Who is the oldest living Cub? By JohnW53 on Jan 8, 2021, 3:07am CST +
In June of 2014, the last year before the Cubs current Renaissance, the seventh-inning stretch on WGN was sung by Lennie Merullo.
Merullo was the last living member of the Cubs 1945 World Series. He was 97 at the time, and
98 when he died on May 30, 2015.
Merullo, a shortstop, played his entire career with the Cubs: 639 games, over 7 seasons, from 1941 through 1947. He had a career WAR of 1.4 and an OPS+ of 69.
....
When I came across Merullo s name again recently, I wondered: Who is the oldest living Cub today?
The answer:
95 years and 195 days.
14 Cubs form chain that spans 145 seasons By JohnW53 on Dec 20, 2020, 7:35am CST 1
Some years ago, an enterprising baseball historian figured out how to make a chain of just 9 players that spanned the history of Major League Baseball.
It began with Harry Wright of the 1869 Cincinnati Reds, the first professional team. In his final season, another player was a rookie, and it that player s final season, a third player was a rookie, and so on to the current season.
(I hunted for the story online but could not find it.)
I wondered how few players it would take to do something similar using only Cubs, and beginning in 1876, the first year of the National League.