Call to the pen
Fansided

MLB Classic: Wrigley Field unconfined – Phillies 23, Cubs 22

By Jeff Kallman

CHICAGO, IL - CIRCA 1979: Dave Kingman #10 of the Chicago Cubs bats during an Major League Baseball game circa 1979 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Kingman played for the Cubs from 1978-80. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - CIRCA 1979: Dave Kingman #10 of the Chicago Cubs bats during an Major League Baseball game circa 1979 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Kingman played for the Cubs from 1978-80. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 4
Next

MLB Classic: Wrigley Field Unconfined

Mike Schmidt and Dave Kingman’s Influence on This Game

You can thank Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt in just enough part for that. He’d hit a three-run homer in the top of the first, launching the Phillies to a seven-run inning, and he hadn’t hit anything else all day long until the top of the tenth—because the Cubs managed to walk him four times to follow, twice intentionally.

There went the plan to keep Schmidt from wrecking them. Anyone else on the Phillies, sure, but you’re not going to let that guy destroy you. Until you do. When your Hall of Fame relief pitcher Bruce Sutter feeds him something meaty enough on 3-2 to send to the back of the left-center-field bleachers with two out.

“I didn’t even turn around to look at it,” Sutter said after the game. “I knew exactly where it was going.”

“It was one of those things that you’re almost thinking the way Schmidt liked to hit in that ballpark, you’re almost better just walking him,” remembered Cubs catcher Barry Foote decades later. “But we got two strikes on him. We’re way ahead in the count and unfortunately, Bruce just hung a splitter up in the zone a little bit. The one thing about it, it wasn’t a cheap home run. It was going to go out whether the wind was blowing out or blowing in. It didn’t matter the way he hit that ball.”

Schmidt’s rip wasn’t exactly the kind of monster mash Cubs left fielder Dave Kingman hit three times in the MLB classic game. Every one of the three flew out of the yard completely and landed across the street. The first two looked like they’d be caught by rooftop fans before they landed just in front of the building. The third bounced off a front stoop two houses down.

En route his absolute career year, Kingman singlehandedly raised homeowners’ insurance rates that afternoon. But it isn’t how far you hit them, it’s when. The Cubs’ gritty comeback from twelve down after five forced the extras in the first place, and that’s when Schmidt hit what proved the money shot.

His first-inning blast gave him thirteen on the season to that point—with twelve of those coming on the road. That’s only where the oddities began.

Home/Chicago Cubs