Carl Lundgren - Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs saw Lundgren pitch in an exhibition game between the Illinois college team and the Cubs. The Cubs gave Lundgren a tryout, and he made his Major League debut for the Cubs on June 19, 1902, shortly after completing his studies at the University of Illinois. As one sports writer noted that "the Cubs had a new pitcher, and the world lost a civil engineer." In his rookie season, Lundgren pitched 17 complete games (in 18 appearances) and had an earned run average of 1.97.

Lundgren played for the Cubs from 1902 to 1909 and compiled a 91–55 (.623) record and career earned run average of 2.42. During his best years from 1904 to 1907, he compiled a record of 65–27. The Cubs with the help of Lundgren won three straight pennants in 1906, 1907, and 1908 and World Series championships in 1907 and 1908. During the 1906 and 1907 seasons, Lundgren compiled records of 17–6 and 18–7.

In 1907, Lundgren pitched 207 innings without allowing a home run, threw seven shutouts, and gave up only 27 earned runs in 28 games. His 1.17 earned run average was the second lowest in the Major Leagues (trailing teammate Jack Pfiester who had a 1.15 ERA), and his average of 5.652 hits allowed per nine innings was the lowest in the Major Leagues. His pitching was a key element in the success of the Cubs' World Series championship team of 1907. However, he did not pitch in any of the Cubs' World Series games.

His earned run average jumped from 1.17 in 1907 to 4.22 in 1908. He appeared in only two games for the Cubs in 1909, pitching his last Major League game on April 23, 1909. At the end of April 1909, the Cubs placed Lundgren on waivers for a price of $1.50.

Lundgren's biggest weakness as a pitcher was lack of control. Even in 1907, his best year, Lundgren averaged 4.0 walks per 9 innings pitched. In 1909, he averaged 8.3 walks per 9 innings before being released. A profile of Lundgren published in 1913 by The Atlanta Constitution discussed his strengths and weaknesses:

"He had everything including speed to burn green hickory and an assortment of curves that would keep a criptograph specialist figuring all night but he was wild as a March hare in a cyclone and couldn't locate the plate with a field glass. ... He had a strange hold on the art of steering the ball away from the plate that would make Wild Willie Donovan and Cy Seymour look like a brace of pikers who had been touched for their meal tickets."

Lundgren was called "the best cold-weather pitcher in the profession" by the Reach Baseball Guide. He developed a reputation for pitching well in the spring and fall, but not faring as well during the hot summer months.

While pitching for the Cubs, he worked in the off-season as a draftsman from 1902 to 1904 and as a dairy farmer after 1904.

In the summer of 1909, Lundgren appealed from a decision by the Cubs management to deny him a share of the team's $10,000 World Series bonus for 1908. In June 1909, he won what was described as "a moral victory" when a non-binding decision was entered declaring the exclusion of Lundgren to be unjust.