Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Cubs 365

Every day in 2012, the Just One Bad Century blog will feature a story about this day in Cubs history. We're calling it Cubs 365.

On this day in 1919, future Cub Ed Sauer was born. Sauer was a member of the last Cubs pennant winning team (1945). After two years as a seldom used reserve, Sauer was in the 1945 Opening day lineup because of the holdout of Peanuts Lowrey and the injury to Frank Secory, and remained on the roster all season. He even get two at-bats in the World Series. Unfortunately, he struck out both times.

When all of the World War II veterans came back to baseball the following season, Sauer went back to the minors. Ed got his last shot at the big leagues with the Cardinals and Braves in 1949, and by then, his big brother Hank had taken his slot in the Cubs outfield.

Hank Sauer won the MVP as a Cubs outfielder in 1952.