Six is better than four, but just barely

As you know, I'm a big believer that aesthetics matter in sports. Petecrow was never going to reach his full potential wearing a linebacker number on his jersey. The Cubs were always going to be lousy in Friday home games wearing those awful navy blue Jiffy Lube coverall City Connect uniforms. And Matt Shaw had to get out of his offensive tackle number immediately.

And, he did. The Cubs DFA of Nicky Lopez last week didn't open a roster spot for Shaw, but it did free up a decent number. Lopez had been sporting the number six last made legendary by Tomas Nido.

So, just like we did back when Petecrow switched from 52 to 4, it seems like we should check on the legacy of Shaw's new digit and see how hard it will be to make the top five ever to wear it. Spoiler alert: It's not going to be very hard.

The Cubs first started wearing numbers in 1932 and the first to get six was manager Charlie Grimm. The Cubs went to the World Series that season, so six was off to a flying start. But Charlie gave it away the first chance he could get and Frank Demarre wore it in 1933, gave it away to Hall of Famer Chuck Klein for one season, then took it back for 1935 and 1936. The Cubs did a lot of number swapping in the '30s, and I'm still convinced it was because they'd order new uniforms and the sizes would be different so they'd just swap to ones that fit.

The best to ever wear six took it over in 1937 when Stan Hack switched from 39 to 6. Stan had already played five seasons for the Cubs and worn six different numbers, so clearly he didn't give a shit. But he stuck with six for his final 11 seasons, though he played a few games in 1946 in 20 and 1947 in 25, probably due to Yosh Kawano falling behind on the laundry. While wearing six, Stan had his best years including all four of his All-Star seasons and the years when he led the NL in hits in back to back seasons. In that number he hit .303/.397/.397 (yes, he slugged the same as his on base average over an 11 year period.) He also wore it in the three years he managed the Cubs from 1954 to 1956. As managers go, Stan was a good player.

After Stan's playing days, the number was cast adrift in a sea of mediocre (or worse) players, coaches and managers. The full list is too boring to reproduce, but some of the dopes to wear it included Dewey Williams (bad catcher), Bill Serena (a decent infielder who finished fifth in rookie of the year balloting in 1950 behind four guys you've never heard of), future Sox and Pissburgh manager Chuck Tanner (who hit .280 in two seasons as a mostly reserve outfielder), Hall of Famer Earl Averill who didn't play for the Cubs but did coach there for two years, catcher Dick Bertell who had a nice year in 1962 but who also played for the Cubs in six more seasons, an over the hill Johnny Callison who the Cubs traded Oscar Gamble away for wore it in 1970 and 1971. Larry Cox wore it in the first of his two stints with the Cubs, he was bad in both. Ted Sizemore came over from the Phillies in a trade with fellow catcher Ted Sizemore and others for Manny Trillo and others. Ted was so good the Cubs traded him to the Yankees in August for Mike O'Berry who wore the number in 1980.

Keith Moreland came over in the winter of 1981 from the Phillies with Dan Larson and Dickie Noles for Mike Krukow and wore six from 1982 to 1987. He's the first six most of us actually remember. He hit exactly 100 homers in it. And made 101 errors. Just kidding, he only made 68.

Joe Altobelli coached and managed in it, Rey Sanchez wore it for a year before switching to 11 so that Willie Wilson could wear it in his two seasons with the Cubs. Glenallen Hill wore it in his second stint with the team and when he did this:

Ross Gload wore it in his 18 game rookie season. Then former Cub and All-Star Ron Coomer squeezed into it for the 2001 season. A pair of Dusty Baker favorites next wore it, Darren Lewis in 2002 (where he played for Don Baylor and not Dusty) and then Ramon Martinez in 2003-2004. Cubs immortal Micah Hoffpauir was six from 2008-2010 and Bryan LaHair wore it for two seasons including his All-Star 2012 season where he was the only Cub with decent first half stats, lost his first base job to Anthony Rizzo after the break and never played in the big leagues again after that season. Current Marquee dud Ryan Sweeney wore it for the final two seasons of his career.

Carl Edwards Jr. nearly immortalized the number forever but he couldn't get the final out of the 2016 World Series and hand to hand the ball to Mike Montgomery for the end. Edwards wore a single digit number because he was too skinny to fit two numbers on his jersey.

Nick Castellanos put up huge numbers in six for the 51 games he played for the Cubs in 2019. He slashed .321/.356/.646 with 16 homers and 21 doubles. Holy crap.

Both Ian Miller (who?) and Billy Hamilton wore six in 2020. Jake Marisnick and Greg Deichmann split time in it in 2021. Zack McKinstry was pretty awful in it in 2022.

Miguel Amaya wore six in his rookie year and then switched to his current nine last year, either because he likes nine better or because Nido wanted six? Who knows.

Anyway, that's it. If we're ranking the sixes for the Cubs it seems pretty simple.

1. Stan Hack
2. Keith Moreland
3. Glenallen Hill who was really good for the Cubs in 1998, solid in 1999 and hit a 700 foot homer
4. Nick Castellanos' 37 homers plus doubles in 51 games in 2019.
5. Carl's Jr. getting two outs in the tenth in game seven of a World Series trumps LaHair making an All-Star team in a season that he finished with 16 homers and 40 RBI, and lost his job.

Seems like a pretty easy climb for Shaw, much like PCA in number four.

If nothing else, the trip to Japan has been worth it for the Cubs for this alone:

Tom Ricketts flew 6,000 miles just to look like an asshole. He can do that at home for free.