Verge: Jenkins contemplated career as architect, hockey player before baseball

A young Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.) once contemplated a career in architecture, or as a hockey player, until a local teacher and scout named Gene Dziadura steered him towards baseball. Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

July 2, 2023

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

The crowd at Wrigley Field is large, but the world has become small for a tall 6-foot-5 right-hander from Chatham, Ont.

Fergie Jenkins is calm, focused.

There’s just him and the catcher, and the task at hand — get the next out, and win the ball game.

That’s how the now 80-year-old Canadian Hall of Famer approached all of his starts - and, there were a lot of them during his career.

Jenkins, who was the first Canadian voted into Cooperstown, played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball, and had 2,038 strikeouts in a Cubs uniform, and 347 starts for the team. In more than 4,500 innings, he had a 3.34 ERA.

His impeccable focus had a large part in the success he found on the mound at the highest level.

“I know I always concentrated on the job at hand and that's to pitch,” Jenkins said. “From small crowds in the minor leagues, 1,000 people to 35,000 to 40,000 to 50,000 people in the stands they’re cheering for you or booing you or whatever they're doing, but you concentrate on you and the catcher.”

It’s advice he gives to young up-and-coming pitchers to this day - it’s important to focus. It’s just the two of you out there, he said, and understand what you and the catcher are trying to accomplish - which is to put on a winning performance when you go out there.

It’s a life that could’ve gone a number of different ways for Jenkins. He went to school for architecture, and also had a love for hockey. Growing up in Chatham, it was very much a hockey town. He got his first pair of skates when he was four years old, and had dreams of playing in the NHL. As a youngster, he played hockey right through peewee, bantam and midget.

“But that [NHL dream] didn’t work out,” he said.

Something else did. On the advice of the scout that signed him - Gene Dziadura, he put hockey on the backburner and concentrated more on being a pitcher. That was instrumental to his long and impressive career looking back.

Also important to his success was adding a slider to the pitching mix, he said. It was during Winter ball in 1964, that Cal McLish helped him work on a slider, which was when things started to change for Jenkins. Although he had a pretty good curve, the slider was a quicker pitch that he could use to get ahead of the hitters in the strike zone, he said. That opened up the eyes of managers, coaches and other pitching coaches.

“I think that was a turning point in my career getting me to the big leagues with that particular pitch, and from then on having a lot of fun pitching and winning ball games,” he said.

It was a busy and exciting career for the now 80-year-old, who played for the Phillies, Cubs, Rangers and Red Sox.

He still has (and occasionally brings out to wear) some of the western clothing he used to don during his days playing in Texas, with an array of boots, jeans, cowboy shirts and hats. Now instead of wearing them to the ballpark pre-game, he wears them on special occasions “from time to time” he said, like going out to a banquet or dinner.

Life is a little quieter than the hustle and bustle of his playing days for the Hall of Famer. Although he did just get back from the MLB series in London, when he’s reached for the interview, he’s at home relaxing.

He spends a lot of time with his two dogs, getting up in the mornings and presenting the two pooches, one a lab, and one a rottweiler, their breakfast.

He’s had time to think and reminisce. It could’ve been architecture, or the NHL.

A long and impressive career for the Canadian in MLB, that has seen his number retired with the Cubs, and a statue in his honour both in his hometown of Chatham, and at Wrigley Field, might have never even started.

But good thing it did. A lot of it was genetics, he said. Jenkins’ parents were both athletes. A lot of it was hard work. A lot of it was luck and being in the right place at the right time, he said.

He’s humble, even after an incredible career in the bigs.

“I look back now and I think I made the right choice,” he said.