Cubs Rainout History: 1990s

Yes, it's a slow day, as we await the Cubs starting a three-game series with the Cardinals Friday. There's a team that the Cubs might actually be able to defeat -- they're 6-7 against them this year, and just won a three-game set in St. Louis last weekend.

In the meantime, here's the next installment of my series -- that I am doing as a research project for the folks at Retrosheet -- of Cubs rained-out games and the dates and circumstances under which they were made up.

You'll note that this list is considerably shorter than the ones in the previous articles in this StoryStream. As we get closer to the present day, when, as you know, games are played in miserable conditions to their completion, teams were much more reticent to postpone games than they had been in the 1970s and 1980s. Also, some of these more recent games might be more familiar to you than the ones in the earlier articles. The last one of the 1990s is of particular interest; I've never seen a game like that one before (and hope to never see anything like it again).

1991

September 19, Cubs at Mets, postponed, not rescheduled
September 20-21-22, Cubs at Expos, cancelled in Montreal due to falling concrete at Olympic Stadium. Two of the games were made up at Wrigley Field as a DH September 22.
October 4, Cardinals at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH October 5

1992

April 17, Cubs at Cardinals, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH June 8
June 17, Cardinals at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH September 19
July 31, Cubs at Mets, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH August 1

1993

April 19, Astros at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH July 10
May 28, Expos at Cubs. 5 innings played to a 2-2 tie, rain prevented completion, rescheduled as part of DH August 17. This is the last tie game at Wrigley Field.
September 25, Cubs at Pirates, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH September 26

1994

April 13, Cubs at Mets, postponed. Rescheduled as part of DH August 19, but that was cancelled by strike
May 7, Cubs at Pirates, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH May 8
June 22, Cubs at Marlins, postponed. No makeup date was announced; only other Cubs trip to Florida was in September, cancelled by strike.

1995

No Cubs games were postponed, home or road, in 1995, for the first time since 1982. The season, of course, was shortened by strike to 144 games and didn't begin until April 26; the first couple of weeks of April often account for many postponements.

1996

May 28, Braves at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH August 30
June 17, Dodgers at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH June 18
July 17, Pirates at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH September 27

1997

April 11, Braves at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH July 22
April 18, Cubs at Mets, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH April 20
July 18, Rockies at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH July 19

1998

April 8, Mets at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH July 24
May 7, Giants at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH May 9

1999

April 15, Reds at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH September 7
April 22, Astros at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH August 6
August 23, Giants at Cubs, postponed, rescheduled as part of DH August 25. This is what Cubs fans know as the "non-rain-delay" game, where the teams sat for two hours past the scheduled 7:05 game time, with the tarp on the field and no rain falling. It didn't start raining until about 9:15, by which time they could easily have played an official game. It's said that this event -- which cost the Cubs a sold-out crowd that they had to refund -- was one of the factors in the firing of GM Ed Lynch at the end of the season.