Thursday, June 25, 2020

#182 Glen Hobbie



Glen Hobbie  Chicago Cubs

Career: Hobbie spent all but 13 of his 284 big league games with the Cubs from 1957 through 1964. He was 62-81 in his career with 42 of those wins coming when he was in his early 20s, from 1958 to 1960. He was a spot starter and reliever in his first full season before becoming a part of the rotation in 1959 and remaining there through 1963. After a rocky couple of months in 1964, he was traded to the Cardinals for Lew Burdette. He was traded again and then spent the '65 season, his last as a pro, in the minors for the Tigers.

In 1960: He pitched in 46 games, 36 of them starts. He went 16-20 for a terrible (64-90) Cubs club. His stat line wasn't much different from the previous couple of seasons and the 16 wins matched his career-best. It was the last season for him to rack up as many as ten wins.

In late August he hooked up with Vinegar Bend Mizell of the Pirates in a pitching duel that was 1-1 at Wrigley in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Hobbie was allowed to bat(!) by skipper Lou Boudreau. Hobbie proceeded to launch his first (of four) career homers into the left-field stands to win his own game.

Off The Charts: In April 1959 Hobbie pitched a one-hit shutout over the Cardinals. He had a no-hitter until Stan Musial roped a single in the 7th inning. His post-game quote: “The first thing I said to myself when Stan got the hit was, ‘I’m glad he didn’t hit a lollipop; he hit my best pitch.’ ”

After retiring from baseball, Hobbie worked as a supervisor for the Roller Derby Association. I kid you not.

No comments:

Post a Comment