Tuesday Night Memories

What a strange yet special night. I had made advance plans to attend Tuesday night's Cubs-Giants game with an old friend from Scotland and his two youngsters, 12 and 14. They were quite "keen'' on the occasion, but then the weather hit and it was clear there would be a long delay, maybe a washout.

TV and radio kept hinting they might still play, but never gave a definite start time. Since I live 5 minutes away, we finally decided to head on over to Wrigley shortly before 10 PM after hearing they were removing the tarp.



In dilly-dallying we almost missed history. The cheer coming out of Wrigley as we approached Sheffield indicated something big had happened. Maddux's 1st inning K. Ouch. Cursing myself for allowing such a thing to happen. But we settled in (moving down closer to the action than our assigned seats) and were anticipating the Big Moment with everyone else, rising in our seats after two strikes. We had a great view of a vintage Maddux freezing the Giants' Vizquel for the magic number 3,000. The embrace from his teammates as he came off the mound spoke volumes for Maddux as the ultimate team guy.



There was a sustained, appreciative ovation followed by a brief curtain call for this most modest of star performers. The fact that he left the Cubs during his prime and did most of his great deeds for Atlanta did not matter now. It was as if the moment and the recognition of Maddux' incredible durability--he is not a strikeout pitcher, and here he was joining such elite company with a career milestone-- wiped away all those wasted years, wasted for Cub fans.



It was pretty amazing to see that many people still there on a weekday night after waiting out an almost three-hour delay. There is nothing more boring than killing time like that with nothing going on. The chance to be a part of history surely was why so many folks stuck around.The fact that it was so late at night--not a beer vendor in sight--now made it all the more special for me and enriched the experience for my visiting friends, the Huggans from Dunbar.



So there was a game to attend to with some import for the Cubs and their wild-card aspirations. Hoping for a hot homestand against these visitors from the very weak West division after the last three, thrilling victories.



John, my former colleague, said early on, "There won't be any balls going out tonight.'' It seemed highly unlikely. A wall of wind seemed to knock everything down in all directions, blowing mostly straight in. But the Giants Lance Niekro hit one off the LF Wall and when the wind temporarily laid down, Michael Barrett barely got one out to tie it up. John picked up on Maddux' mow-em-down efficiency in the middle innings. Still, we were both surprised to see him come back out for the eighth inning, not knowing Maddux' pitch count was so low. He claimed not to be cold at all while the rest of us wrapped ourselves in towels against the misting rain.



John's son Craig is a smart kid and I tried to educate him about baseball subtleties, such as the squeeze bunt that the Giants pulled off to score their first run. He knew about Derek Lee. He wondered about the pinch hitters and how the batting order worked; I think he just wanted us to throw Lee up there whenever we could. He got an enormous kick out of the jeering and taunting of ex-Cub Latroy Hawkins, which was pretty belligerent (I had to explain Hawkins' sorry stay in Chicago). Julie, 12, was "knackered'' and nodding off by the time the game got to extra innings and the Cubs went down around 1:15 a.m. She said she had a great time afterward.



A Giants fan sitting nearby filled me in on their problem--pitching. The hitting has been OK without Bonds. They are 15 games under .500 and would probably be leading the division if he were in the lineup regularly. He didn't think they could or should trade Jason Schmidt unless they get back two starters and two prospects. But the team seems positioned to "sell'' if it can at the trade deadline.



John asked me one question I couldn't quite answer about switch-hitters. If a player goes up there as, say, a lefty batter to start his at-bat, can he just decide to move to the other side of the plate in the middle of his at bat?? I said I didn't know, but suspected not.



We will remember this game for a long time because of Maddux and the hour it took place, not the outcome.