I was just playing Immaculategrid.com for baseball and used Ron Cey to fill in the Dodger/Cubs square. Only 3 percent of the people who put the correct answer put Ron Cey, so I was happy. Immaculategrid.com for baseball is a fun game. Terry Vent the owner of this site is a super player. His memory and probably his study habits are a lot better than mine.
What the do is you have a square 3 teams or accomplishments on top and 3 on the left side. Then you have to put a player who played for both teams or completed both accomplishments. If a team and accomplishment intersect you have to put a player who completed the accomplishment for that team. If it is a seasonal accomplishment the player had to do the accomplishment for that team. If it is a career accomplishment the player just had to be on the team.
I call it the baseball “Wordle”. It is fun and frustrating.
One thing I noticed when I started this article, that 1984 when the Cubs won the division was Cey’s second year with the club. So, he came over from the Dodgers in 1983 and Sandberg moved from 3rd base to 2nd base, which was better for Sandberg. Sandberg had played short in the minors. I was thinking the Cubs probably had this planned. In his first year with the Cubs (1982) Sandberg didn’t hit that well and certainly not for a lot of power. He hit about as well in 1983. In 1984 Sandberg hit in another world, actually excellent for a third basemen, but by that time he was a gold glove second baseman. So, Ron Cey made it easy to move Sandberg to first.
Ron Cey was nicknamed “The Penguin” which made him popular with the fans. He got this nickname as he walked kind of bow legged and looked a bit like a penguin walking. It might be the thing the casual fan would remember about him. Which is too bad as he was a great player.
I have him ranked number one on the long-lasting infield with the Dodgers that Ron Cey was a member of. They weren’t the best for one year but played quality ball together for many years. They were starters together from 1974 to 1981, eight years together. It is difficult to keep four players of that quality together that long. Let me look where I have the other three ranked:
Steve Garvey 360th overall and 43rd at First Base: A lot believe he was the best. He certainly was consistent as a Dodger. They are close as hitters with Cey having a slight edge career wise. Cey played a harder position and fact the Dodgers moved Garvey from third base and gave Cey the opportunity to play because Garvey had trouble throwing at third base. So, it would be difficult to convince me that Garvey was better than Cey.
Dave Lopes 452nd overall and 36th at second base: Lopes was by far the oldest when they got together in 1974. To me he was always the leader of the group. He was the sparkplug at the top of the order. He was always an excellent base stealer and overall base runner. He played until age 42 but played only 16 years. Too bad he didn’t get an earlier start in his career.
Bill Russell 978th overall and 78th Shortstop: Russell was a solid defensive player, but never a good offensive player. Some years he worked his way to close to average on offense. His batting averages weren’t too bad, but he didn’t walk a whole lot and didn’t have much power. He once led the league in intentional walks because he was the 8th place hitter and batted before the pitcher.
