Fergie Jenkins

From Sports Library

Ferguson Arthur "Fergie" Jenkins CM (born December 13, 1943 in Chatham, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs, and also played with the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, and Boston Red Sox.

1 Early Years
2 1971 Season
3 Statistics
4 Controversy
5 Trivia
6 External Links

Early Years

Early in the history of professional baseball in Nicaragua he pitched for the baseball team León, becoming the most prominent pitcher to have started his pitching career there. Later, he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1963 and signed by Tony Lucadello, Jenkins made his major league debut as a 21-year old in 1965 as a relief pitcher. He was traded the following year to the Cubs along with Adolpho Phillips and John Herrnstein for pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl. The Cubs received the best in the trade, where Jenkins would blossom into one of the best pitchers in the majors. In his first full year starting for the Cubs (1967), Jenkins gained twenty wins, while posting a 2.80 ERA and 236 strikeouts. He finished tied for second in the Cy Young voting, following Mike McCormick of the San Francisco Giants. He also was selected for his first trip to the All-Star Game. The following year his numbers improved, once again winning twenty games, but his ERA dropped to 2.63 and strikeout total increased to 260.

1971 Season

Jenkins had his best season in 1971, playing in the All-Star Game, winning the National League Cy Young Award, and finishing seventh in MVP voting.

Jenkins was the first Cub pitcher and the first Canadian ever to win the Cy Young, and received 17 of 24 first place votes. Jenkins also posted a .478 slugging percentage, hitting six home runs and batting in twenty runs in just 115 at-bats.

No time was wasted in the 1971 season, with Jenkins as the opening day starter, the Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 at Wrigley Field. Jenkins pitched all ten innings for the Cubs, and Billy Williams hit a home-run in the final inning for the opening day victory. On September 1, 1971, Jenkins threw a complete game against the Montreal Expos, and had two home runs, single handedly winning the game 5-2.

For the entire season, Jenkins completed 30 of 39 starts, and received a decision in 37 of them - finishing with a (24-13) record. His control was stellar, walking only 37 batters versus 263 strikeouts across 325 innings.

Statistics

He led the league in wins twice, fewest walks per 9 innings five times, complete games nine times, and home runs allowed 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 performed the same feat between 1956 and 1961.

He, Greg Maddux, and Curt Schilling are the only major league pitchers to ever record more than 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 walks. Only Robin Roberts allowed more home runs over a career.

In 1974, Jenkins, then with the Texas Rangers (who had acquired him from the Cubs the previous off-season for two players, one of whom was future four-time batting champion Bill Madlock), became the first baseball player to win the Lou Marsh Trophy, an award given annually to Canada's top athlete (he won a career-high, and still a Rangers franchise record, 25 games). He was also named the Canadian Press male athlete of the year four times between 1967 and 1974.

Controversy

In late 1980, during a customs search of Jenkins in Toronto, Ontario, he was found possessing cocaine and marijuana.In response, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended him indefinitely. Jenkins missed the rest of the 1980 season, but in an unprecedented action, an independent arbiter reinstated him, and he returned to the game, playing until his retirement following the 1983 season.

Trivia

Very early in his career he played in the Nicaraguan professional baseball league, pitching for León.

The Phillies traded both Jenkins (in 1966) and Ryne Sandberg (in 1982) to the Cubs after each had only played one year in the majors. Thus the hapless Phils freely supplied the Cubs with two of their greatest players (both have been inducted to the Hall of Fame) of the past half-century.

Jenkins shared the same uniform number (31) on the Cubs with certain Hall of Famer (and fellow control artist) Greg Maddux. His 250 win was against the Oakland Athletics on May 23, 1980.

His 3,000 strikeout was against Garry Templeton on May 25, 1982.

The anchor of the 13 Black Aces a group of African-American pitchers with at least twenty wins in one season.

A well-publicized incident, involving Jenkins' transport of cannabis, is believed to have delayed his election to the Hall of Fame.

An outstanding all-around athlete, Fergie played basketball as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

After being traded by the Cubs following the 1973, Jenkins would pitch for Texas in '74 and '75 before being dealt to Boston, for whom he pitched for two seasons before being dealt back to Texas following the '77 season.

After three more seasons in Texas, Jenkins came back to the team for whom he had enjoyed his greatest success in the late '60's and early '70's--the Cubs.

Signing Jenkins was one of the first big moves that new Cubs GM Dallas Green made after taking over the team. Jenkins would go on to be the Cubs' best pitcher in his homecoming in '82, winning 14 games with a 3.15 ERA. He aslo recorded his 3,000th strikeout that season when he fanned San Diego's Garry Templeton.

After having made five consecutive Opening Day starts between 1969 and 1973, Jenkins would make another Opening Day start for the Cubs in 1983--10 years after his last Cubs Opening Day start.

Jenkins slumped to a 6-9 record in 1983 and only threw 167 1/3 innings.

During his second go-around with the Cubs in '82-'83, Jenkins would frequently suffer from e mental lapse that prevented him from making routine throws to first base. On several occasions, on balls hit right back to the pitchers mound, Jenkins would jog toward first with the ball held in the air, before sending it over the first baseman's head. This was not as frequent or as troubling as a similar glitch that was affecting Los Angeles second baseman Steve Sax around the same time, however.

Jenkins was only 16 victories from 300 career victories following the '83 season. However, he was never given a chance as he was cut by the Cubs during Spring Training. Rather than try to catch on with another team in a vain attempt at collecting the 16 wins, Jenkins instead decided to retire..

After Jenkins retired from Major League Baseball in 1983, he pitched for two seasons for the London Majors of the Intercounty Major Baseball League operating in southern Ontario, Canada.

Jenkins' career is explained (by Tap drummer Mick Shrimpton) in the extra scenes for the movie This Is Spinal Tap, where a caller to a radio station asks how many shutouts Jenkins acquired during his career.