Today’s Cubs Birthdays (November 8)

~Henry Rodriguez 1967– (Cubs 1998-2000)
Henry started in left field for the Cubs in 1998, 1999, and 2000, and became a fan favorite. The left field bleacher bums would throw Oh Henry bars at him when he returned to his position after hitting a homer. He hit 75 of them in his three seasons in Chicago. The Cubs traded him to the Marlins for Ross Gload. (Photo: Fleer 2000 Baseball Card)

~Darwin Barney 1985– (Cubs 2011-2014)
Barney was the starting second baseman for the Cubs for three seasons, and performed pretty well the first two of those. In his rookie season he hit .276 and finished seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting thanks to his excellent glove work. His second season , he won a Gold Glove. Unfortunately for Darwin, his hitting started to slide. By his third season at second base he hit only .208. The Cubs traded him to the Dodgers in 2014.

~Jeff Blauser 1965– (Cubs 1998-1999)
Blauser was a stud for Atlanta, but definitely not for the Cubs. Stuart Shea, author of Wrigley Field: The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines identifies Blauser as one of his 10 Cubs to Forget. He was injured frequently, didn’t hit well, and became a clubhouse problem. When his time with the Cubs ended, no one else wanted him.

~Dwight Smith 1963– (Cubs 1989-1993)
Dwight made an immediate impact with the Cubs after he was called up in May of 1989, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting behind teammate Jerome Walton. Smith hit .324 that year. Unfortunately for the Cubs, he never really came close to repeating those numbers, and he was brutal in the outfield. He stayed with the Cubs through 1993, and had flashes of his rookie self, but for the rest of his career he was essentially a journeyman outfielder, occasional pinch hitter, and even (once) the singer of the National Anthem. Smith and his ex-Cubs teammate Greg Maddux later won the World Series with the 1995 Atlanta Braves. (Photo: Topps 1989 Baseball Card)