Constable: A 1969 Cub is still infamous in New York

The 1969 Chicago Cubs still hold a special place in some fans' hearts: "Santo, Kessinger, Beckert and Banks, the infield third to first," Billy Williams in left field, "Gentleman" Jim Hickman in right field, Randy Hundley behind the plate and Fergie Jenkins on the pitcher's mound. But ask fans about the center fielder on that 1969 Cubs team, and you might get a blank stare or worse.

Cubs Manager Leo Durocher used a rotating roster at that position, but the center fielder with the highest batting average (.250) was 22-year-old rookie Jimmy Qualls. He got 31 hits in his Major League career, including one that still makes him infamous in New York City.

"That's about the only way everybody remembers me," says Qualls, 70, who lives in the tiny western Illinois town of Sutter and works for Keokuk Grain Inspection Services, checking grain loaded onto barges along the Mississippi River. He doesn't brag about his baseball career.

"There's a few people in the company who know," says Qualls, the only grain inspector in history to get a hit off a Hall of Fame pitcher.

On July 9, 1969, Qualls started in center field for the Cubs against New York Mets ace Tom Seaver in a packed Shea Stadium. Don Young, who started most games in center for the Cubs that season, was benched after misplaying a couple of flyballs the night before, costing the Cubs a victory and inspiring public outbursts from Santo and Durocher.

Before more than 50,000 screaming fans, Seaver was perfect going into the ninth inning with the Mets up 4-0. Not a single Cub had reached base or come close to getting a hit, when Qualls stepped up to bat with two outs to go. He stroked a clean single to left-center field to ruin Seaver's bid for a perfect game and a no-hitter.

"He just threw one right in there," Qualls recalls. "I hit the ball well the first two times off of him, too."

The stunned crowd let him have it.

"I never heard so many boos," remembers Qualls, who became persona non grata in New York. "I got those letters, 'Don't you ever come back!' Most of them from kids."

A plaque titled "Seaver's Imperfect Game," on display now in New York's Citi Field, tells the story of Qualls' hit. He still gets letters and autograph requests from fans. "I get them two or three times a week. I even get them from Japan," says Qualls, who played briefly for the Montreal Expos and the White Sox before ending his career after two seasons with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in Japan.

Qualls' only other interaction with Seaver came before a game later that season. "We were running in the outfield before a game and he said, 'Your hit cost me a million dollars,'" Qualls says.

Another highlight of Qualls' brief Cubs career came when he somersaulted over Cincinnati Reds catcher Pat Corrales and scrambled back to home plate to score a run.

Qualls' 1969 season ended Aug. 22, with the Cubs still in first place. "I ran into the wall and hurt my shoulder," Qualls says of a catch he made against the Houston Astros while crashing into the ivy-covered bricks. "Billy Williams fell over me."

Playing for the minimum $10,000 salary, Qualls earned more than twice that with incentives and bought a farm, similar to the ones he and his parents worked on while he was growing up in California.

"I was always in the country, very poor, going up and down the valley," Qualls says.

He farmed, raised cattle, delivered bread, worked for a veterinarian service, served two terms as road commissioner and ran a feed business for 15 years until the "interest rates got so cotton-pickin' high," Qualls says. He'll finish up his gig as a grain inspector about the time baseball season ends, and then he'll help the neighbors harvest their crops and chip in with the cattle in the winter.

"I'm always doing something," says Qualls, who fishes ponds in his free time. "I like to clean my own fish because I know what I'm doing, A bluegill is just about like a potato chip when you get the bones out."

He's gone to a few reunions of the 1969 Cubs team and saw Jenkins a while ago.

"He came to Quincy for a (baseball) card show, and I went down and visited with him a little bit," Qualls says.

But Qualls is most proud of his 30-year relationship with Carolyn, a retired school bookkeeper; his three grown children from his first marriage; and his four grandkids.

"I'm happy," he says more than once.

His baseball souvenirs include several balls, such as the one he smacked for a hit in his first Big League at-bat ("I've still got them in a sanitary sock") and a photo of the 1969 Cubs.

"We had a great group of guys," Qualls says, adding that he wouldn't say the highlight of his career was that hit off Seaver. "The highlight was just being there."