When I got this photo, it had the filename “1969wrigley.”
I knew with 100 percent certainty, even before beginning sleuthing, that this photo was not taken in 1969. How did I know that? Because the Astroturf tarp that covered up the empty center field bleachers and became a hitters background was installed in 1967, not to be removed until Tribune Co. bought the Cubs in 1981.
Okay, definitely not 1969. Let’s narrow things down, then. Here’s a larger version of the photo (tap or click to enlarge further):
It’s almost certainly a Sunday because there are no “NITE GAME” indications on the board. Could be a Saturday, as most games in that era on Saturdays were day games, but occasionally there were a few Saturday night games in other cities, so I began with the assumption that it’s Sunday.
The clock shows just before 1:30, but the game has already started. My Wrigley game time history article shows you that weekend games didn’t start before 1:30 until 1965.
All right, now we’ve got it narrowed down to 1965 or 1966. It’s the bottom of the first inning. The visiting team has a hit, but didn’t score in the top of the inning. There’s no one on base and nobody out, so the leadoff hitter is batting. That has to be Don Landrum (1965) or Adolfo Phillips (1966). I couldn’t quite read all of the board matchups, except that it was clear that the White Sox were in New York. So I sent the photo to Mike Bojanowski. Here’s what he sent me back:
Sox are definitely playing in NY, first inning complete, Yankees did score in the first. I think the Cubs’ opposition is the Braves. The Mets are in LA; St.Louis, KC, Detroit, Cleveland, are all at home, looks like Boston is at Washington, Baltimore at KC, Pittsburgh is a road team.
That narrowed it down. There was only one game that matched all of those in this time frame. It happened Sunday, May 29, 1966. The Cubs were hosting the Braves. Felipe Alou singled for Atlanta in the top of the first, the one hit shown on the board.
Adolfo Phillips is the batter for the Cubs. He has clearly just made a hit to left field; the baseball-reference play-by-play indicates that he doubled. So that’s what we’re looking at here. Phillips took third on a throwing error by Braves left fielder Rico Carty (who would play for the Cubs briefly in 1973). He scored on a ground out by Glenn Beckert. Phillips also scored in the seventh for the Cubs after being hit by a pitch, stealing second and going to third on a wild pitch. Another Beckert ground out made it 2-0.
Fergie Jenkins started this game for the Cubs. He had been acquired (along with Phillips) in that big trade with the Phillies just a few weeks earlier. Of note: This game was Jenkins’ first start as a Cub at Wrigley Field (he’d started against the Braves in Atlanta eight days earlier for his first start with the team). Atlanta scored its first run in the top of the eighth when Mack Jones stole home, and tied the game in the ninth on an inside-the-park home run by Eddie Mathews. Mathews had hit a ball down the line in right field, but Billy Williams, playing right that day, had thought it hit the wall on the fly and was foul. But first-base umpire Bob Engel called it fair, and by the time Billy caught up with it, Mathews had circled the bases.
The game went to extras and Ron Santo led off the bottom of the 10th with a walk-off home run — the second day in a row he’d done that. The Cubs won 3-2. The win improved the team’s record to… 12-27. They were, as you know, pretty bad that year (59-103).
So this was a game filled with interesting happenings. Just another little slice of Cubs history from 60 years ago.
