In 2007, the Cubs were coming off a 96-loss season. But they had a new manager, Lou Piniella, and general manager Jim Hendry had made some key acquisitions, including signing Alfonso Soriano to what was
at the time the biggest contract in franchise history.
And then, thud. The team got off to a bad start and after a loss to the Braves June 2, they were 22-31, 7.5 games out of first place. That series against Atlanta had featured Carlos Zambrano destroying a Gatorade cooler in the dugout and Piniella having a dirt-kicking tirade at umpire Mark Wegner about a play that even Lou admitted later had been called correctly.
Fun times, right?
After that, though, the Cubs went on a 16-8 run and were just one game under .500 when the Brewers came to Wrigley Field to begin a three-game series on a Friday afternoon.
The series opener did not start well. The Brewers jumped all over Rich Hill for five runs in the first inning, including a three-run homer by Kevin Mench. Hill was done after three innings, but relievers Billy Petrick (remember him? This was just his second MLB game), Michael Wuertz, Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry threw six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.
The good relief work allowed the Cubs the chance to come back. They scored two in the fifth and one in the eighth, but still trailed by two heading to the bottom of the ninth.
With one out, Soriano singled and took third on a single by Mike Fontenot. Derrek Lee’s sacrifice fly scored Soriano to make it 5-4, but now there are two out.
Ramirez stepped to the plate and hit Francisco Cordero’s first pitch into the bleachers in left, sending the crowd into a frenzy:
Great call, too, by Len Kasper. And the photo at the top of this post of the celebration as Ramirez gets to home plate is one of the most memorable in Cubs history.
This was the Cubs’ seventh win in a row and brought them to .500 at 39-39. They lost the next day, but then won three more in a row and went 17-9 in July. A 12-16 August put them in second place for a bit, and after dropping into second place again Sept. 11, they finished the year on a 12-6 run to win the division with an 85-77 record.
Ramirez was one of the best home run hitters in Cubs history. Of his 386 career home runs, 239 were hit with the Cubs, which ranks seventh in franchise history. After he left the Cubs as a free agent following the 2011 season, he played three-plus seasons in Milwaukee before returning to finish his career where it began, with the Pirates. Ramirez was inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame, along with Kerry Wood, in 2024.
