Cubs historical sleuthing: Ryne Sandberg edition

There are a handful of useful clues here, even though we can’t see the scoreboard.

Here’s what we know about this photo:

• Future Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is batting
• The Cubs are playing the Astros
• The Astros catcher is wearing No. 14
• The Astros pitcher is righthanded
• Not very many people are in the bleachers

Here’s the full photo again:

First things first. Alan Ashby was a catcher for the Astros who wore No. 14 from 1979-89. We can narrow this right away to 1982-89, because Ryno debuted in 1982.

The style of message board below the Wrigley scoreboard was used in 1982, then again from 1986 on. From 1983-85 there were ads placed on the left and right of the board.

The ivy looks grown in, but perhaps not completely — that would date this to sometime in May, most likely.

Ashby didn’t catch any games at Wrigley in 1989, so we have now narrowed this down to 1986-88.

Here’s where I got stumped. I tried to read what’s on the message board — it’s Sandberg’s BA, HR and RBI — and it’s completely illegible. The first digit of the BA is 2, the last could be 1, the HR count could be double digits or a roundish single-digit number, the last digit of the RBI number is 0, the first could be just about anything.

So we must turn to other clues. The ivy is not full — it’s mostly grown in, but not completely full. This implies this game is in May. In this time frame, the Cubs played the Astros at Wrigley in either late May or early June, then again in late August or early September. WIth the ivy as shown, this eliminates the later series.

We also see the crowd isn’t very large.

There’s one other thing that we know from this photo. The BA/HR/RBI numbers on the message board were shown only in the player’s first at-bat. After that it would give the numbers for the specific game, say “0-for-1” with the BA only. So this has to be Sandberg’s first at-bat of the game we’re looking at.

The last clue is the shadow, which you can see beginning to encroach on the area near home plate, and the shadows cast from the players point towards right field. Since this has to be the first or second inning — Sandberg didn’t bat anywhere lower than fourth in the starting lineup any of those three years — if the shadows are pointing that way, this has to be a game that started at 3:05.

Paydirt.

The only Cubs/Astros game at Wrigley Field in that time frame, with everything we are seeing here, that started at 3:05 was played on Friday, May 27, 1988.

Attendance that afternoon was 22,958, which would match up with the bleachers being maybe two-thirds full. Remember that announced attendance in Wrigley in 1988 was turnstile count — NL teams didn’t go to tickets sold until 1993.

On this afternoon, Sandberg did bat fourth, but got to the plate in the first inning. Dave Martinez led off by popping to short and Rafael Palmeiro grounded to first. Andre Dawson then singled, and so this is Sandberg batting with a runner on first and two out. Dawson stole second while Sandberg was batting — so this photo had to be taken before the steal, because we don’t see a runner on second.

Sandberg ran the count full and then walked, so that’s the result of the at-bat we are looking at here. The Astros pitcher is Danny Darwin.

The Cubs wound up winning the game 3-2. Greg Maddux started the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead, but issued a leadoff walk and allowed a single, which brought in closer Rich Gossage. Gossage, as many of you might remember, wasn’t all that good in his only year with the Cubs. He retired the next two hitters, then allowed an RBI single to Kevin Bass before getting a ground out to end the game.

Now I’m going to go off on a tangent pretty much completely unrelated to the sleuthing photo.

Rich Gossage had 13 saves as a Cub and 10 (!) blown saves. The Cubs had acquired Gossage in a trade with the Padres before the 1988 season, along with Ray Hayward, for Keith Moreland and Mike Brumley. The Cubs thus inherited the last year of a five-year, $9.95 million deal Gossage had signed with the Padres before the 1985 season, at the time reported as the largest FA deal any pitcher had signed. Gossage had a no-trade clause, which he agreed to waive when the Cubs gave him a one-year extension worth about $1 million for 1989 (with the Padres paying about $300,000 of that, equivalent to their buyout of a contract option).

The Cubs wound up releasing Gossage at the end of spring training in 1989 and eating the contract extension. It was one of the worst deals/extensions in Cubs history.

Gossage went on to play six more seasons with the Giants, Yankees, Rangers, A’s, Mariners and one Japanese team, the Daiei Hawks, though he wasn’t very good for any of those teams.

I’ve got one last personal story about Gossage. Not long before the first official night game, the Cubs held a charity event under the lights at Wrigley Field. Part of that was this Home Run Derby:

About 1,000 attended this event, including me. Prior to the Home Run Derby, Cubs players sat at tables on the warning track in left field to sign autographs for people attending. Going down the line of players, where Dawson, among others, signed cheerfully, I came to the place Gossage was sitting. He looked like he’d have rather been anywhere else on Earth than sitting signing autographs for Cubs fans.

Gossage’s year with the Cubs is not a good memory for me.