Ferguson Jenkins

Baseball player Ferguson Arthur Jenkins was born on December 13, 1943 in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.

- Ferguson Jenkins -

Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1963, Ferguson Jenkins made his major-league debut as a 21-year old in 1965. He was traded the following year to the Chicago Cubs, where he would blossom as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. A three-time All-Star, he posted some of the best numbers of his era, despite pitching for years in a hitter's ballpark at Wrigley Field.

During a career spanning 19 years, Ferguson Jenkins led the Major Leagues in wins for 14 years and is the only pitcher in the last 40+ years to win 20 or more games for six straight seasons. A control pitcher, he walked less than two batters per nine innings over his entire major-league career and is the only Major League pitcher to ever record more than 3,000 strikeouts with less than 1,000 walks.

In 1974, he became the first baseball player to win the Lou Marsh Trophy, an award given annually to Canada's top athlete. He was also named the Canadian Press male athlete of the year four times between 1967 and 1974. In 1971 he won the National League's Cy Young Award, the first Chicago Cub pitcher ever to do so.

Ferguson Jenkins was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and in 1991 became the first Canadian ever elected to the (United States) National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He was appointed the commissioner of the Canadian Baseball League in 2003. He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.