Last weekend, I presented this aerial photo of Wrigley Field and sleuthed it, with Mike Bojanowski’s help, as being from a doubleheader Friday, July 4, 1947.
That appeared to be an important day for photographing
the ol’ ballyard, as here is a photo from inside Wrigley Field on that very same day.
The photo from last weekend was taken in the sixth inning of the first game of that holiday doubleheader.
What we are looking at here is some pre-game activity, since the clock reads 1:10. All games at Wrigley Field from 1945-56 began at 1:30, so these are warmups very close to game time.
Visible players for the Cardinals are Red Schoendienst (2) and Enos Slaughter (9). Both men started for the Cardinals in that first game.
What’s a bit of a mystery is the man shown at first base. It cannot be that day’s Cubs starting first baseman, because that was Eddie Waitkus — who was left-handed. The Cubs player standing near first base is definitely right-handed. It’s not clear whether he has a first baseman’s mitt on or not.
Now, in pre-game work, that could be just about anyone, it didn’t necessarily have to be that game’s first baseman. Two other men played first base for the Cubs in 1947 — Phil Cavarretta, who was left-handed, and Marv Rickert, who was right-handed. It could be Rickert — his listed height and weight of 6-2, 195 could match the man we see — but it’s impossible to be sure.
We are sure of the date, though. The Cubs lost the first game 7-0 and won the nightcap 5-4. At the time that gave the Cubs a 34-33 record and they were just five games out of first place. The crowd that day, as I noted in last week’s article, was the second-largest of 1947, eclipsed only by the day Jackie Robinson made his Wrigley debut.
With a record like that and just two years removed from a pennant season, Cubs fans of the time were likely still pretty optimistic. Other recent Cubs pennant winners had been near .500 around that time in the season and still won. Not in ‘47, though — the Cubs went 34-51 the rest of the way and finished seventh. Attendance was still good, though, as 1,364,039 paid their way into Wrigley Field, at the time second-best in franchise history to 1929 and third-best in the National League.
But as the Cubs faded into poor play for the next 20 years, they would not sell as many tickets until the star-crossed 1969 season.
Lastly, this is another call for you to see if you have any old Cubs/Wrigley photos you would like me to sleuth, as I’m running out of choices. I’ll also take Bears photos at Wrigley, if you have any. Thanks!
