1953 Chicago Cubs season

The 1953 Chicago Cubs season was the 82nd season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 78th in the National League and the 38th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished seventh in the National League with a record of 65–89.

Regular season

Notable transactions

June 4, 1953: Toby Atwell, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward, George Freese, Bob Addis, Gene Hermanski, and $150,000 were traded by the Cubs to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Ralph Kiner, Joe Garagiola, Catfish Metkovich, and Howie Pollet.
September 8, 1953: Ernie Banks was signed as an amateur free agent by the Cubs.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Clyde McCullough	77	229	59	.258	6	23
1B	Dee Fondy	150	594	184	.309	18	78
2B	Eddie Miksis	142	577	145	.251	8	39
SS		82	253	63	.249	6	25
3B	Randy Jackson	139	498	142	.285	19	66
OF	Ralph Kiner	117	414	117	.283	28	87
OF	Frank Baumholtz	133	520	159	.306	3	25
OF	Hank Sauer	108	395	104	.263	19	60

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Bill Serena	93	275	69	.251	10	52
Joe Garagiola	74	228	62	.272	1	21
Hal Jeffcoat	106	183	43	.235	4	22
Tommy Brown	65	138	27	.196	2	13
George Metkovich	61	124	29	.234	2	12
Preston Ward	33	100	23	.230	4	12
	24	74	17	.230	1	8
Carl Sawatski	43	59	13	.220	1	5
Gene Hermanski	18	40	6	.150	0	1
Bob Ramazzotti	26	39	6	.154	0	4
Ernie Banks	10	35	11	.314	2	6
Bob Talbot	8	30	10	.333	0	0
Gene Baker	7	22	5	.227	0	0
	27	21	6	.286	0	3
Bob Addis	10	12	2	.167	0	1
Paul Schramka	2	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Warren Hacker	39	221.2	12	19	4.38	106
Paul Minner	31	201.0	12	15	4.21	64
Bob Rush	29	166.2	9	14	4.54	84

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Johnny Klippstein	48	167.2	10	11	4.83	113
Turk Lown	49	148.1	8	7	5.16	76
Howie Pollet	25	111.1	5	6	4.12	45
	27	104.1	4	5	5.00	47
Jim Willis	13	43.1	2	1	3.12	15
	7	11.2	0	2	5.40	4
Don Elston	2	5.0	0	1	14.40	2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Dutch Leonard	45	2	3	9	4.60	27
Duke Simpson	30	1	2	0	8.00	21
Sheldon Jones	22	0	2	0	5.40	9
Bob Kelly	14	0	1	0	9.53	6
	9	0	0	0	6.30	3
Bill Moisan	3	0	0	0	5.40	1

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Des Moines