A Day In Wrigley Field History: May 28, 2006

The Cubs began May 2006 with a 13-10 record, although pretty much everyone knew it was going to be tough to keep winning after Rafael Furcal collided with Derrek Lee in an April game in Los Angeles, breaking D-Lee's wrist.

These fears proved true. The Cubs went 7-22 in May 2006 (and 9-18 in June, for a 16-40 run that's been exceeded in its badness over a 56-game span in club history only twice, in 1999 and 2000), and this wacky 13-12, 11-inning loss to the Braves sums up the month and the season quite well.

The afternoon included the first (and only) major-league start by one-time hot prospect Jae-Kuk Ryu (he faced 11 batters, four of whom hit home runs), a fan running on the field, a four-run Cubs rally in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game (with runs driven in by Cubs fan "favorites" Ronny Cedeno, Neifi Perez and Freddie Bynum), and then, recapped by Toni Ginnetti in the Sun-Times:

... a routine pop-up by Ryan Langerhans that should have landed in Aramis Ramirez's glove. But the ball plunked Ramirez on the head and fell to the ground as Langerhans reached second base, leading to the winning run on Marcus Giles' single to right field.

"What can I say?" a contrite Ramirez said. "I missed it. No excuses. I feel bad because we had a pretty good day."

I'm not sure if you can call a "pretty good day" a game in which the wind was blowing out, and eight home runs were hit -- all by the visiting Braves. Yes, the Cubs somehow managed to score 12 runs while having only three extra-base hits (two doubles and a triple) among their 16 hits, but lost because a popup hit a fielder in the head. I don't think any of us had ever seen that before, nor do I ever want to see it again (unless it's a popup hitting a Cubs opponent in the head).

The eight home runs allowed by the Cubs is a franchise record that I also hope to never see again.

The 2006 season was the worst I had seen in my lifetime... until 2012 came along.