Today at Wrigley Field. Now THAT Was a Ball Game.

I went to the Cubs game today (no news there), and it was a wonderful game.  An old-time baseball game, actually.  Kyle Hendricks pitched a five-hit complete game, winning 4 to 1.  (It should have been a shutout, but Jason Heyward lost a flyball in the sun to start the ninth.  It fell in for a double and the runner ultimately scored on a K_2-3.)  Hendricks struck out seven and walked none, throwing 104 pitches.  And he did it with a wind blowing out to center at 18 mph.  A great pitching performance.

Meanwhile the Cubs scored two runs in the first (one on a wind-aided home run by Dexter Fowler to lead-off the game) and picked up single runs in the second and sixth.  The whole thing took two hours and eighteen minutes.  A good, old-fashioned ball game.

As I mentioned a couple of times (here and here), I went today because it was the 50th anniversary of a game I went to with my dad in 1966.  The Cubs won that game, too, beating the Braves 8 to 5 on a three-run home run by Ron Santo in the bottom of the twelfth.  It, too, was a great game.  The Cubs got two runs in the first, but the Braves came back to take the lead.  The Braves increased their lead to 5 to 2 with two runs in the top of the eighth.  The Cubs, however, tied it with three runs in the bottom of the eighth and then, as I said, won it in the twelfth.

But what made that game one to remember was not just Ron’s three-run homer run; it was what happened that morning, before the game, and then how it played out during the game.  Saturday morning, the Cubs traded left-handed pitcher Ted Abernathy to the Braves for infielder Lee Thomas.  Often it takes a player a couple of days to report to his new team after a trade.  In this case, they just switched dugouts.

So, of course, in the bottom of the eighth, with the Braves’ lead down to one run, and the tying run on third base with two out, guess who was pitching to whom.  Right.  Ted Abernathy was pitching for the Braves, and Lee Thomas came up to pinch hit for the Cubs.  At the time, I was hoping for a home run.  That didn’t happen, but Lee did single to right to drive in the tying run.

Back then, relief pitchers didn’t pitch just an inning or two.  Abernathy stayed in, setting the Cubs down in order in the ninth and tenth and eleventh.  The Braves, meanwhile were getting runners on base every inning, but they couldn’t score.  Finally, Jimmy Stewart¹ led off the twelfth with a single.  The next batter, however, hit into a double play.  Sigh.  But then Glenn Beckert walked – and stole second.  Abernathy walked Billy Williams intentionally.  And then Ronnie hit his three-run homer to left. 

It was a great game, and it was great to be there with my dad.  Today’s game was great in the same way.  Because the Cubs won – and because Ross was able to go with me.  It’s what makes baseball memories so good.
---------
¹ No, not that Jimmy Stewart.

UPDATE (5/29/16 1:40 pm): Fixed a typo in the last sentence.