It was August 1988, and our family was on summer vacation in Chicago at a historic time. The first-ever night game at Wrigley Field had taken place earlier in the week.

We had bleacher tickets for two afternoon games: Wednesday, August 10th, and Thursday, August 11th, both against the rival New York Mets.

The Mets were in first place in the National League East, only two years removed from their memorable 1986 world championship team. New York had a star-filled roster with the likes of Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, and Lenny Dykstra.

To jog my memory, I looked up the boxscores online. I even found the recap and some video of the August 11th game.

I was surprised I didn't remember the Mets winning 9-6 when Mets outfielder Kevin McReynolds hit a ninth-inning grand slam off the Cub's 37-year-old Hall of Fame closer Goose Gossage.

I didn't recall Mets Hall of Famer Gary Carter hitting his 300th home run that day.

Or that Gooden had started for the Mets, a young fireballer who had gone an incredible 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA to win the 1985 NL Cy Young only a few seasons before.

No, what I remember most from those two days at Wrigley was something that didn't even happen during the games.

Some Better Action

On that first day, we arrived super early to Wrigleyville and waited on Waveland for the gates to open. Being near the front of the line helped us get first-row bleacher seats in right field, giving us a terrific view of two talented all-stars: Darryl Strawberry of the Mets and reigning NL MVP Andre Dawson of the Cubs.

It rained before the game, delaying the start by several hours. But the sun eventually emerged, bringing muggy 90-degree-plus weather with it.

My younger brothers and I stared out at the field, wondering when the Cubs ground crew was going to remove the bright blue tarp and get the game going.

Then, out of nowhere, a bare-chested, bare-footed man in his late 20s walked down the steps and sat down in the middle of the aisle right next to us.

We gave him uneasy smiles, unsure of what he was up to.

The man sensed our nervousness and laughed, saying that he was at the game with his friends, nodding back to five guys drinking beer about ten rows behind us.

He explained that each of his buddies would pay him $20 if he jumped onto the outfield grass, ran to the infield, and crawled through the giant tube used to roll up the tarp.

The man looked around to make sure none of the ushers were tracking him. He then stood up and surveyed the chain-link fence basket along the top of the outfield wall.

The purpose of the basket is to prevent fans from reaching over and interfering with fly balls in play. But to this guy, it was the first obstacle blocking his quest to win $100.

The man drank his beer while nervously chatting with my little brother as he psyched himself up for the challenge.

Then all of a sudden, he chugged his beer and swiveled his head around to make sure the coast was clear.

He sprang to his feet with a grin and said, "Here goes nothing," and leaped off the top of the wall.

Unfortunately, he caught his left foot on the chain-link basket on his jump. As his bare feet landed on the plush outfield grass, he grasped his left ankle in pain but quickly shook it off, likely powered by liquid courage.

While enduring the rain delay, the Wrigley Field crowd had grown restless.

The fans were looking for any source of entertainment, and our new drunken friend provided an instant remedy to their boredom.

The stadium began to buzz as more people noticed the gutsy trespasser.

Three overweight Cubs security guards jogged out to apprehend the man and take him off the field.

Emboldened by the fans' support, the man started waving his arms, darting around the outfield.

He quickly sensed his agility advantage over the Cubs security staff.

The man would allow his pursuers to close in on him and then juke like a young Walter Payton, leaving them in his wake.

The security guards started to slip and slide in the grass, to the crowd's delight.

As the security guards leaned over to catch their breath, our fellow bleacher bum decided it was time to make his move for the tarp roller.

He sprinted to the infield and ducked down as he reached the end of the roll, ready to make his trip through the tube.

But there was a big problem with his plan.

The tube wasn't hollow in the middle; there was no way through it.

None of us realized this because of the tube's position down the third baseline. From our seats in the right-field bleachers, we didn't have a good view of either end of the roller to know it was completely solid.

Our fearless friend quickly pivoted and jumped on the tube, hopping across the top of it like he was riding a horse.

The Wrigley Field faithful howled in laughter.

By this time, Cubs security had sent reinforcements. The man was about halfway across the roller before he had to jump off to avoid capture.

As he disembarked from the tube, he sidestepped a guard and then bolted for the short brick wall just past the first base dugout.

The man easily hurdled the wall and raced up the stadium steps as he faded into the concourse with guards coming at him from every direction.

With the pre-game ruckus over, we had a quick laugh and then headed to the concession stand to kill some time before the first pitch.

An Amusing Ending

The game finally started, and our attention turned to baseball.

The Cubs jumped out to a 6-0 lead after four innings before the Mets struck back for four runs in the fifth off the Cubs 22-year-old pitcher, a future Hall of Famer named Greg Maddux.

Maddux would get out of that inning but have to leave in the sixth after taking a Met line drive off his right forearm.

We sat down after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with Harry Caray when we suddenly heard someone yelling in our direction from the concourse along the first base line.

Everyone in our section looked at each other, unaware of what was happening.

We then noticed a nearby usher shaking his head in disbelief with a big smile on his face.

My dad asked the usher what was going on. The friendly black man informed us that the fan hollering at us was the drunken fan who had run out onto the field prior to the game.

The security guards had caught him and taken him to the Chicago police station down the street. But someone had quickly bailed him out, and he had re-entered the stadium to catch the rest of the game.

I had to look at the box score online to see that the Cubs held on for a 6-5 win.

But the adventures of the crazy bleacher bum are etched in my memory forever.

Ray Craig www.midwestsense.com

Got this in the mail today, so awesome!! (I know i have jordan love as a pfp. Please dont hate me :))

Can’t wait for Pete to return to Milwaukee next season in a Cubbies uniform after what happened last night. Would really spice up the rivalry! I know it would require some shuffling of players on the current team after the season Busch had but maybe Bellinger doesn’t pick up that player option…

To show what a season PCA had, Baseball Reference rated him as a 2.4-WAR player, even though he started his season at Iowa and finished June with a .145 batting average and a .395 OPS. This 2.4 WAR was higher than the 2.2 WAR of Cody Bellinger.

Now I would be among the first to ask "How is this possible?" I would guess that Pete's glove work in center field has a lot to do with his WAR total.

Hoping there’s a few of you with excellent knowledge of Cubs history.

The summer of 1990, my family traveled to Chicago to see The Cubs play for the first time at Wrigley against The Padres.

I was certain we missed Grace play because he had broken his wrist previously in an in-game fight. I was surprised to see his batting stats for that series tonight when I googled the box scores.

Does anyone recall him breaking his wrist and when that occurred?

Please use this thread for any questions, non-Chicago Cubs content, or anything else that might not warrant a new post.

Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!

As we all know, the 2024 season was a grave disappointment. The playoff appearances from the Royals and Tigers has sparked a bleak observation: the Cubs now are tied for the fourth-longest full-season playoff drought with the Rockies. However, when the Cubs and Rockies both last made the playoffs after a full season, in 2018, the Rockies beat the Cubs in the play-in game to earn an appearance in a full playoff series. As such, the Cubs have the fourth-longest full-season full-series playoff drought in MLB, behind the Angels, Reds, and Pirates. If the goal is playoff appearances, this org is solidly among the worst in MLB. Just thought I'd put this out there!

Please use this thread for any questions, non-Chicago Cubs content, or anything else that might not warrant a new post.

Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!

So, a long shot, indeed, seeing as everybody and their dog wants these cards….buuuuuuuuuut, I am on the hunt and wondering if anybody has or knows of any that could be available. Looking to buy or trade. Thanks in advance!!

Jed Hoyer’s methods are unsound. The money is there to sign a superstar and invest in a major league caliber bullpen. Overpaying a group of 4, 5, and 6 hitters in expectation that they will perform like 1, 2, and 3 hitters is not a serious approach. Insisting that Jose Cuas is a suitable set up man is not a serious approach.

This does not negate the fact that Ricketts can and should spend more money, especially given the cost of watching a game at Wrigley. But he spent twice as much as the Brewers this year. The Cubs payroll is substantially higher than six playoff teams this year. What is Jed’s excuse? He has no excuse and he has no plan.

Tracked every game I went to this year with the outcomes. Saw 17 different teams come to Wrigley this year. I’ll take an above .500 record!

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/projected-arbitration-salaries-for-2025.html

Looking at the list for the Cubs, I see some pretty good bargains (Steele for $6.4M).

I would be willing to go with Almonte, Tauchman, Merryweather, Alzolay, Peason, Paredes, Steele, Herget, and Keegan for sure. They are affordable and/or decent players.

My maybes would be Bethancourt, Madrigal, Wingenter, Brewer.

My one no is Wisdom. I just struggle paying $3M to a guy whose batting average is getting worse and worse every year. I like him, I like his personality, but I just don't feel there is value there. Maybe bring him back on a minors deal or as some sort of staff member.

Please use this thread for any questions, non-Chicago Cubs content, or anything else that might not warrant a new post.

Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!

From The Athletic:

Bellinger finished 10th in MVP voting last season and won a Silver Slugger. At home, he had a .902 OPS (143 wRC+), and on the road, it was a .860 OPS (129 wRC+). This year, in a season when offense was down across the game, those numbers were .700 at home (99 wRC+) and .797 on the road (117 wRC+).

A big talking point among the Cubs front-office members, players and coaches.... was how rough Wrigley Field was on offense this year. Only T-Mobile Park (Seattle) had a worse ballpark OPS than Wrigley’s .653.