Help me figure out when this photo was taken.
Hey there! This being the Cubs offseason, it’s time for our regular BCB series of Cubs (and, perhaps, other) photos that I’m going to sleuth. This feature will run on weekends this offseason, perhaps more often if I can find more photos, which is my cue to ask you for some. If you’ve got some old Cubs/Wrigley photos around that you’d like me to sleuth, send them my way!
Now, to this scoreboard photo, clearly one where the Cubs are visiting the Milwaukee Braves. At first glance, you’d think this one would be easy.
Let me show you the full photo, as the one above crops out the clock.
This would appear to be simple. The Cubs are playing at Milwaukee. Looking at the other teams on the board, this has to be 1953, because there’s “STL” on the American League side. The following year, the St. Louis Browns would move to Baltimore.
The thing is… I can’t find a single Cubs/Braves game in Milwaukee in that year that matches what we see. Not one. The Cubs pitcher who wore No. 34 in 1953 was Bob Schultz and he didn’t pitch against the Braves in Milwaukee that year before he was traded to the Pirates in early June. No. 36 for the Braves in 1953 is Max Surkont, who did pitch against the Cubs in Milwaukee May 10, 1953, but as you can see at that boxscore link, the linescore shown doesn’t match that game.
The Cubs did play in Milwaukee on May 8, 1953, and yes, the other matchups on the board do match the May 8-10, 1953 weekend, though on May 8, the games in Brooklyn and New York (NL) were rained out, so there wouldn’t have been scores posted for those, as you see there were here. And while the games shown do match the matchups for that weekend, none of the scores match. At all.
The Cubs lost May 8 by 2-0 — so they wouldn’t have had a run posted, and what’s on the board would indicate a Milwaukee 2-1 walkoff win. Also, according to the Tribune radio listings for May 8, 1953, that game began at 9 p.m., not 8 p.m.
The Cubs won May 9 by that same 2-0 score, again, that doesn’t match.
On May 10, there was a doubleheader. The Braves won the first game 6-2, again, no match. And the Braves won the nightcap 4-1, again, the scores don’t match.
We have two other clues here. The clock says 6:56, implying a game that would have started about 5 p.m. That would have been an oddity in those days, and in fact, the Chicago Tribune’s radio listing for May 8, 1953 says that night’s Cubs/Braves game started at 9 p.m. (Yes, back then night games often started that late.)
And then there are the numbers “4 30” at the bottom of the board, but no indication as to what they mean. There weren’t any exhibition games between the Cubs and Braves in Milwaukee in any of those years, and besides, if there had been, you likely wouldn’t have seen a full MLB slate of out-of-town games, such as you see here.
So I’m throwing my hands in the air on this one and asking for help. Anyone have any ideas? The only thing I can think of at this point is that the scoreboard operators were just messing around.
Let us know what you think. Or if you have some definitive proof, post it in the comments.