FORTUNATELY, WGN WAS A SUPERSTATION THEN:

On a Sunny Day at Wrigley, a Perfect Storm of Offense (TYLER KEPNER, 5/16/09, NY Times)

Lamp had the grim task of throwing the first few pitches of the best game for hitters in the last 87 years. He got one out, allowed two three-run homers and bolted the howling winds for the shelter of the clubhouse.

The Old Style beer was ready, Lamp said, and it was needed. Every few minutes, it seemed, the door would open and another sullen Cubs pitcher would shuffle in, his earned run average bloated and his spirits broken.

“We were all thinking, what’s going on?” Lamp said.

What unfolded was a 23-22 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, less a major league game than a T-ball exhibition. In the decades since, baseball has added teams and umpires have squeezed the strike zone. Cities have built cozier ballparks and players have bulked up on steroids. Yet nothing has matched that day.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only one game since 1900 featured more runs — a 26-23 circus on Aug. 25, 1922. In that one, the Cubs defeated the Phillies at Wrigley.

“There’s something about the Phillies and the Cubs,” said Mick Kelleher, a Yankees coach who played for the 1979 Cubs. “Man, I’m telling you.”

The box score is a thing of beauty.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 16, 2009 1:54 PM