Alex Gonzalez

[Brandon Glick]

Alex Gonzalez is a 13-year MLB veteran who spent the majority of his career as the Toronto Blue Jays' shortstop, though he played a crucial role on the Chicago Cubs' division champion squad in 2003.

After being drafted in the 13th round of the 1991 MLB Draft, Gonzalez became a cult hero in the Blue Jays' organization, making multiple All-Star teams and winning multiple Team MVP awards at his various stops in the minor leagues. He became the big league club's starting shortstop in 1995 and never looked back, appearing in 890 games from 1995-2001 with the franchise. After a decade with the organization, he was traded to the Cubs prior to the 2002 season for for Félix Heredia and minor leaguer James Deschaine.

If your first memory of A-Gon with the Cubs is a walk-off home run, my question would be "which one?". The shortstop, who hit 41 homers during his 2.5 seasons in Chicago, hit a preposterous five (!) walk-off home runs with the team. In fact, all of them came basically within the same calendar year, from May 6, 2002 through May 10, 2003. Those were the only walk-off home runs in his entire 13-year career. The last one (against the St. Louis Cardinals) happened the day before the "Typhoon Game".

In total, Gonzalez racked up just 1.3 WAR in 331 games with the Cubs, slashing .235/.297/.411 with impressive pop for a shortstop. He was especially effective in 2003, posting a .703 OPS and career-high 20 home runs in 152 games while providing middling defense (he never fully recovered his excellent throwing arm after a 1999 labrum surgery). However, it was in the postseason where he made his legacy, for both better and worse. He was brilliant at the plate — .966 OPS, four home runs in 40 at-bats — contributing key hits in Game 5 of the NLDS and Game 2 of the NLCS. In the field... well, he wasn't "brilliant". I encourage you to exercise caution before pressing play on this clip.

People can say what they want about Steve Bartman, but this is the play that lost the '03 NLCS for the Cubs in my opinion. This was, at the very least, a second out in a crucial spot in the inning. At best, it was an inning-ending double play that would have put the Cubs three outs from their first World Series appearance since 1945. In the same way Yankees fans view that Aaron Judge dropped fly ball in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, I think many Cubs fans view this bobbled ground-ball by Gonzalez as the turning point in the series against the Marlins.

Alas, the Cubs went on to lose that series, and they would eventually trade Gonzalez at the 2004 trade deadline in a four-team deal that landed them Nomar Garciaparra. Gonzalez spent brief stints with the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres to wrap up that season before playing for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2005 and Philadelphia Phillies in 2006. Gonzalez retired following the 2007 season after spending time in the Kansas City Royals and Washington Nationals organizations.

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[UMFan83]

AGonz had some big game winning HRs at the start of 2003 IIRC.  And had HRs in Game 5 against the Braves and 3 in the first 2 games against the Marlins.  We shouldn't forget that but I just can't get past the error in Game 6 and the fact that it was glossed over in order to make a fan the scapegoat even though the error was enormously more impactful to the game.  I don't know if the Cubs turn 2 there, but that second out would have been enormous for the team's psyche.  Even if everything else plays out from there, Conine's fly ball that gave the Marlins a 4-3 lead would have been out number 3 with the score tied at 3.  

At the end of the day, I'm not mad at him, horsefeathers happens, it was unfortunate.  I'm just mad that a foul ball that might not have even been caught was the play everyone remembers about the Cubs downfall and not a botched routineish ground ball hit to a normally sure handed defensive SS.

Edited March 14, 2025 by UMFan83