Cup of Coffee: Mark Koenig

Every Thursday the JOBC blog features stories about players who only got a "cup of coffee" with the Cubs. If you'd like anyone featured, by all means, drop me a line at rick (at) justonebadcentury (dot) com.


This week our Tale from a Bad Century was the story of Billy Jurges. It seems only fitting that we also tell the tale of the player who had a cup of coffee with the Cubs to replace Jurges after he was shot.


MARK KOENIG

He began his career playing for the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig Yankees, but the Cubs got him during the 1932 season to temporarily replace Billy Jurges who had been shot by a crazed fan. He hit .353 during his time with the Cubs that year, but after the Cubs won the pennant, they voted not to give Koenig a full share. Billy Jurges led the charge, saying that the guy was only warming his position for him.

This move really angered Koenig's former teammate Babe Ruth. Unluckily for the Cubs, they had to face Ruth in that 1932 series. He called them cheapskates and penny-pinchers in the newspapers, which led the Cubs player to yell obscenities at Ruth when he came up to bat. The Babe was pointing at the Cubs players yelling at him when he supposedly called his shot.

Koenig played only one more season for the Cubs as their backup infielder in 1933. Despite only having a cup of coffee with the team, he certainly made an impact, thanks to angry Babe.

Baby update

This week's Fan of the Week, Marty Gangler, tells the story of how he and his wife decided to name their son Mitchell. It has something to do with former closer Mitch Williams.

Anyway, Marty e-mailed me the other day with this update.

"Rick--we took my son over to watch the game on Saturday with his new cousin. This pic came out pretty good. Thought you might get a kick out of it."

Here's the picture...






We gotta get that boy a toothless onesie for the St. Louis series.

E-mails, we get e-mails...

I received this inquiry tonight from Dan, Chris & Nat Moore

"I have 4yr old twins who are very into Cubs baseball, and we have a question. They heard that the rally cap was invented by the Detroit Tigers players during the 1945 WS in which the Cubs were outscored. So now they yell at the tv when they see Cubs fans wearing a rally cap. What's your take on this?"

I had not heard this before so I did some research. It's true, the rally cap did first appear in Detroit. Some Detroit fans did it as early as 1942, but the players didn't adopt it until the 1945 World Series against the Cubs. During Game 5, with the Cubs leading the game, the Tiger players turned their caps inside out, and Cubs first baseman Phil Cavaretta (photo) promptly let a ball go through his legs, resulting in the Tigers scoring 4 runs. The Tigers went on to win the game 8-4.

My question is this: Were the Padres wearing rally caps when the ball went through Leon Durham's legs in 1984? If so, I wholeheartedly agree with your boys. All Cubs fans should abandon the practice of wearing "rally caps" immediately. There are all sorts of forces at work here and we better not tempt any of them.

JOBC Merchandise

Thanks again to Elliott Harris of the Sun-Times for publishing photos of our merchandise. I think he is really smitten with the JOBC Logo. It probably isn't the lovely ladies wearing the merchandise, right?

Like this one...






















Or this one...





















Or this one...





Buy your own JOBC shirt here