Where were you when (nostalgia)....?

[NCCubFan]

The first game I attended was Cubs vs. Mets, June 23, 1970. Cubs led early, 4-1 after three. The Mets scored 7 in the top of the 4th to take an 8-4 lead. Cubs got one in the bottom of the 4th, then scored 5 in the 5th to take a 10-8 lead. No more scoring until the top of the 9th, when the Mets scored 2 to tie the game at 10. Top of the 10th, the Mets take the lead 12-10 on a 2-run homer by Duffy Dyer. The Cubs fail to score in the bottom of the 10th and lose 12-10. We missed the end of the game; we had to leave after the 9th to get back home because I had a scout meeting that evening.

[srbin84]

First game was very early in 98 I wanna say, shortly after Wood's 20K game. It was against San Francisco and like 0-0 into the 10th when the Giants won it in dramatic fashion. It was a foreshadowing of things to come. Most memorable was Prior outdueling Maddux at home in the playoffs in 2003 and doing the tomahawk chop and chant.

[IowaCubsFan]

Okay, it's an off day so just some thoughts

 

Where were you when.....

 

The Cubs had to walk down the left field line to get to the clubhouse?

 

Some ballparks had baseball-shaped golf carts to bring in the relief pitchers from the bullpen?

 

ABC had Monday Night Baseball?

 

Brant Brown dropped the fly ball in Milwaukee?

 

The 1994 World Series was canceled?

 

The Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds were in the NL West?

 

Shawon Dunston would charge the mound just about everytime he was hit by a pitch?

 

Harry Caray would call Andre Dawson "Andre Rogers"?

 

Kirby Puckett became the first $3 million player?

 

George Foster became the first $2 million player?

 

On 8/8/88 the first night game at Wrigley was rained out?

 

Jack Brickhouse would say, "The upper deck is closed today."

 

Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau were the best in the biz?

 

30 homers was considered a "monster" year?

 

Marla Collins was the hottest woman in sports?

 

The worst words you'd hear after a Cub home game was "Game suspended due to darkness?"

 

The Cubs had Andy Frain ushers?

 

Lee Elia went on an obscenity laced tirade against Cub fans?

 

Again, just some thoughts. Feel free to add as you wish.

 

3.) I remember a ABC Monday Night game in Philadelphia in '84 when Ron Cey hit a 3-run homer in the 7th to put the Cubs in the lead for good.

 

4.) Ugh. I was watching the game from my apartment, after just getting home from class. My future wife was watching it with me. As soon as the ball fell out of Brown's glove I fell to the floor and began pounding it with my fist.

 

5.) I was working during summer break at the time, thinking, "They wouldn't cancel an entire season, would they??"

 

6.) And I always remembered them sucking, at least until the 90's.

 

7.) I remember when Dunston spent something like two games at Des Moines before getting sent up, and there were no tickets available to see him. Guy had a decent career, but never lived up to the hype.

 

11.) I remember watching the rainout on TV, thinking what fun it must be to be a big league ballplayer.

 

13.) My grandfather would listen to the games on radio sometimes, and when I would stay at their house I'd wonder to myself who the hell those old fogies on WGN Radio calling the Cubs game were. I also could never understand why Harry split time between the radio and TV.

 

14.) I remember when Ryno led the league with 40 HRs in 1990.

 

15.) Didn't she appear in Playboy once?

 

16.) I always wondered why they didn't have night games at Wrigley all along. After having been to a few of them myself, I now know why. :D

 

I started watching the Cubs towards the end of the '83 season, as I started playing Little League myself earlier in the year. By '84 I had really developed an interest in the sport. But on June 23rd, 1984 my affection for the Cubs was cemented forever. National TV. Cubs. Cardinals. McGee. Sutter. Sandberg. To this day I haven't seen a feat in baseball that comes close to the dramatics from Ryno that day. Two homeruns to tie the game, in consecutive innings, off one of the best closers of that era. I haven't seen anything like it since. I'm still in awe.

[cl smooth]

gotta add a few more to this list...

 

* remember those commercials back in '96 or '97 when the cubs were talking about their favorite things? mark grace said metallica, brian mcrae said long walks on the beach, sammy said (and i quote) "i like to hit de home run!"...but the kicker was frank castillo. he said "puppy dogs!" i just about laughed my arse off at that. hilarious. then they asked about their favorite baseball moment and they show all the cubs itching their chins and grace ends the commercial saying "i haven't had mine yet." the text blurb at the end was the icing on the cake, though...

 

"chicago cubs: we're working on it."

 

looking back now, they should bring back that commercial and use it with this team.

 

* frank castillo's wife was an adult film star. she was in a video once talking about how her husband was "a pitcher for the chicago cubs" and how they got down on the pitcher's mound before the game. frank got mad flak for that on the radio during his tenure with the cubs.

 

* the god-awfulness that was gary scott. if you have a dictionary near you and looked up "hyped to hell," there would be a picture of him. so, so bad. dubbed him as the "next ron santo," but was everything but.

 

* kevin foster. always liked him. didn't know what you were going to get each start, but i always thought he had skills but didn't have enough willpower to control them. i wonder what he's doing nowadays.

[bhogg]

My first pack of cards was a pack of 85 Topps (my mom bought them for me).

 

The top card was Ryne Sandberg.

 

My first pack of baseball cards was a wax pack of 1989 donruss for $ .50 that had an Orel Hershiser card. I was king of the world.

 

now you can get 89 donruss for less than 50 cents per pack :D

[Chris]

My first pack of cards was a pack of 85 Topps (my mom bought them for me).

 

The top card was Ryne Sandberg.

 

My first pack of baseball cards was a wax pack of 1989 donruss for $ .50 that had an Orel Hershiser card. I was king of the world.

 

now you can get 89 donruss for less than 50 cents per pack :D

 

ha ha

 

I'll add another:

 

My wife and I were in Section 403, Row 10 for Game 1 of the 2003 NLCS. Although the Cubs lost, that was the greatest game I have ever witnessed live.

[3Dog]

I remember how great it was that my dad went out and bought a VCR towards the end of the season so he could capture a bit of history I still have that clinching game in Pittsburgh on tape somewhere.

 

Badger, I did the exact same thing moments after the Cubs won Game 4 of the 2003 NLCS, only it was a DVD recorder instead of a VCR. Ah, me.....at least I got to use it to record the Red Sox win it the following year!

 

Other memories:

 

1) the famous 23-33 game against the Phils in 1979, which made me first notice this team with the neat stadium and the road uniforms with white pinstripes on a powder blue background.

 

2) a Saturday Game of the Week comeback win at Wrigley against the Pirates back in mid-1983, which put the Cubs just 3 games out even though they were a game under .500. A lot of the fans stayed after the game ended and you could hear them chanting and yelling in the background during Tony Kubek's post-game interview. That game cemented it for me. I was in for the long haul!

 

3) the strange but exhilirating feeling of 1984, when the Cubs won game after game and became a team you expected to win. After Game 2 against the Padres I knew this was the year we'd go all the way. Sigh...and to this day I cannot watch replays of Games 3, 4, and 5.

 

4) the 34-19 start through early June 1985 - again, it was a time when I'd put the game on and watch in complete confidence. Who knew all 5 starters would eventually get hurt and they'd go 43-66 the rest of the way?

 

5) Andre Dawson's superhuman 1987.

 

6) the thrill of early 1988, when young players like Maddux, Palmeiro, Dunston, Moyer mixed with veterans Sandberg, Sutcliffe, and Dawson to start out 43-36.

 

7) the giddiness of 1989, including the greatest Cub game I've ever watched: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198909090CHN

 

I will let anyone borrow my wife if they have a copy of this game!!

 

8 ) April 19, 1991: Dawson rips a pinch grand-slam to go ahead 4-3 in the top of the night, but an overripe Dave Smith blows it in the bottom of the 9th. I became so belligerent I was escorted out of the tavern where I witnessed this debacle. It was the 2nd angriest I've ever been after a Cub defeat.

 

9) My 2nd visit to Wrigley, and the 2nd greatest Cub game I've watched: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=199106300CHN

 

10) Kerry Wood's 20 K game, after which I boasted "this kid will make us all forget Maddux"...well, not exactly.

 

11) Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS - if you haven't already guessed, the angriest I've ever been after a Cub loss. I shook for 3 days, I was so pissed.

 

12) Seats behind home plate for the infamous Barrett-Oswalt brouhaha in August 2004. A hot, humid day where the fans were just as heated as the players, if not moreso.

 

Will they win it in my lifetime? Who knows? But sharing these memories is the next best thing.

[Andy]

The only sporting event that has made me cry since I hit teenagerhood was Gonzo-to-Grudzie-to-Karros to win the division.

[RonnieWooWooSanto]

The only sporting event that has made me cry since I hit teenagerhood was Gonzo-to-Grudzie-to-Karros to win the division.

 

I was at that double header against Pittsburgh. It was purely electric.

 

ndistops: Your signature pic of Smarzdija(sp.) has him catching the pass with his belt unhooked. That is talent.