Chicago Cubs: Top five games in the last 100 years

The Chicago Cubs have played in so many amazing games. However, if you had to choose, here are my picks for the top five Cubs games in the last 100 years.

5. The Highest Scoring Game in MLB History

Number five on my list of best Chicago Cubs games played during the previous 100 years has been a part of MLB history for the last 98 years. The game was a slugfest at Cubs Park, now known as Wrigley Field. This game took place 98 years ago in 1922 when the Chicago Cubs took on the Philadelphia Phillies at home.  Over 7,000 Cubs and Phillies fans filled the park waiting to see the second-place Cubs take on a seventh-place Phillies team.

This Cubs team featured Chicago Cubs legendary outfielder Hack Miller, who went  4-for-5 with two homers, six RBIs, three runs scored, and a walk that day for the Cubs.

The Cubs led off the marathon scoring (1-0) in the first inning when Cubs first baseman Ray Grimes drove in the leadoff hitter and Cubs centerfielder Cliff Heathcote with two outs.  The Phillies would answer in the second inning going up (3-1), but that would be the last time they would ever lead the game.

The Cubs added 10 runs in their turn at bat and after two innings led the Phillies (11-3).  Although the Cubs had already come out quite strong in the game, nothing was as crazy as the Cubs fourth inning where they added 14 runs on 11 hits and two errors.  For the second time in the game, the Cubs had put up double digits. With a score of (25-6), no one was expecting the Phillies to crawl out of that deep hole.

However, by the ninth inning, the Phillies were only down by three (26-23) and had the tying run at the plate but was struck out, ending the highest-scoring game in MLB history with 49 runs scored in a single major league game.

The Cubs beat the Phillies (26-23) in the highest-scoring game in MLB history and my fifth best Cubs game in the last 100 years.

Chicago Cubs: Do you see the light?

4. Wrigley Field get lights and plays first night game – sort of

On August 8, 1988, or as it’s popularly known “8-8-88” the lights came on at Wrigley Field for the first time as the Cubs took the field against the Phillies. Since taking ownership of the team, Tribune Company had been trying to get the only ballpark in MLB that was light-less to get some lights and play some night games.

The Cubs could only play day games at Wrigley Field because there were no lights. Major League Baseball was threatening that if the Cubs ever made it to the Championship race, they would have to play somewhere that had lights. A clear message to Cubs owners:  somewhere other than Wrigley Field.

Neighbors in Wrigleyville were against the lights because they thought the lights would bring more traffic. After fighting in the legislature for years, the Cubs were at the point of moving their park to the suburbs.  The Tribune Company finally convinced Mayor Harold Washington to back an ordinance allowing 18-night games a season.

When the day arrived, the stands were filled with, who’s who of Chicago politics and the WGN Broadcast led with, “Night and Day” by Frank Sinatra.

While the exact time might be lost to history, sometime between 6:05 pm and 7:00 pm a 91-year-old Cubs fan named Harry Grossman (no former Chicago Bears QB relation) counted down the pressing of the button that lit up six towers of lights, Grossman and fans yelled, “Let there be light!” and then it as game time.

Chicago Cubs pitcher, Rick Sutcliffe pitched the first ball amid flashbulbs blasting away the evening sky at the first pitch of a night game in Wrigley Field. By the fourth pitch, Phillies outfielder Phil Bradley pounded the first-night game home run into the Wrigley bleachers.

Later in the game, former Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg hit a two-run blast, and the Cubs picked up another run in the third inning to lead the Phillies (3-1).

It was about that time that the darkened skies above Wrigley Field started pouring buckets of rain. Although the midwest had been under drought conditions most of the summer, the game went into a rain delay, and the field was covered.

I remember watching the historic game on television and the coverage of Cubs players diving into the pools of water on the tarps covering the field. Wrigley Field had become one giant slip & slide.  The game was called after two hours, and the Cubs that were slid on the field all received fines for their water-park stunt. Either way, the first night game in Wrigley Field was pretty memorable. The “Let there be light” game ranks as the fourth-best Cubs game in the last 100 years.

Chicago Cubs: Dusky dinger helps take the pennant

3. The Disappearing Ball

In September of 1938, the Chicago Cubs found themselves in second place behind a smoking hot Pittsburgh team that was up by 6 1/2 games as the month started. The Cubs did all they could throughout the month to battle back to 1 1/2 games behind the Pirates when September 28 arrived, and the Cubs met Pittsburgh on Wrigley Field.

The game was a toss-up, going back and forth through eight innings when the Cubs scored two runs to tie the game (5-5). This game was played some 50 years before the Cubs got lights at Wrigley Field, and so as the daylight began to fade away, the umpires gathered to decide how the game should proceed?

As this was the second game of the series, the Cubs won the first game (2-1), if the game were called because of darkness, the whole game would have to be replayed before the third game, the next day.

Thinking they were very much in the game and not wanting to play another game, both clubs wanted to continue to play through the fading light. Because this was the end of the season and the results of the game would affect the first and second-place teams in the division, the umpires allowed the game to continue, but the ninth inning would be the last.

The Pirates stepped up to bat in the ninth inning needing a go-ahead run. However, on the mound was the future most successful Chicago Cubs pitcher in history, Charlie Root. Root exited the top of the ninth without giving up any runs to the Pirates.

Pittsburgh reliever Mace Brown carved up the Cubs, leaving two outs with no one on base when Cubs catcher-manager Gabby Hartnett stepped up to the plate. Earlier in the season, the Cubs manager had left the club under stress, and Hartnett took over (sound like some current manager of the Cubs?) and fired up the Cubs to challenge for the division.

Brown was ahead in the count 0-2 when Hartnett crushed a ball into the centerfield bleachers.  The ball launched so high into the fading darkness that everyone lost sight of the ball. It utterly disappeared as Hartnett rounded the bases. The ball could have landed in the infield unseen, but it wouldn’t have mattered as Cubs fans stormed Wrigley Field and escorted Hartnett around the bases.

Later it was concluded by the umpires to be a fair ball, home run. An Associated Press reporter described the home run as the “Homer in the Gloamin’,” which has been how the game is remembered these days.

The Cubs won the following day as well against the Pirates, completing the sweep and going ahead two games in the pennant race.  Later in the week, after a visit to St. Louis, the Cubs won the pennant.  The Cubs would go on to the World Series and face the New York Yankees, where they were swept in 1938.

Chicago Cubs:  The most dominant start in MLB history

2. The Texas native Cub pitcher strikes out 20 Astros

The day was kind of muggy after some rain earlier, and no one expected anything marvelous to happen on such a bland-type Chicagoland day. Attendance was at its lowest for the season that day. Texas native and Cubs pitcher, Kerry Wood, had other things on his mind on May 6, 1998, as he faced the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field and was about to make Cubs history.

Kerry Wood was pretty much a rookie making his sixth start on that historic day.  Wood has said numerous times that he felt terrific that day, and everything he was delivering was happening. One by one, Astros were getting struck out masterfully by Wood.  Michael Beller of Sports Illustrated described Wood’s pitching as follows:

Right from the start, it was clear that Wood, a top-flight prospect in his rookie season, had his best stuff. He was the fourth overall pick three years earlier and a consensus top-five prospect in baseball going into 1998 for a reason. When Wood was on, his stuff was as good as the league had ever seen. And he was on this day. His fastball was sitting in the high-90s. His curveball and slider were both breaking cartoonishly, one from 12-to-6, and the other from 1-to-7. The difference in movement and speed on Wood’s breaking balls meant that the Astros hitters couldn’t zone in on either one.

Wood ended up tying the record for strikeouts in nine innings and taking home the title of most dominant pitching exhibition ever witnessed in MLB.  Wood allowed only one hit and two baserunners the whole game after throwing 122 pitches.

Wood would go on to rack up 233 strikeouts in 26 games in 1998, but his 20 Strikeout dominant game against the Astros is the second-best Cubs game in the last 100 years.