Wrigley Field historical sleuthing: The scoreboard on a cloudy day

I found a bunch of old Wrigley Field scoreboard pics on my phone with no dates — they somehow all got dumped in with a date of December 27, 2021 which I knew wasn’t right — so I decided to do some sleuthing with them.

This one fell pretty quickly.

It’s the bleachers after the first renovation but before the second. After the second, with the video board in the way, you can’t get good photos of the scoreboard from the street.

And, it has FLORIDA on the board which means it’s before 2012, when the Marlins were renamed MIAMI.

The Cubs are playing the Pirates and the Pirates’ starter is No. 49. Two Pirates pitchers who pitched at Wrigley in that time frame wore 49 — Ross Ohlendorf and Jeff Locke. (Big names, I know.)

The Cubs’ pitcher ends in “7” but the first digit isn’t really clear. So I checked the Pirates pitchers.

That made this easy. It’s Ohlendorf, who pitched against the Cubs’ Matt Garza (No. 17) on Sunday, April 3, 2011. The Cubs took a 4-3 lead into the ninth, with an Alfonso Soriano home run in the sixth breaking a 3-3 tie.

Carlos Marmol blew the save, the first of eight (!) he would have in 2011 after his really good year (2.7 bWAR) in 2010. A walk, a single, a sacrifice bunt and a two-run single by Pedro Alvarez gave the Pirates the lead. The Cubs got two runners on in the bottom of the ninth with one out, but Marlon Byrd hit into a game-ending double play.

The Cubs finished 71-91 that year, the Pirates one game better at 72-90.