Cubs 365, March 27

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 1905, future Cub Johnny Gill was born. His teammates called him "Patcheye". As you can tell by the picture, Johnny didn't wear a patch over his eye, although he must have at least once, because the nickname "Patcheye" stuck with him throughout his career. He was a Minor-League lifer, playing more than 23 seasons. He was one of those players that would be considered a 4A player today; too good for the minors (lifetime average over .320, with nearly 300 homers), but just not quite good enough for the big leagues.

Gill got a few cups of coffee in the show before coming to the Cubs in their pennant winning season of 1935 (in 1927 & 1928 with Cleveland, and 1931 & 1934 with the Senators), but he never had more than 69 at bats in a season. He got a whopping three at bats in 1935 for the Cubs.

Patcheye stayed with the team as a backup outfielder in 1936 (backing up Augie Galan, Frank Demaree, Ethan Allen) and got the longest look of his big league career that season. He made the most of it, hitting 7 homers in only 174 at bats. Unfortunately for Gill, that turned out to be the swan song of his major league career.

Johnny Gill didn’t even make it back to the bigs during the war era, though he was playing in the minors that whole time (in Portland). He retired as a player (from the minors) after the 1947 season, and then managed the minor league team in his hometown of Nashville Tennessee.