King for a Day: the Cubs' One-Time Game #1 Starters

As noted here and everywhere else yesterday, Lou Piniella has decided to give Carlos Zambrano the Opening Day assignment at Houston. It will be the fifth time Zambrano has had the honor; the Cubs have gone 2-2 in Z's previous Opening Day outings.

Fergie Jenkins started seven openers for the Cubs, while Rick Sutcliffe started five, and Rick Reuschel, four. The real fun in looking over this list at Baseball-Reference.com is noting which Cub pitchers got to go in Game #1 once, but never again. Here are the last ten such Cub pitchers:

 

Year
Pitcher
Opponent
Final Score
 1999     Steve Trachsel  Houston  4-2 (L)
 1998  Kevin Tapani  Florida 11-6 (L)
 1997 Terry Mulholland     Florida  4-2 (L)
 1996 Jamie Navarro  San Diego  5-4 (W)
 1995 Jim Bullinger  Cincinnati       7-1 (W)
 1992 Greg Maddux  Phillies  4-3 (W)
 1991 Danny Jackson  Cardinals  4-1 (L)
 1990 Mike Bielecki  Phillies  2-1 (W)
 1984 Dick Ruthven  Giants  5-3 (W)
 1982 Doug Bird  Reds  3-2 (W)

It's interesting to me that Maddux only got the nod one time and that Jim Bullinger ever got to start an opener. Looking back at the strike-shortened '95 season, however, Bullinger wasn't bad (12-8, 99 ERA+), and God knows he didn't cost the Cubs anywhere near as much as Danny Jackson did.

Tags: 
Cubs history
Carlos Zambrano
Opening Day
Submitted by Cubnut on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:24am
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Comments

Submitted by Dusty Baylor
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 7:33am

Doug Bird.....gaaahhhh...Oh the ineptitude of the 1980-1983 Cubs...

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 7:51am

Jim Bullinger's ears were so big, they needed a wide angle lens when they took his picture for his baseball card

Submitted by Seamhead
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:30pm

Someone once described Bullinger as looking like a cab driving down the stret with its doors open.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 7:54am

Navarro was actually one of the few good moves of the mid-1990s. 14-6 for just $1.3 million in 1995 and then re-signed to another one-year deal and went 15-12 for $3.6 million in 1996. The Cubs then let him walk and he signs a 4-year $20 million dollar contract with the White Sox, only to go 9-14, 8-16, and 8-13, with ERAs of over 6.00 in the last two years. He's then traded to the Brewers where he goes 0-5 with a 12.54 ERA before being released. Talk about getting out at the right time!!

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:17pm

As you get older your memory fades pretty badly, but I seem to vaguely remember Navarro looking really bad really fast near the end of his Cubs career.

Submitted by Ryno
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 9:01am

I nominate Zambrano for "biggest waste of talent" on the Cubs. He has such good stuff but insists on overthrowing everything. You can see when he's struggling, he's just fighting himself. When he's pitching good, the ball is just flowing.

Cubster:
Jim Bullinger's ears were so big, they needed a wide angle lens when they took his picture for his baseball card

Ha!

Submitted by MikeC
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 11:37am

is this sarcasm?

Submitted by Ryno
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:25pm

No. Zambrano is built great and can hit mid 90s on a good day. He's capable of much more.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 10:16am

Aaron Miles is expected to be sidelined through the weekend with a sore right shoulder says the Sun-Times.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 10:19am

Also, apparently Dempster doesn't give a shit whether Canadians are upset about him not playing in the WBC:

"I don't pay attention to the WBC," Dempster said. "I haven't even seen who's winning. I know Canada's out because I saw Koskie's here. And I know the Dominican's out because I saw Marmol's here. But I haven't seen any other results. ... I've been golfing too much."

Submitted by kmokeefe
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 2:38pm

haha

fyi:

ryan dempster = big pothead

Submitted by CPH2133
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 8:30pm

Source?

Submitted by kmokeefe
on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 12:00am

a friend of mine is best friends with a member of the team

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 9:50pm

and the best inside info that you can get is that dempster is a pothead?

Submitted by crunch
on Sun, 03/15/2009 - 4:11pm

grace and dunston what huh?

hehe...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:22pm

Cubs sign Esteban German to a minor league deal...

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/03/cubs-sign-es...

throw enough spaghetti against the wall, some of it will stick.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:25pm

more tickets for Wrigley went on sale today...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:27pm

this is going to be awesome...

http://reedjohnson.mlblogs.com/

Submitted by Ahone Ahtwo Ahthree
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 1:06pm

I suggested the blog name should be Landing Strip, after his chin hairs...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 1:06pm

ha...

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:44pm

http://www.newarkbearsfan.com/images/players/bulli...

Someone once described Bullinger as looking like a cab driving down the stret with its doors open.
----
I love big ears jokes! ...You can tie them in a knot, you can tie them in a bow.

Submitted by carmenfanzone
on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 10:36am

I ran into Bullinger one time at Murphy's after a game. We talked for about a 1/2 hour about Cubs' catcher Scott Servais. He was pretty candid about how the Cub pitchers were put off by Servais bull headedness. He was like a little tattle tale kiss up to Riggleman and the pitchers resented him...

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