Chicago Cubs: Five of the best moments at Wrigley Field

No.4: The final home game for Ryne Sandberg and Harry Caray – September 21, 1997

The 1997 season was a rough season to be a Cubs fan. The Cubs started out the season with a 14 game losing streak, and a five, six, and nine-game losing streak during the ’97 season. They finished the year with a miserable 68-94 record – not once did they reach the .500 mark (of course that’s hard to do after starting the season 0-14).

The announcement of Ryne Sandberg’s retirement for the second time was made during the season. On September 20th, the day before the final home game for the Cubs, a ceremony was held for the Chicago Cubs’ greatest second baseman ever to honor his great career.

That Sunday Sandberg would go 2-for-3 with an RBI double in the Cubs’ 11-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He would be pulled for a pinch-runner in the bottom of the fifth inning after hitting a single. He would exit the game to a standing ovation from the Wrigley faithful as they cheered their hero. Sandberg finished the season with a .264 batting average, 12 home runs, and 64 runs batted in.

The other goodbye the Cubs’ fans would be saying but didn’t know it at the time it would be the final goodbye was to Harry Caray. Caray’s career was winding down, he had stopped going on road trips and was strictly doing home games in Wrigley Field. He sang his traditional seventh-inning stretch as he did at all the Cubs’ home games, but it would be the last.

On February 18, 1998, Harry Caray passed away at the age of 84. The Cubs have continued the seventh inning stretch tradition with special guest conductors. While some have been great, it’s still not the same not to hear Harry Caray singing the stretch.

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