Where have Cubs players lived over the years? The suburbs were a popular choice for decades. And many have rented.

The Chicago Cubs have played on Chicago’ s North Side for 116 years, since the team moved north from West Side Park. And although many Cubs players have owned homes in the Chicago area over the years, a review of the locations where players have owned shows a distinct trend: Throughout much of the 1960 s through the‘ 80 s, most Cubs players were loath to own homes anywhere...

The Chicago Cubs have played on Chicago’s North Side for 116 years, since the team moved north from West Side Park.

And although many Cubs players have owned homes in the Chicago area over the years, a review of the locations where players have owned shows a distinct trend: Throughout much of the 1960s through the ‘80s, most Cubs players were loath to own homes anywhere in the city, and instead favored the north, northwest and western suburbs as places to hang their ball caps.

However, since the 1980s, far more of the homeowning Cubs have bought places in the city than in the suburbs. Also striking: In the past few years, only a select few Cubs have bought Chicago-area homes of any kind.

Many renters

Most major league baseball players rent homes in their teams’ cities. Many lead an itinerant lifestyle, as they are subject to the whims of team owners who can trade or release them at any time, and the advent of free agency has made long careers with any one team rare.

Also, with players now paid more than ever, the lure of sun-kissed states with no income tax, such as Florida and Texas, can be high and as a result, players own homes in those states and live there in the offseason. Arizona and Southern California are also popular offseason spots for players.

In Chicago, some Cubs players over the years have rented apartments near Wrigley Field during the season, both in the New York building, at 3660 N. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and in the Halsted Flats building at 3740 N. Halsted St., while others have rented in high-rises downtown, including in the Waldorf Astoria. Others have chosen to rent single-family houses.

Starting pitcher Jake Arrieta leased a house on Hutchinson Street in Lakeview while he was with the Cubs during the 2010s. And a house on Wolfram Street in Lakeview was rented to three straight Cubs pitchers — Wade Davis, Brandon Morrow and Craig Kimbrel — from 2017 until 2020; the house sold in late 2021 for $2.15 million.

Former Cubs outfielder Doug Glanville, who played for the team in 1996, 1997 and 2003, rented in the New York building during his first year with the team and leased a place in Streeterville his second season, in the same building as teammate Steve Trachsel. He said that the Cubs’ day games made it preferable to live close to the ballpark, “particularly given those 9:30 a.m. (practices) and stretch times.”

“Living in Streeterville was a lot of fun,” he said. “I could walk to Michigan Avenue, a lot of good restaurants and Navy Pier. I wanted to be able to get around quickly around town.”

Glanville later rented in Greektown. For most of the rest of his career, he played for the Philadelphia Phillies, and he rented in that city for two years before deciding to buy a house in Conshohocken, a Philadelphia suburb.

Among Cubs greats, Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux both rented places in Chicago during their times with the club, Hall of Famer Billy Williams said in an interview.

‘Mr. Cub’

Other Cubs — particularly those with long careers with the team — have chosen to lay down roots by buying a house or condominium here.

Few Cubs had a longer career with the team than Hall of Fame first baseman Ernie Banks. During some of his 19 years in the majors, “Mr. Cub” owned the four-bedroom house at 8159 S. Rhodes Ave. in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood — making him a rare Cub to own on the South Side.

With the kind of money that Banks was earning with the Cubs, he and then-wife Eloyce could have afforded to live in a wealthy enclave. However, given Chicago’s historic racial segregation — along with restrictive housing covenants barring sales of homes to those who were not Caucasian, and general resistance by white neighborhoods to Black residents — the Bankses chose to look for a house in a predominantly Black neighborhood, wrote former Tribune national baseball columnist Phil Rogers in his book “Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the Summer of ‘69.” The couple bought their Chatham home in 1960.

In 1963, the 32-year-old Banks ran for 8th Ward alderman from that home but lost.

Banks sold the Chatham house in 1969, according to public records. He later owned a condo in the Gold Coast’s Brownstone building, and he also lived in California for a time. He later resided in Hyde Park and in South Shore before moving to the 55th floor of a Loop high-rise, his widow, Liz Banks, said.

The suburbs

The Cubs had some good teams in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, including the infamous 1969 Cubs team that imploded during that season’s final month, and many players from that era chose to make the Chicago area their year-round home. However, few players from those teams opted to own in the city. Instead, they favored the north, northwest and west suburbs.

That included the late Hall of Famer Ron Santo, who first lived in Park Ridge and then bought a house in Glenview’s Valley Lo area in 1972. He lived there until 1983, when he moved to his second wife’s ranch-style home in Bannockburn, where he lived until his death in 2011.

Other Cubs from the late 1960s and early ‘70s who owned suburban homes include four-time All-Star Glenn Beckert, who with his wife owned a house in Palatine’s Virginia Lake subdivision; pitcher Ken Holtzman, who owned homes in Lincolnshire and later in Buffalo Grove; pitcher Milt Pappas, who owned a house on in Wheaton from 1970 until selling it in 1991 and moving to south suburban Beecher; pitcher Rick Reuschel, who owned a house on Picadilly Circle in Mount Prospect; and catcher Randy Hundley, who since 1970 has owned a house in Palatine.

Future Hall of Famer Billy Williams and his wife, Shirley, initially lived in South Shore, at 7410 S. Constance Ave. He told Elite Street that he and Banks would take turns driving back and forth together from the South Side to Wrigley Field.

In 1973, Williams and his wife sold their South Shore home and bought a house in Glen Ellyn. Just 14 months later, he was traded to the Oakland Athletics, and they sold that house in 1976. The couple first leased a home in Walnut Creek, California, and then built a house on 10 acres in Loomis, which is near Sacramento.

In 1981, however, the Williamses decided to return to Glen Ellyn, where their daughters had friends. So they bought a house that Williams, now a widower, inhabits to this day.

“It was great. I think this is where I’m going to be for a while,” he said.

Well-known Cubs continued to buy suburban homes into the early 1980s. Pitcher Mike Krukow owned a house in Highland Park, while outfielder Bobby Murcer, who later became a popular New York Yankees broadcaster, owned a three-bedroom town home on Wimbolton Drive in Mount Prospect from 1978 until 1981. Infielder Manny Trillo owned a condominium in Northbrook from 1977 until 1979.

After the Cubs won their division in 1984 and made the postseason for the first time in 39 years, star teammates Rick Sutcliffe and Ryne Sandberg bought suburban homes.

In 1985, the two All-Stars bought newly built houses in the Indian Ridge neighborhood of Glenview from the same homebuilder that were just around the corner from one another. Sutcliffe, who paid $130,000 for his Saranac Court home, lived there until selling the house in 1992 for $415,000, while Sandberg, who paid $144,500 for his home on Iroquois Drive, sold it in 1993 for $450,000.

The city

After 1999, the balance dramatically shifted to Cubs players owning in the city. Second baseman Eric Young, onetime pitching phenom Mark Prior and starting pitcher Kerry Wood all purchased homes in the city. Wood owned homes in River North and Lincoln Park’s Old Town Triangle before trading up in 2008, paying $3.32 million for a mansion in Lincoln Park that he sold in 2017 for $3 million.

Starting pitcher Ryan Dempster, now known for his Marquee Sports Network talk show, merits his own mention for the sheer amount of city real estate he’s owned. He paid $1.71 million in 2005 for a Lakeview house — the first of several houses he would own near the ballpark. In 2008, he paid $2.69 million for another Lakeview house, and in 2009 he picked up a condo unit near the ballpark for $480,000. Dempster has sold both houses and in 2014 paid $1.95 million for yet another house in Lakeview.

Starting pitcher Ted Lilly, pitcher Jeff Samardzija and outfielder Kosuke Fukudome also owned homes in the city.

The 2016 team

The Cubs’ 2016 World Series title fulfilled the dreams of generations of championship-starved fans. And the World Series run had a long tail in terms of players from that team remaining Cubs for lengthy tenures — at least, by today’s standards. And yet, relatively few players from the title-winning team ever bought Chicago-area homes. Star players like Arrieta, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo rented during their time as Cubs.

And those from the 2016 team who owned area homes all were city dwellers. Starting pitcher Jon Lester owned a mansion in Lakeview’s Graceland West neighborhood. Outfielder Jason Heyward, credited with motivating the Cubs to win the seventh game of the World Series after he famously gave a rain-delay pep talk, paid $6.93 million for a Gold Coast condo, which is the highest-priced purchase of any property on record by a Cub in the team’s 148-year history.

Second baseman Ben Zobrist bought a North Center home that he sold for $2 million in 2021 after his divorce. And starting pitcher Jason Hammel bought a Lakeview home in 2015, which he sold in 2021 for $2.55 million. Hammel and his wife also paid $1.1 million for a property on Wentworth Avenue in Glencoe in 2019, and began building a mansion. However, they never completed construction, and they sold it unfinished in February for $3.687 million.

Lester, Heyward, Zobrist and Hammel have all since sold their homes.

One other player from the 2016 World Series-winning team owns a home in Chicago, and he also is the sole player on the Cubs’ current roster who is known to be a Chicago-area homeowner. Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks paid $2.18 million in 2017 for a Lakeview mansion that he still owns.

Selling to a White Sox player

Beyond all the deals mentioned above, one notable transaction occurred between a Cub and a retired Chicago White Sox great. In 1991, former Cubs first baseman Leon Durham, who famously made an error during the decisive fifth game of the 1984 National League Championship Series, decided to sell his Lakeview condo. Durham had bought the condo in 1983, and by 1991 was out of professional baseball.

The buyer? White Sox Hall of Famer Minnie Minoso, who with his wife paid $187,500 for the unit. Minoso, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021, resided in the unit until his death in 2015. His widow continues to live in that condo.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

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