On September 22, 1983, I sat through an hour and a half of Micro Econ followed by an hour and a half of World History at DePaul University. At noon, I raced out to the #22 Clark bus and made my way to Wrigley Field. I was going to see the Chicago Cubs host the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Cubs were 68-85, mired in 5th place and managed by Charlie Fox. The Pirates were 80-73, still alive in 2nd place and managed by Chuck Tanner. The Pirates started Lee Tunnell, while the Cubs started Rick Reuschel.
The Pirates got rbi's from 7 of their players in beating the Cubs 8-3. Ron Cey hit the only homerun of the day, a meaningless solo shot in the 9th inning.
You can tell from the picture that the crowd was sparse. The actual total was 3,426. I think I took the picture in the bottom of the 7th inning, because I always moved closer as the game went on.
Tony Pena is the catcher for the Pirates. Jody Davis is just about to head to the plate. I am not sure where Marla Collins was heading. I thought she usually sat down the line, but here it looks like she is heading for the vicinity of the Pirates dugout.
Things turned around quickly for the Cubs however. In 1984, they won the National League East. Fans started to flock to Wrigley Field. Harry Caray became an icon. Unfortunately, 25+ years later, the Cubs still had not made it to the World Series.
3 comments:
Gosh, the days when an average Joe could still get a ticket or 10,000, even on game day.
1984 changed all that.
Now there are more than 4,000 people in the park when the gates open, two hours before first pitch, even on a snowy day in April!
Thanks for the Marla photo!
One observation: it looks like the Pirates' bullpen is on the third base line. Now the opponents' bullpen is on the first base line. I wonder when that changed?
RF-
Thanks for stopping by. I remember the bullpens switching, but I don't remember the reason or timeframe.
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