Here’s one more from BCB reader Clark Addison.
As I have noted in some previous sleuthing photos, this has to be from 2005 or 2006, one of the two seasons this century where the Cubs removed names from the back of home jerseys.
The key to the year is No. 5. In 2005, that number was worn by Nomar Garciaparra, and that is clearly not Nomar. It is, in fact, Ronny Cedeno, who wore No. 5 in 2006.
All right, so now we have the year. The other visible numbers are, left to right: 40, 43, 22, 29, 50 and 52.
In 2006 those numbers were worn by, in the order noted above: Phil Nevin, Michael Wuertz, Mark Prior, Angel Pagan, Will Ohman and Wade Miller.
The best clue here is Nevin, who was a Cub for just three months in 2006, June, July and August. At the end of August he was traded to the Twins for a minor leaguer (Adam Harben) who never played in the majors.
The other interesting clue is Miller. He didn’t pitch in a game for the Cubs until September 2006, and by then Nevin was gone. The only thing I can think of here is that Miller was at Wrigley Field in uniform (players on the then-disabled list could do that) in between rehab starts. Here’s a list of all of Miller’s rehab starts in 2006 (and this wasn’t easy to find, minor league game logs from before 2009 are not easily looked up). The first five were with Peoria, then the Cubs’ affiliate in the Midwest League. That’s the only time it would make sense for him to be in Chicago in between rehab starts, an easy three-hour drive.
So when were all these players together for a home, night game win?
There are only three possible games. In two of them (July 18 against the Astros and July 27 against the Cardinals), Ryan Dempster recorded savs and he’s nowhere to be seen.
The key isn’t the players whose numbers are visible. It’s the player on the left. That’s Roberto Novoa, who was the last Cubs pitcher in a 9-3 win over the Diamondbacks Aug. 1, 2006. Miller had pitched in a rehab start the previous day for Peoria (a day game) and so it would make sense for him to have come to Wrigley the next day for the staff to evaluate him, and to be there in uniform for the end of a night game win.
Here’s video of the last out and the high-five line.
You can’t see all of the high-five line but that’s enough to convince me that the photo is from that game.
