Thru Cub Eyes: Glenn Beckert

Carrie Muskat compiled anecdotes from several players and team officials in her fine book BANKS TO SANDBERG TO GRACE. Enjoy this feature every Friday (Ernie Banks and Don Kessinger have already been featured) and buy the book at your finest bookstore featuring Chicago Cub literature. These are just excerpts. Each player has alot more to say than what you see here.

My favorite Cubs moment, the all-time game -- and I probably had better stats in certain games – but my parents were from an agricultural background from western Pennsylvania. We were playing Pittsburgh at Wrigley Field and they weren’t much for traveling. They got the box seats in the front row. In the game in the ninth inning Kess [Don Kessinger] Kess got a hit and I think I got the key hit, first and third, nobody out, and after Billy Williams knocked in the winning run or whatever, I went over to my parents, and my dad and mother had tears in their eyes. You could see the pride. You could just see their happiness radiating from them. Being from Pittsburgh, beating them, it was just nice.

I think when we played there was a lot more team concept. There was no free agency and guys stuck together. You knew who was on he Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis. Now, one or two guys stay there five or seven years. I think that’s one of the good points of the game when I played. I think that’s why they remember our team, the ’69 Cubs. The nucleus was together nine years. There were seven, eight of us. It seems like yesterday. Just to be remembered for not winning is amazing. It’s the Cubs charisma or whatever. I’ve been very fortunate. We were able to set up great friendships, not only with the players, but the wives. As I look back, it’s a great treasure.