When was this photo of the future Hall of Famer taken?
As always, here’s the full photo so you can have a closer look:
Nolan Ryan played for the Astros from 1980-88, but we can narrow this down further. The message board underneath the main scoreboard was installed in 1982 by Tribune Company when they bought the team. And to the left of the message board, you can see the soccer clock that was used for Chicago Sting games. That disappeared after 1982, the last year the Sting played games at Wrigley.
Thus, 1982 is the year for this photo.
The Astros were at Wrigley Field twice in 1982, as was the standard for NL West teams in those days. The first was May 7-8-9, the second July 19-20-21.
Your further clues are these:
- The ivy looks grown in, but not quite completely
- The NL side of the board shows all day games, implying a Sunday
The games shown on the board match the first set of dates, and only on May 9 were there all day games for NL teams. The matchups are, top to bottom:
SAN DIEGO/PHILADELPHIA, LOS ANGELES/MONTREAL, ATLANTA/ST. LOUIS, HOUSTON/CUBS, SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, PITTSBURGH/CINCINNATI
Since we can see the scoreboard clock and it says 12:05, that’s the time this photo was taken on Sunday, May 9, 1982.
The Cubs had gotten off to a bad start that year and were 8-18 entering that series, and the Astros, who had been in the postseason in 1981, also were off to a rough start at 12-15 as they came to Wrigley for that three-game set.
The Cubs won the first two games of that series. In the first game they crushed Ryan, scoring nine runs off him in fewer than three innings. It was one of only seven games in his Hall of Fame career where he allowed that many runs.
Then the Cubs won again Saturday, May 8, and completed a sweep of the Astros in the May 9 game in dramatic fashion, a three-run walkoff homer by Jody Davis:
Just another little slice of Cubs history.