Wrigley Field historical sleuthing: 1989 edition

Getty Images says (typo fixed):

JUNE 13: CHICAGO, IL - CIRCA 1990: Scoreboard at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Right away, I’m going to tell you this is not correct. On June 13, 1990 the Cubs hosted the Mets for a doubleheader at Wrigley Field, so “SAN FRAN” would not have been listed as the opponent on the Wrigley board.

What you see above is only part of the photo, since I had to crop it to fit the space. Here’s the entire photo:

Photo by Owen C. Shaw/Getty Images

Now, here’s where I will let you in on a couple of things that I have access to via Getty’s website that were good clues. First is the image number: 696453246. That’s in the same neighborhood with Getty’s image number from the photo I sleuthed here on Tuesday: 698422196. To me, that was a hint that these photos could have been from the same series. And if you take a look at the other scoreboard matchups from this photo, you will see that they’re the same as the ones from the photo in the Tuesday article. Lastly, the credited photographer, Owen C. Shaw, is the same photographer who took the photo in the Tuesday article, hinting that he would have been at Wrigley for both games in what was a two-game series.

Oddly — things wouldn’t be scheduled like this now, but that was the first full year of night baseball at Wrigley Field — the first of the two (a Tuesday) was a day game, with the second (a Wednesday) being a night game.

The photo above was taken Tuesday, May 9, 1989, obviously either right after the fourth inning ended or sometime during the top of the fifth. We can’t know which because the batter/ball/strike/out indicators on the board are not visible.

The Cubs lost this game 4-2. Paul Kilgus started and was touched up for all four Giants runs (two earned) in six innings of work with 78 pitches, not a terrible outing even in those days. Kilgus was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the sixth, but the Cubs did not score. They did put two runs on the board in the bottom of the seventh on a sac fly by Damon Berryhill and a Giants error which allowed a run to score. The Cubs had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but Mark Grace and Berryhill grounded out to end it.

Lastly, it was chilly for both games in that series: 47 degrees for the May 9 game, 51 degrees with a strong wind (25 miles per hour) blowing in for the May 10 game.

I’m glad the Cubs eventually returned to denoting the Giants as “SAN FRANCISCO” on the board in 1996. “SAN FRAN” never looked quite right to me.