As noted here and everywhere else yesterday, Lou Piniella has decided to give Carlos Zambrano the Opening Day assignment at Houston. It will be the fifth time Zambrano has had the honor; the Cubs have gone 2-2 in Z's previous Opening Day outings.

Fergie Jenkins started seven openers for the Cubs, while Rick Sutcliffe started five, and Rick Reuschel, four. The real fun in looking over this list at Baseball-Reference.com is noting which Cub pitchers got to go in Game #1 once, but never again. Here are the last ten such Cub pitchers:

Year
Pitcher
Opponent
Final Score
1999
Steve Trachsel
Houston 4-2 (L)
1998
Kevin Tapani
Florida 11-6 (L)
1997 Terry Mulholland
Florida 4-2 (L)
1996 Jamie Navarro
San Diego 5-4 (W)
1995 Jim Bullinger Cincinnati
7-1 (W)
1992 Greg Maddux
Phillies 4-3 (W)
1991 Danny Jackson
Cardinals 4-1 (L)
1990 Mike Bielecki
Phillies 2-1 (W)
1984 Dick Ruthven
Giants 5-3 (W)
1982 Doug Bird
Reds 3-2 (W)

It's interesting to me that Maddux only got the nod one time and that Jim Bullinger ever got to start an opener. Looking back at the strike-shortened '95 season, however, Bullinger wasn't bad (12-8, 99 ERA+), and God knows he didn't cost the Cubs anywhere near as much as Danny Jackson did.