This is the first in a series on notable baseball redheads. Portions of this article are excerpted from the book Ballplayers: Baseball’s Greats Remembered, Ranked, and Revealed.
A spunky chatterbox with red hair and a strong throwing arm, Randy Hundley escaped the Giants for the Cubs in the mid-1960s. He was taught to catch one-handed by his father, who warned his son that he would break his arm if he saw him using his off-hand while catching the ball behind the plate.
Hundley caught a lot: he started both ends of a doubleheader 55 times. From 1966 to 1969 he caught 95 percent of his team’s games. All that crouching may have caught up with him, because Hundley suffered numerous injuries later in his career.
Hundley was the first catcher to use a hinged mitt, which enabled the one-handed style of catching later adopted by Johnny Bench and every catcher in baseball. But he wasn’t the first catcher to use that technique in the major leagues. In the late 1940s, Bruce Edwards of the Dodgers hurt his throwing hand, and as a result, he hid it behind his back.
In 1969, Hundley started the season red-hot at the plate, helping the Cubs jump out to a lead in the NL East. He and Ernie Banks, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, and Ron Santo, the entire Chicago infield, were selected to the All-Star Game that summer. Unfortunately, Hundley hit .214 after the midsummer break and limped to a .151 batting mark in September, coinciding with the Cubs collapse in the pennant-race.
In 1970, Hundley injured his knee and was limited to 70 games. The following season he hurt his other knee and played only nine games for the Cubbies. That year he also had emergency surgery on his gallbladder, and was briefly in critical condition. When he returned in 1972, Hundley wasn’t the same below the waist and his arm was weakened too. NL baserunners started running all over him, and he saw his playing time reduced. The Cubs traded him to the Twins at the 1973 Winter Meetings, but he was damaged goods, and served as a backup catcher for the next two seasons.
Hundley was a devout man: for years he led Sunday worship services in the clubhouse, and he refrained from cursing or chewing tobacco. He was extremely well-liked by his pitchers, and he had a great relationship with Cubs ace Ferguson Jenkins. Twice in 1972 he caught no-hit games, by Burt Hooton and Milt Pappas.
The popular ginger had a second stint with the Cubs in 1976-77, but he mostly drew a check as a bullpen coach, appearing in only 15 games. He later managed in the Cubs organization and started the fantasy camp craze that was imitated by nearly every other franchise. His son played 15 years in the majors including two seasons at Wrigley Field as a member of the Cubs.
