Carl Lundgren

Carl Leonard Lundgren
(The Human Icicle)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.
• School University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• High School Marengo Community High School
• Debut June 19, 1902
• Final Game April 23, 1909
• Born February 16, 1880 in Marengo, IL USA
• Died August 21, 1934 in Marengo, IL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Carl Lundgren spent his entire eight-year major league career with the Chicago Cubs, posting a .623 winning percentage.

Lundgren attended the University of Illinois, where he played baseball and football, and was the first major leaguer to come out of the school, beating Cy Falkenberg and Jake Stahl by a year. He joined the Cubs in 1902. He won 17 games in 1904 and 1906. In 1907, he won 18 and posted a 1.17 ERA, second best in the National League. That year, the Cubs had one of the best pitching staffs of all time, as teammates Jack Pfiester, Mordecai Brown, Orval Overall, and Ed Reulbach were first, third, fifth, and sixth in ERA, respectively. The Cubs reached the World Series three straight seasons from 1906 to 1908, but Lundgren was never used in the Fall Classic.

Lundgren won 91 games over 8 seasons with Chicago. The most similar pitcher according to the similarity scores method is Babe Ruth. He also umpired five National League games, during the 1905 and 1906 seasons, filling in when the regular umpires were unavailable due to illness or injury.

He was a stellar cold-winter hurler; in the Fall 2019 Baseball Research Journal, Art Ahrens wrote an excellent biography and noted that Lundgren was 53-26 in the cooler months of April, May, September and October versus 38-29 in the warmer months; Frank Chance sometimes sat him for long periods in the summer, noting his strengths.

After his major league days, Lundgren played in the minors from 1910 to 1912. He was pitching coach of Princeton University in 1912-1913 and the head baseball coach at the University of Michigan from 1914 to 1920 (although there was no season in 1917 due to World War II). He then returned to Illinois as head coach from 1921 until his death from a heart attack in 1934. He was 126-46 in his coaching career.

Notable Achievements

• NL Saves Leader (1903)
• 15 Wins Seasons: 3 (1904, 1906 & 1907)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 3 (1904, 1906 & 1907)
• Won two World Series with the Chicago Cubs (1907 & 1908) (he did not play in either World Series)

Further Reading

• Art Ahrens: "Carl Lundgren, the Cubs' Cold-Weather King", in Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 48 Number 2, Fall 2019, pp. 91-100.

Related Sites

• Carl Lundgren at the SABR Bio Project
• BR Minors page
• Carl Lundgren obituary