One-hundred eighty-two players have suited up for both the Cubs and White Sox, a list at cubsbythenumbers.com tells us.
Cubs infielder Nick Madrigal is on the list as Chicago’s major-league teams square off Tuesday and Wednesday on the South Side.
Most of the 182 are afterthoughts for one team or the other — and sometimes for both. Few think of Goose Gossage with the Cubs and/or Scott Sanderson with the Sox. Still, there are nine who played two or more seasons on both sides of town and totaled at least 700 at-bats for each — one more than Juan Pierre had in his one season with the Cubs.
Two pitchers have logged at least 500 innings for each team: Steve Trout with 622 for the Sox in 1978-82 and 746‰ for the Cubs in 1983-87 and old-timer Jimmy Callahan with 523‰ for the Sox in 1901-03 after 1,043‰ for the Cubs in 1897-1900.
Interleague play didn’t start until 1997, so only three who meet the narrowly defined criteria played in the interleague era.
Let’s run some numbers.
• Speedy outfielder Lance Johnson never played in a Cubs-Sox game, though he was with the Cubs from August 1997 through 1999. He joined the club too late for the 1997 games and was injured for the games the next two seasons.
With the Sox in 1988-95, Johnson hit .286/.325/.373, stole 226 bases and was caught stealing 71 times.
After an interlude with the Mets, Johnson was dealt to the Cubs and hit .276/.335/.365 with 57 steals and 28 times caught stealing.
• Nationals manager Dave Martinez began his 16-year career as a Cubs outfielder in 1986 and stayed until a midseason trade to the Expos in 1988. After stops that included the Sox in 1995-97, he came back to the Cubs for 18 games as one of his three teams in 2000.
With the Cubs, Martinez hit .255/.323/.359 for a .683 OPS that wasn’t going to get him far even in center field, his most frequent position. He hit better for the Sox at .302/.373/.438.
Martinez went 3-for-8 with two home runs and four RBI as the Sox took two of three games from the visiting Cubs in 1997. He didn’t face the Sox for the Cubs.
• Sammy Sosa is the star of this group. The Sox were Sosa’s second team in his four-team, 18-season major-league sojourn.
Joining the Sox at age 20 in 1989 and staying through 1991, Sosa had big potential, but the results weren’t there yet. He hit .227/.276/.382 with 28 homers and 52 steals.
With the Cubs in 1992-2004, Sosa bulked up and became a power icon. For the North Siders, he hit .284/.358/.569 and surpassed Ernie Banks’ 512 homers with a club-record 545. As a Cub, Sosa went 48-for-170 with 12 homers in 45 games against the Sox.
Others with enough playing time for both teams who predated the interleague era are 1980s second baseman Vance Law, plus Callahan, Danny Green, Carl Reynolds, Rollie Zeider and Sam Mertes. Only Law played later than 1939.
