At Chicago’s Wrigley Field: Never a Dull Moment, Win or Lose
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As has been written previously on this blog, when the wind blows out at Wrigley Field, anything, but anything can happen.
On July 28. 1977, with the Chicago Cubs then sitting in first place in the NL East (59-39), they took the field in final game of a 4 game series against Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Johnny Bench and those Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds opened the first inning by clubbing Cubs starter Ray Burris for 6 runs right out of the starting blocks in the 1st inning on homers Rose, Bench and 1st baseman Mike Lum.
But low and behold, the Cubs unloaded on Cincy starter Dale Murray as 1st baseman Billy Buckner (1st of 2 HRs) and Bobby Murcer, who would play rightfield, 2nd base and shortstop positions in the game, both homered to lead a 4 run outbust in the bottom of the 1st inning. 6-4 Reds.
In the 2nd inning, the Cubs jumped on Murray and Pedro Borbone for 3 more runs led by the 1st of 2 homers by catcher George Mitterwald as the Cubs took a 7-6 lead.
Baseball Library’s archive for the 28th of July,1977 tells the rest of the story;
The first-place Cubs (6) and Reds (5) combine for 11 home runs to tie the ML record. The first-place Cubs come back four times to win 16–15 in 13 innings in a contest that goes four hours and 50 minutes. Dave Rosello’s RBI single wins it. The Reds lead 6–0 to start, beginning with Rose’s leadoff home run, and lead 15–14 near the finish, but Dave Rosello’s RBI single off Jack Billingham wins the game. Rick Reuschel wins his 15th and 2nd in two days, pitching just 2/3 of an inning. Going deep are Buckner (2), Murcer, Mitterwald (2, including one in the 12 inning), and Morales for Chicago: Rose, Bench, Griffey, Lum and Geronimo homer for the Reds.
The Cubbies reached the zenith of their season with this victory climbing to 60-39 with a 3 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East. But they played .333 ball the rest of the way going 21-42 over their last 63 games. They finished the 1977 season by getting swept in 3 games by the Pittsburgh Pirates to finish 81-81 for the campaign. The Phillies went on to win the NL East with a 101-61 mark.
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