ATCRCS - Ced Landrum

I probably have more Ced Landrum cards than he played games for the Cubs. That's a slight exaggeration but he came up in the junk wax boom era when being a sixth outfielder or middle reliever would still get you into a bunch of sets.

Landrum played for the Cubs in 1991, when their award winning outfield consisted of George Bell (1987 AL MVP), Jerome Walton (1989 NL ROY) and Andre Dawson (1977 ROY, 1987 NL MVP, 2010 HOF). Backing them up was 1989 NL ROY runnerup Dwight Smith and Doug Dascenzo. Obviously, with that lineup, he was mostly used off the bench.

Oddly enough, I have two distinct memories of Ced Landrum. The first was his debut which happened to be against the Mets, my dad's favorite team so we were watching the game together. He came in as a pinch runner in the 6th or 7th when the Cubs were trailing by one. Somehow he got to second (that's a bit fuzzy) but then he stole 3rd and scored on a hit to tie it. The Mets took the lead but Landrum led off the bottom of the 9th getting a single in his first MLB at-bat. He stole another base but ended up stranded at 3rd to end to the game. Not a bat late inning debut with a hit, 2 SB's and a run scored.


The other came much later in the season when he had 4 stolen bases in one game, stealing 2nd and 3rd twice. If I remember before posting this, I'll try to look up the details to see if my memory holds up correctly.


I saw a private signing come up over at SCN sometime last summer and jumped at the chance to get this short-timer. Following his career, he coached in the Expos organization briefly, coached high school baseball, then in the Orioles organization. The last thing I found for him was as a hitting instructor for the independent Joliet Jackhammers of the North League a few years back.