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

MLB Classic: Wrigley Field Unconfined

A Record-Breaking Game

Between them the Phillies and the Cubs collected 97 total bases (setting a record at the time), hit eleven home runs, and struck out only eleven times. “It was like, oh jeez, we’re going to extra innings too?” Phillies catcher Bob Boone, who went 3-for-4 with five RBI, would remember. “How many runs do we have to score? When you score seven runs in the first, you’re supposed to win the game.”

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

Wherever did he get that idea? In Wrigley Field or otherwise?

But was this so Cubs or what—they came back from twelve down to tie but couldn’t win. In 2001 the Oakland Athletics would come back from twelve down to beat the Cleveland Indians, and ten years later the Detroit Tigers would return from twelve down to beat the Chicago White Sox. So would the Indians revive from twelve down to beat the Seattle Mariners.

“Here,” Burris would remember, “was the uniqueness of that game: We (the Cubs) are going to hit in the bottom of the fifth, we were down 21-9. Now, when you think about that, for the next five innings, we only gave up 2 runs to the Phillies and we scored 13. That is amazing.”

That was also three years after the Phillies overcame an eleven-run deficit against the Cubs—on the day Schmidt became only the fourth man in major league history to hit four bombs in four straight plate appearances. And Schmidt hadn’t even begun that day’s mayhem until after the Cubs dropped a twelve-spot on Hall of Famer Steve Carlton.

It was also 57 years after the Cubs also allowed the Phillies 23. That time, however, the Phillies allowed the Cubs 26. It’s still the most runs by two teams in a single major league game ever.

“Ballplayers often will say that you never can get enough runs to win in this park, but they always say it sarcastically,” said Schmidt about the ill winds in tiny Wrigley Field. “After today, they can forget the sarcasm.”