Cubs historical sleuthing: Play at the plate edition

Getty Images doesn’t give us much to go on here:

Phila. Phillies Darren Daulton in action vs Chicago Cubs Steve Buechele.

Checks out. That’s Daulton and Buechele in a play at the plate at Wrigley Field.

Buechele played for the Cubs from 1993 through early July 1995, when he was released. He had put up a 3.4 bWAR season for the Cubs in ‘93, played somewhat less well in ‘94 and was hitting .189/.265/.236 in 32 games in ‘95 when he was let go. His original team, the Rangers, picked him up but he played in just nine games for them before he was released again, his career ending.

Anyway, back to this one: At first I thought it might be a night game given the kind of gloomy look to the photo, but I couldn’t find any such night games.

Instead, this play happened in an early-season day game, Friday, April 16, 1993, when it was 41 degrees, cloudy and drizzly at game time. That fits the photo.

In the sixth inning of this game, with the Cubs leading 3-0, Buechele singled with one out. The next hitter was Jose Vizcaino, who doubled. That wasn’t enough to score Buechele, who was thrown out at the plate.

The Cubs won the game 3-1, but the Phillies got the last laugh by winning the NL East that year with a 97-65 record, then winning the NL pennant over the Braves in the NLCS. They lost the World Series to the Blue Jays. It would be their last postseason appearance until 2007.

We have video of this play — unfortunately, though, there’s no audio: