Last week, I started a series entitled “The Illini Who Made it Big” with the intention of bringing some historical perspective to University of Illinois Baseball. I’ll be talking about some of the former Illini who had made to the majors. And to make it interesting, I introduced a stat factor… I’m ranking the former Illini by some statistical categories. Last week, I did homeruns. This time, I’m ranking former Illini pitchers by wins.
First, if you’re a Cub fan, you may or may not be happy. Four of the five have a connection with the Cubs. However, a couple of the pitchers mentioned here you may not recognize since they pitched more a few years ago.
So here they are:
| Former Illini | Years Played | W | L |
| Ken Holtzman | 1965-1979 | 174 | 150 |
| Cy Falkenberg | 1903-1917 | 130 | 123 |
| Carl Lundgren | 1902-1909 | 91 | 55 |
| Fred Beebe | 1906-1916 | 62 | 83 |
| Dick Barrett | 1933-1945 | 35 | 58 |
Long time Cub fans will remember former Illini Ken Holtzman. I’ll be dating myself when I say that I remember watching him pitch. He was a staple in their rotation in the late 60s and early 70s. But when the control pitcher won 17 games two years in a row, the Oakland A’s saw his value and moved to trade for him. It was then when he started pitching for the Oakland dynasty did his win total surge. Between 1972-1975, Holtzman won 77 games including a 21-13 season in 1973.
Cy Falkenburg was a winner no doubt, But 48 of his 130 big league wins came in two successive seasons when he won 23 for Cleveland in 1913 and 25 for Indianapolis (in the now defunct Federal League) in 1914. He was quite a workhorse that year in ‘14 pitching over 377 innings.
Carl Lundgren is another former Illini who is tied to the Cubs. He pitched his entire eight year career with the Cubs. The Marengo, IL native had the honor of pitching when the Cubs won their last World Series (and us Cub fans know how long that’s been). Lundgren won only six that year but that was toward the end of his career. He won in double figures five straight years from 1903-1907.
Fred Beebe and Carl Lundgren were teammates with the Cubs briefly in 1906. However, Beebe was soon traded to the St Louis Cardinals the next year. Beebe maintained a 2.86 over seven seasons and won 62 games.
Finally, our last entry is Dick Barrett. Barrett, who came to the University of Illinois for Montoursville, PA, had his rough years but came into his own with the Phillies. After going 0-4 with the Chicago Cubs in 1943, he was traded to the Phils where he won 22 games the next two years. His good luck didn’t last. He led the league in losses with 20 the next year.
All stats are courtesy of Baseball Reference.