Cubs pitching coach Ferguson Jenkins is a towering presence as he watches young Steve Trachsel warming up in the bull pen. Sure, Fergie’s a tall man, but there’s more to it than that. He doesn’t yell. He isn’t animated. He doesn’t gesture grandly. He exudes the quiet confidence of a man who’s seen the best and worst life has to offer and stoically accepts whatever may come his way.
At this point in the season the idea that the Mets might snatch the pennant away from the Cubs was considered outlandish; no one thought the mighty, swaggering Cubs would end up giving it away. But while most of Chicago was planning on a late-October parade, some of the Cubs were starting to look over their shoulders. Even the eternal Pollyanna, Ernie Banks, reportedly confided to a teammate that at least four players were nearly paralyzed for fear of losing.
Finally, Young was coaxed to move into position. Immediately, Clendenon smacked a drive to center field. Young jogged back, caught the ball, his back grazing the fence, and then dropped it. The Mets should have been retired but now had the tying runs on base.
The Pirates went on to win that game in extra innings, and the Cubs watched the Mets go on to win the World Series. Some Cubs fans still can’t think about 1969 without choking up a bit. Fergie, though, describes the Cubs’ tumble philosophically with an ironic grin. “We had a series against the Phillies,” Fergie says of that September, “and we ended up losing three out of four games. We went to New York and lost four out of four. We went to Saint Louis and they beat us. And then it was “Katy, bar the door.’ It was over. The Mets went ahead, and we never did recover.”
Delores kept close track of her only child. “I went to Sunday school and church with my mom,” Fergie says. “I said grace before meals. We always thanked the Lord for providing that particular day, hoping that the next day would be even better.
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“My mother always called me Junior,” Fergie says. “But when I really got in trouble she called me Arthur.” Once Little Ferguson and some pals knocked down a neighbor’s fence. The police came to the Jenkins home, and Delores was so ashamed she made Little Ferguson rebuild the fence with his friends.
