You know what they say about the best-laid plans of Cubs and goats … right?
Yeah, they usually don’t work out quite as envisioned, except that one time in 2016.
Back in 1988, though, the Chicago Cubs were still the game’s lovable losers, even though they had snagged a National League East (!) division title in 1984 and would cop another in 1989.
In between, they were just the Cubs, finishing fourth in 1985, fifth in 1986, and sixth in 1987, and without a lot of hope for 1988.
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But they did have something brewing for ’88, and it was deliciously controversial.
Yes, those upstart whippersnappers had their sights on the 21st century and were bound and determined to change the face of baseball on Chicago’s north side by introducing — gasp! — night games to Wrigley Field.
That meant defiling the grand old ballpark with lights, and even worse, defiling the long-standing tradition of day-only games there among the ivy.
The bleachers and their creatures would never be the same.
And, if you’re going to uproot a staid culture and an immutable structural icon, you may as well make it all the more memorable and glitzy by giving it a gimmicky date.
So the die was cast — the first night game at Wrigley Field would be played on August 8, 1988.
Yes, that really was 8/8/88, a date that would live in baseball infamy.
Except … baseball gods.
Scoff at the concept if you like, but in the midst of one of the hottest summers and severest droughts in memory, the Cubs and Phillies took the field … played three innings … and then had to go home when a thunderstorm cut them down before the game was official.
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The Mets came to town the next night, and that contest went off without a hitch, thus cementing the first official game under the lights in Wrigley … on 8/9/88.
Not quite as catchy, but certainly fitting for a game — baseball, that is — that has been a master of surprise for 150 years or more.
And fitting, too, for an ’89 Score card commemorating both the planned event and the actual unfolding a day later.
It’s a number geek’s dream … an ’89 card celebrating an ’88 milestone that was supposed to happen on 8/8 but instead slipped to 8/9.
The card number looks curious and out of place at first — 652. But add those digits up and what do you get?
Yeah, thirteen.
Baseball gods.
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