When Fergie Jenkins attended the statue dedication ceremonies for his former Chicago Cubs teammates at Wrigley Field, the thought needed to cross his thoughts.
Will the Cubs someday honor me?
It took longer than needed, however that day lastly arrived Friday at Gallagher Way.
The sculpture of Jenkins in his windup introduced again recollections of his duels with Bob Gibson at Wrigley Field throughout an period when starters took the ball and wouldn’t give it up till it was pried from their fingers. Standing in entrance of his statue after the ceremony Friday afternoon, Jenkins circled to take a protracted look, then smiled on the acquainted pose.
“It’s me,” he mentioned. “It looks like me. I think that was (from) an afternoon ballgame, a (TV) ‘Game of the Week.’ They used it on a Sports Illustrated cover. That was the pose because they wanted to show the Cubs logo on the chest and the cap.”
When you consider Jenkins in a Cubs uniform, you concentrate on the 284 profession wins, the three,192 strikeouts, the 267 full video games, and, after all, that fateful 1969 season. He waited a very long time to hitch Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo as statue-worthy Cubs, but it surely was well worth the wait.
“Fergie deserved this a long time ago,” Williams mentioned. “But better late than never.”
Jenkins by no means grumbled over the wait, at the same time as he admitted Friday he “had the numbers” to advantage the dignity.
“But the organization has to do it,” Jenkins mentioned. “Just like retiring my quantity (31). They waited for (Greg) Maddux to retire, and we retired (the quantity) collectively (in 2009).
“I was here for Ernie’s (ceremony). I was here for Billy’s and Ronnie’s. Believe me, it was an honor to see them being humble, because the fact was they were Chicago Cubs players. To me, my career was in Chicago. My second home was playing right here in Wrigley Field.”
Jenkins’ speech was quick and candy, and identical to his pitching days at Wrigley, he was pressured to battle a 25-mph wind to maintain his notes from blowing away. He thanked everybody from the Rickettses to former Cubs proprietor P.Okay. Wrigley, from supervisor Leo Durocher to the Bleacher Bums. Jenkins informed a humorous story of the day Durocher let Frank Sinatra handle a few innings of a spring coaching sport in Palm Springs, Calif., in 1968.
But it was Banks, Jenkins mentioned, who “taught me to respect the game and be professional all the time.” That was a lesson Jenkins by no means forgot.
“Fergie is very unassuming, and you wondered whether he’d be able to get the accolades that he really deserves,” former Cubs batterymate Randy Hundley mentioned. “He’s beginning to get it, and I’m glad for him.”
Williams, Hundley and the remainder of Jenkins’ mates appeared as blissful for him as he was for himself. The Cubs neighborhood turned out for the ceremony, together with Jenkins’ former teammates Williams, Hundley, Byron Browne, Lee Smith and Steve Trout and former gamers together with Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood.
Former Blackhawks goaltender Ed Belfour additionally was among the many visitors on a heat day with the sort of wind blowing out to proper that pressured Jenkins to hit his spots or watch the ball fly, because it did for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who hit seven house runs Friday — together with three from Josh Rojas — in a 10-6 win.
“He didn’t worry about no danged wind,” Williams mentioned of Jenkins. “If the wind was blowing at him, it was in his favor because he had a good slider, and he knew that.”
The statues of Jenkins, Banks, Williams and Santo function reminders of a season that lives in infamy — that epic 1969 collapse to the New York Mets. That these gamers, and that staff, stay beloved in Chicago regardless of the tragic ending is a testomony to the enjoyment they introduced Cubs followers yr in and yr out.
“It’s too bad the Mets — I hate to say it — the Mets won,” Williams mentioned. “But I was here in 2016.”
History tends to rejoice the winners, and Cubs followers lastly received that likelihood in 2016. But Chicagoans even have celebrated athletes with character and a powerful work ethic, whether or not they had received a hoop or not.
Jenkins was what all of us aspire to be — somebody who labored at his craft and by no means needed to depart a job unfinished. Someone who was assured in his capacity however by no means too cocky. Someone who hated dropping and did every thing he might to assist his staff win.
“As a pitcher, I learned to win,” he mentioned in his speech. “Losing never entered my mind.”
Williams reminded writers that Jenkins went out to the mound each 4 video games in an period of the four-man rotation.
“Now you’ve got pitchers going out there every five days,” Williams mentioned.
Or each six days, Williams was reminded.
Williams then listed the names of Jenkins, Gibson, Don Drysdale and Juan Marichal, old-school starters who didn’t consider they did their jobs until the catcher handed them the ball on the finish of a whole sport. Last season the one groups with greater than three full video games have been the Philadelphia Phillies (5) and Chicago White Sox (4). During his Cy Young-winning season with the Cubs in 1971, Jenkins had six full video games in each May and July and a league-leading 30 total.
Jenkins laughed Friday when requested about modern-day starters throwing 5 innings or much less.
“That’s way too bad,” he mentioned. “They don’t give them the opportunity to show what their ability is all about. These guys train to do a certain thing. To pitch 2 ⅔ innings, you haven’t even touched a part of their ability. You don’t really get into a ballgame until the fifth or the sixth”
Cubs starter Drew Smyly lasted 4 ⅓ innings Wednesday, whereas Marcus Stroman threw 5 innings Thursday. Both have been happy with their outings afterward. The baseball axiom “five and dive” was as soon as an insult thrown at starters who couldn’t pitch previous the fifth. Now starters are rewarded with high-fives for going 5 innings.
Jenkins can solely be grateful he pitched in a differnt period.
“I ran a lot, I stayed in shape,” Jenkins mentioned. “My dad was a chef. He told me what to eat, what not to eat. But the biggest thing is what you put in your body that’s going to make you perform well. I tried to understand that being out there playing, I had to have stamina. I never had a sore arm. I pitched 21 seasons and never had a sore arm. That’s probably genetics.”
The journey from rising up in Chatham, Ontario, to the Baseball Hall of Fame to Friday’s statue dedication was a protracted and exhausting one. When Jenkins was 14, his father, who had performed within the Negro Leagues, took him to his first sport at previous Tigers Stadium in Detroit. After watching Larry Doby hit two house runs, Fergie informed his dad he needed to be a ballplayer.
“Little did I know it was going to work out so good,” he mentioned.
The day was full, simply the best way we remembered each time Jenkins took the mound.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com