As I wrote last week, the COVID-19 coronavirus has had a huge impact on our world, and more specifically the world of sports, and personally, my bank account. This week, it became evident that even the sports networks are scrambling to find programming to fill their hours.
However, with the lack of live games to broadcast, Major League Baseball has come up with some programming that is sure to please a baseball traditionalist, like myself.
This past week, I found myself locked into MLB Network watching a classic game from May 17, 1979. It has come to be known as the “Shootout in Chicago.” I was in ninth grade at the time, and I honestly don’t remember if I saw this game live on WGN (after school that day), or if I just remember hearing about it that day.
It was a windy Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, and whenever the wind was blowing out you knew you would see a high scoring game with several home runs, but the game this day was about to become like no other game played in that ballpark.
Randy Lerch was the starting pitcher for Philadelphia, and he contributed to the Phillies seven-run first inning with a solo home run. Then Lerch gave up five runs on five hits in the bottom half of the first inning and was taken out of the game after only retiring one batter. From there, the slugfest was on.
Following the top of the fifth inning, the Phillies led 21-9, and scored one more run in the seventh, but the ball was sailing out of Wrigley for the Cubs as much as it was for the Phillies. Chicago battled back, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the fifth, three in the sixth and three in the eighth. The score was tied, 22-22, after nine innings.
Then Mike Schmidt hit his second home run of the game, a solo shot in the top of the 10th inning, to give the Phillies the 23-22 lead.
It was the highest scoring game in MLB since 1922, and the total of 45 runs has not been matched since.
There were two Hall of Famers in the game, Bruce Sutter, who pitched the last two innings and took the loss, and Schmidt, who hit his game winner off Sutter.
Cubs stars who played that day included, Dave Kingman, who hit three homers and collected six Runs Batted In, while Bill Buckner, added a grand slam and seven RBI.
For the Phillies, beside Schmidt, Bob Boone and Gary Maddox each hit three run homers.
Pete Rose went 3-for-7 in the game with four RBI.
If you like watching great baseball games, and not just because of all the runs, but want to see these great players from the past, I encourage you to find this game either on MLB Network or online, and enjoy a little trip back in time.
COLUMN IDEAS
Honestly, sports writers, like myself, are having to stretch their minds a bit to come up with ideas of what to write about. With all the sports leagues, golf tournaments, horse racing, etc., shutdown, what’s left? There are of course NFL off-season moves and the impending draft, that is currently in danger of taking place in closed rooms via video conferencing. However, by the time you read about it here, that stuff is old news.
As I was lamenting this the other day, my daughter Alyssa said, “Write about stuff from the past, like tell stories of favorite teams or players, and interview some folks who are affected by this shutdown.” That in itself was a good idea. I have, however, in the past told dozens of stories about my time working with the Expos, or being a mascot, or traveling with sports teams. Then she said, “or do ‘best of columns’ from the past.” Great idea, I thought. I’ve been wanting to compile a best of for a book that will come out later this year (more details on that later).
Then, that evening, I was watching the game described above and was telling Alyssa how exciting this game was back in 1979, and she said, “Write about that.”“Aha, that’s it!” I said. “You’re welcome,” she said.