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 Fergie Jenkins Photo Gallery
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Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins Gets His Statue!

 

Here’s one we can file under: Most Lopsided Trades of All Time!

“Mental attitude and concentration are the keys to pitching.” -Ferguson Jenkins

With the unveiling of the Fergie Jenkins statue outside of Wrigley Field yesterday, I thought this would be a good time to recall the deal that landed Fergie in Chicago. It doesn’t get much worse (or better, from the Cubs’ perspective!) than this.

Fifty-six years ago, on April 21, 1966, Cub General Manager John Holland completed what was undoubtedly the best deal of his long tenure at the Cub front office helm –  and certainly one of the greatest deals in the Cubs’ storied history. John Hollard had pulled off some real doozies – Brock for Broglio anyone? – but he atoned for much of that disaster when he acquired Fergie Jenkins.

(In the featured photo, we see Fergie with his Hall of Fame teammate, Ernie Banks.)

Old-time Cub fans like me remember this one well. The Cubs obtained Fergie, plus outfielder Adolfo Phillips, from the Phillies for two veteran pitchers who were near the end of their careers: Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl. All Jenkins did was go on to have a Hall-of-Fame career, while Jackson and Buhl combined for a 47-53 record for the Phils. The Cubs even got some productive years out of Adolfo. In his four years on the northside, he became a fan favorite, hitting .256, with 46 home runs, and 140 RBIs. 

Fergie’s Hall of Fame Career

Over his 19-year career (1965-1983), Fergie played for the Phillies, Cubs, Rangers, and Red Sox. He posted a 284-266 (.557) career mark, with a 3.34 ERA, 3,192 strikeouts, 267 complete games, and a career 3.20 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Over an eight-year period from 1967-1974, he won 20 or more games seven times. His streak of six straight seasons with 20 or more wins (1967–1972) is the longest streak in the major leagues since Warren Spahn did it between 1956 and 1961. Jenkins, along with Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, and Pedro Martínez are the only major league pitchers to record more than 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 walks. He’s one of only 11 hurlers in major league history to pitch more than 4500 innings. 

The three-time All-Star twice led the league in wins. He led the league five times in complete games and fewest walks per nine innings; and once in strikeouts. Fergie was known for giving up a lot of home runs, but his amazing control meant that a high percentage of them were just one-run shots. 

His best year was 1971, when he led the National League in wins, posting a 24-13 (.649) record, with a 2.77 ERA, and 30 complete games in 39 starts over 325 innings, on route to becoming the first Canadian Cy Young Award winner. His 263 strikeouts against only 37 walks that year gave him an amazing 7.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which easily led the league. An excellent all-around athlete who once played for the Harlem Globetrotters, Jenkins also posted a .478 slugging percentage in 1971, hitting six home runs and driving in 20 in just 115 at-bats.

Jenkins was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987, and in 1991 became the first Canadian ever elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He is considered the anchor of the 12 Black Aces, a group of African-American major league pitchers founded by Mudcat Grant with at least twenty wins in one season.

Using the Baseball-Reference “Similarity Scores” feature, we can see that Fergie’s career stats compare favorably with some of baseball’s greats: Robin Roberts, Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Red Ruffing, Early Wynn, Dennis Martinez, and Jim Bunning. 

All-in-all, I’d say this turned out to be a pretty good deal for the Cubs! So let’s remember the great Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins on a special day: the unveiling of his statue outside Wrigley Field!

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Stats from Baseball Reference.com