MLB season came in 1972 with the Dodgers.

Chicago Cubs: A massive trade brought a Pirates legend to the North Side

Ralph Kiner was one of the National League’s finest players in the late-40s and early-50s. He spent his first eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he was a six-time All-Star. Kiner was the MLB leader in home runs six-consecutive years from 1948-1952, and nearly won the Triple Crown in 1951 with his average being the only stat that fell short on the leaderboard.

In 1953 a big trade was pulled off between the Pirates and Cubs that went as follows:

Pirates trade Kiner, Joe Garagiola, George Metkovich and Howie Pollet to the Cubs for Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward and $150,000.

Apparently, this trade was done because of disputes over money between Kiner and Pirates GM Branch Rickey. As a Cub he played in 264 games from 1953-1954. He hit .284/.381/.505 with 50 home runs and a .886 OPS. Kiner did pretty well with the Cubs, unfortunately, the team finished nowhere near a pennant. Twenty-eight of his 50 home runs as a Cub came in 117 games in 1953, showing the fans immediately that he brought the power from the Steel City.

In November 1954, Kiner was traded to the Cleveland Indians which would result in the Cubs getting pitcher Sam Jones. Kiner’s MLB playing career was over after his one year in Cleveland. He finished with 369 home runs in just ten seasons while hitting .279/.398/.548. His #4 is retired in Pittsburgh and he became a Mets broadcast legend.

Chicago Cubs: Irvin was going out as Ernie Banks was coming into his own.

Monte Irvin was a star with the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues from 1938 through 1948. He hit .333/.402/.524 over that span. A versatile player who for average and decent pop, he made his debut in the MLB at age 30 with the New York Giants in 1949. He played there until 1955 before joining the Cubs via the Rule 5 draft in November of that year.

Irvin was 37 and winding down. Ernie Banks was 25 and just hitting his prime. The two played together in 1956 on a team that ended up losing 94 games. Irvin still put up solid numbers, hitting .271/.346/.460 with 15 home runs in 111 games. That would be the final year of his MLB career.

While his stint with the Cubs might be forgotten by some, others might remember this photo of him above with him alongside Banks and Hank Sauer. A lot of All Star games and three MVP awards combined with those three guys.

As for Irvin, he lived to be 96 and recently passed away in 2016. He lived a very long life and left a great legacy in the game of baseball.

Sadly nobody on this list is still living as they played a long time ago, but they make for great baseball footnotes. All legends who had a brief sting in Cubbie Blue.