On October 12, 1929 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the Chicago Cubs entered the bottom of the seventh inning of Game Four of the World Series with an 8-0 lead; starter Charlie Root was cruising. A safer lead, you will rarely see in postseason competition. And it all unraveled horribly in a long rally highlighted by a fly ball lost in the sun by Hack Wilson; when the inning ended, the Cubs had let in 10 runs and trailed 10-8.
Like the 1986 Red Sox, those Cubs rallied to lead in the next game (they trailed 3-1 in the Series after Game 4), but blew that one as well, surrendering 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose 3-2. As Bill James observed, with the stock market crash following shortly thereafter, Cubs fans must have thought the world was coming to an end.
Tonight will undoubtedly bring back memories of that horror.
UPDATE: Game over, Cubs go quietly into that good night. Man, the Cubs and Red Sox both facing elimination or advancement at the same time — you can’t buy that kind of bad karma.
UPDATE: Rob Neyer also compares the game to 1929.
3 thoughts on “1929”
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nice work! i had forgotten about that. i can’t believe what i saw during that 8th inning. those 3 fans that prevented alou from making that out will now go down in history if they lose tomorrow.
If they’re lucky. They may not make it out of the park.
Talking about the 1929 series, I have a ticket for game 4 with rain ticket attached in great condition any collectors out there ? . Thanks