A Day In Wrigley Field History: July 29, 2012

These are getting into the realm of recent memory, and you know how bad the 2012 season was, I don't have to remind you.

So I thought about writing about one of the really bad games of that year. Like this one. But what fun is that? It would just remind everyone of all the depressing things that happened during the Cubs' 101-defeat season.

Instead, savor the memory of this 4-2, 10-inning, walkoff win against the Cardinals. Anthony Rizzo's first (and so far, only) walkoff home run gave the Cubs the win. As I wrote in the BCB recap that day:

That's a scene we want to see many, many times over, oh, say the next 15 years or so -- Anthony Rizzo jumping (not too high, of course! Don't hurt yourself!) into a happy mob of Cubs waiting for him at home plate after a walkoff home run.

Rizzo's homer, following a 10th-inning leadoff single by Starlin Castro, gave the Cubs a 4-2 win over the Cardinals; of the six wins the Cubs now have this season over St. Louis, four of them are walkoffs.

It came not a moment too soon; not long after the game ended, some light rainshowers invaded the north side of Chicago (probably not hard enough to have held up the game if it had still been going). That ended a fun two days at Wrigley Field; after the Cardinals bombarded the Cubs with home runs on Friday, the Cubs won the series with some excellent pitching and timely hitting.

That was about the end of the fun in 2012; after the deadline deals that shipped Paul Maholm, Reed Johnson, Geovany Soto and Ryan Dempster out of town, the Cubs went 18-43 after August 1, and that included a 10-18 home record, not much cheering in the stands at Wrigley over the season's last two months.

Let's hope there are many more walkoff homers from Rizzo (and others) in the team's future.