Clubhouse Chatter: Name the best 5 (or 10) baseball players in Chicago history

What the sports staff has to say now that the games have resumed.

1. Andre Dawson, 2. Dexter Fowler, 3. Dwight Smith, 4. Dave Kingman, 5. Claudell Washington. Going with personal favorites. Dawson for signing a blank contract, then winning MVP. Fowler for doing U-turn in spring training and winning a World Series. Smith because the '89 Cubs team was fun to watch. Kingman in '79 was captivating. And Washington because I was at the game where he hit 3 home runs two days after Disco Demolition night (went back on the rain check).

­- Mike McGraw

Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, Frank Thomas, Fergie Jenkins and Gabby Hartnett. Ernie, of course, is a no-brainer, as are Sandberg and Thomas. Fergie may have been the best and most durable pitcher in MLB history. Hartnett, aka Old Tomato Face, is a sentimental favorite. I would have loved to have seen the "Homer in the gloamin."

­- John Radtke

Post-World War II, there seems no reasonable argument against Frank Thomas, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg and Billy Williams as the first five, with Fergie Jenkins, Wilbur Wood, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Minnie Minoso somewhere in the next five. Feel free to argue among yourselves, but as Richard Dreyfuss said in "Let it Ride," "This is my survey pal. You take your own survey."

­- Barry Rozner

Frank Thomas, Ernie Banks, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams. I am second guessing myself without any pitchers on this list but I'm not sure which of these big bats to take off.

­- John Lemon

Ernie Banks (Mr. Cub, 512 HRs, 512 million smiles), Frank Thomas (in a performance-enhancing era, Big Hurt needed none of it to deliver hurt), Cap Anson (whipped pitchers during the horse-and-buggy era and is still the only Cub with 3,000 hits), Shoeless Joe Jackson (maybe one of the all-time greats, but baseball fans were robbed), Sammy Sosa (played in the asterisk era, but 60 HRs three times is 60 HRs three times).

- Joe Aguilar

Frank Thomas, Ernie Banks, Mark Buehrle, Nelson Fox, Luke Appling.

- Steve Zalusky

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