Billy Jurges (1931-1938) was known as a fiery, ill-tempered, good fielding, weak-hitting shortstop for the Cubs, but he was also one of the team leaders during the best decade of the Cubs bad century (they were in the World Series in '32, '35, and '38).

Stories of Jurges' on-the-field skirmishes were legendary. In 1933, he nearly caused a riot at Wrigley Field when he deliberately threw two balls directly into the taunting Phillies dugout. The Phillies dugout charged onto the field to fight Jurges, but with the help of the umpires and Jurges' Cubs teammates, he was rescued from a certain beating. He somehow wasn’t kicked out of the game.

In 1935, Jurges and catcher Walter Stephenson got into a fight in the dugout at Forbes Field because Jurges made a crack about the south losing the Civil War (he was from Brooklyn, Stephenson was from N.C.)

In 1936, Jurges and Reds catcher Gilly Campbell fought several times. One time Campbell slid hard into second base when Jurges was covering the base, and Billy punched him in the face.

In 1937, after he was ejected from a game, he stood at home plate and kicked dirt on the plate. After the umpire swept it off, he kicked dirt on the plate again. This happened five times.

But for all of his on-the-field hijinks, Billy Jurges will always be remembered for what happened off-the-field on July 6, 1932.

He was living at the Hotel Carlos at 3834 N. Sheffield Ave (now known as the Sheffield House Hotel), and so was a girl he had "seen" a few times-- Violet Valli. She called Jurges on the telephone, and asked if she could see him. Before leaving her room, she wrote a suicide note saying that she was sorry for killing Billy Jurges and herself, but she had no choice because their "beautiful love had been broken up" by his teammates Kiki Cuyler and Lew Steadman. Jurges later said he had no idea what she meant by that.

Jurges let Violet into his room, but when he saw she had a gun, he grabbed at it and took a bullet in the hand and another through the ribs. Despite the injuries, he managed to get the gun away from her, and prevented her from killing herself. Then, after he recovered from the shooting, he refused to testify against her in court. The case was dismissed.

Valli used her notoriety as part of her act (she was a dancer), and signed a twenty-two week contract to sing in local nightclubs and theatres. She was billed as "Violet (What I did for love) Valli, the Most Talked About Girl In Chicago."

Amazingly, Jurges wasn't hurt too seriously. He returned to the Cubs before the end of the season, and hit .364 in the World Series against the Yankees. He was traded to the Giants after the 1938 season, and was named to the all-star team with the Giants the next two years.

After his playing career was over, Jurges became a big league manager. As a manager, he is probably best remembered as being the manager of the Boston Red Sox the year they became the last team in baseball to break the color barrier. In his last season with the Red Sox, they finished in seventh place.

He died in 1997 in Clearwater Florida at the age of 91.