Billy Hatcher’s fifth ledger anchors the story of a couple crazy days at Wrigley

Welcome to the first installment of Club Chronicles! Ledger home runs are more than just entries in a completed log. In this series we will celebrate players who are not in a v-Club but whose ledger hits and ledger misses illustrate improbable scenarios, quirky happenstances, firsts, lasts, and all the other bits that make baseball magic.

This week was the 38th anniversary of an infamous game played at Wrigley Field that started on one day and concluded the next. Billy Hatcher smacked a ledger home run that is notable in almost every regard except the fact it was hit by Billy Hatcher.

The stage was set like many games played before on Chicago’s north side.

Match-up: The NL West leading Houston Astros (74-57) visit the struggling Cubs (55-76, 5th in the NL East). It’s the second game of a three game series.

Date: Tuesday, September 2, 1986

First pitch: 3:05 p.m. Central Time

Probables: Future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan takes the mound for Houston. He faces off against Cubs rookie and future ageless wonder, Jamie Moyer, who is making his twelfth career start.

Umpire: Home plate is manned by the notorious “Cowboy Joe” West.1

Weather: Seemed nice enough

Sunset: 7:23 p.m. Central Time

The first eight innings were standard issue baseball. Each team scored three runs. Nolan Ryan twirled seven innings of four-hit ball while Moyer went six innings. Relievers kept it tied. Harry Caray sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh inning stretch, as was tradition. The scoring went as follows:

Top 2nd – Nolan Ryan grounds out SS-1B (Dunston to Durham), Alan Ashby scores. HOU 1, CHC 0.

Bottom 3rd – Chris Speier homers to deep left field (6, not a ledger). HOU 1, CHC 1.

Top 6 – Glenn Davis homers (27, not a ledger). HOU 2, CHC 1. Alan Ashby singles, Kevin Bass scores. HOU 3, CHC 1.

Bottom 7th – Leon Durham homers to deep right field (15, not a ledger), Keith Moreland scores. HOU 3, CHC 3.

The only notable happening in the eighth inning was Cubs skipper Gene Michael tinkering with his lineup looking to get a late-inning upper hand.

Cubs closer Lee Smith took the mound in the ninth to try to hold the tie. He retired the first two Astros he faced then allowed a single, steal, walk, and double to score a run. Houston finished the inning up 4-3.

It was now the Astros turn to do some lineup churn. Charlie Kerfeld came out to start the ninth and allowed a single to Jerry Mumphrey. The Cubs sent in pinch runner Bob Dernier who promptly stole second off new Astros pitcher Larry Andersen. Keith Moreland grounded out moving Dernier to third base. Leon Durham was walked intentionally. Dave Smith relieved Larry Andersen. Chico Walker pinch ran for Leon Durham and stole second. With runners now on second and third, Jody Davis sent a ball to the center fielder, scoring Dernier on the sacrifice fly. Lots of small ball that used up a lot of players, but the Cubs had tied it again at 4-4.

The tenth inning went quietly with Matt Keough of the Astros pitching his first inning of five for the afternoon. He played for the Cubs earlier in the season! Also, did you know this was the first game WGN-TV broadcast in stereo? They were getting their money’s worth today!

In the eleventh, the Astros pinch hit for Ty Gainey, who had been swapped in during the mess of the bottom of the ninth, with Billy Hatcher. El Hatcho flew out to left. No runs scored.

Now with the Cubs batting, pitchers were doing everything but pitching. Rick Sutcliffe pinch hit. Scott Sanderson pinch ran. It was getting late. The 3:05 p.m. start was beginning to ominously loom over the park.

They played the twelfth inning. No hits. No runs. Remember, Wrigley Field would not install stadium lights until 1988.

They played the thirteenth inning. One hit. No runs. It was well after 6:00 pm and twilight was creeping in.

They played the top of the fourteenth. Three groundouts. It was time for the second edition of the seventh inning stretch. Harry Caray led the remaining faithful in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Again.

They played the bottom of the fourteenth and there was nothing cooking at all. The game was suspended at 7:13 p.m. on account of it being too dark to play. Contemporary accounts claimed that it was realistically too dark to play any baseball after 5 p.m. at Wrigley. Might explain why no one was getting a hit.

The game was set to resume at 12:10 p.m. on September 3rd. The potential rubber game of the series was scheduled for 1:20 p.m. Talk about wishful thinking.

The next day, in the broadcast booth, Harry Caray joked about the early start time. He was looking for ice cold orange juice to go with some ham and eggs. Steve Stone remarked the wind was blowing out as play resumes. At this point the teams had combined to use 44 different players, 22 per side.

Steve Trout of the Cubs and Bob Knepper of the Astros each pitch two innings of scoreless baseball to get us through the sixteenth inning. Ron Cey burned another used player when he batted for Trout in the bottom of the sixteenth.

Let’s get to some action in the seventeenth inning! Dave Gumpert came in to pitch for the Cubs and faced pinch hitter Bill Doran first. He coaxed a groundout. That was followed by a walk and single. Then another single by Dan Driessen scoreed Jim Pankovitz. Then another single by Kevin Bass scored Denny Walling. Then Driessen scored on a groundout by Jose Cruz. Houston now lead 7-4 and the teams have burned through 49 players.

Things were looking grim for the Cubs but they struck hard and struck fast against Julio Solano in the bottom of the inning. Ryne Sandberg walked. Bob Dernier knocked a double. Keith Moreland stepped up and cleared the bases with a home run that landed in the basket just over the 368’ mark in left center. They were tied again. HOLY COW!

Moreland’s home run prompted three things. The first is a Steve Stone comment that went out over the airwaves (in day two of stereo!) that suggested to viewers they won’t see many three-run home runs in the seventeenth inning that don’t win a baseball game. You’re in my wheelhouse now, Stoney!

In the Stathead era (from 1912 onward), there had been 118 three-run home runs hit by a home team in an extra inning. That’s in any extra inning, not just the seventeenth. 114 of those were walk-offs, 3 tied the game, and the last one brought the team to within one run. Stone was correct that you don’t see many 3-run, non-walk-off home runs hit in the seventeenth, because this was the very first one. In fact, only one home run on the list came later in a game than the seventeenth – a walk-off by Dick Allen hit in the bottom of the 21st inning on May 26, 1973.

The second thing that came from the Moreland home run was the Cubs needed to keep another pitcher warming in the bullpen in case they didn’t score more runs. The inning continued – Julio Solano stayed on the mound and got Manny Trillo to fly out but then Jody Davis singled.

The third thing was in order to protect the tie Danny Darwin relieved Solano. As Darwin threw his warm-up pitches the Cubs PA announcer reported to all in attendance – the Astros and Cubs had tied the major league record for most players used in a game with 51.

Darwin struck out Gary Matthews but gave up a single to Shawon Dunston.

Now the Cubs were in a pickle. At second base was their everyday catcher Jody Davis who spent another three innings behind the plate after a marathon day yesterday. Fresh legs would be appreciated. So in a logical move, Gene Michael had the pitcher who had been warming up come in and run for Davis. Due up at the plate was pitcher Dave Gumpert, who in all likelihood wasn’t going to drive in a winning run in only his sixth career major league plate appearance. So Mike Martin came in to pinch hit.

Even if you’re a die-hard Cubs fan the name Mike Martin may not ring a bell. Martin had spent eight seasons kicking around the minor leagues, mostly for Padres affiliates. He made it to Triple-A in 1983 through 1985. The Cubs acquired him in a January 1986 trade for two minor leaguers and he had spent his entire season, up to August, at Double-A Pittsfield. The Cubs still used him sparingly in his backup role.

I wish I could tell you that Mike Martin’s only career MLB hit came in this game. It did not. He instead grounded out to second base to end the seventeenth inning. Martin’s career ended after 1986 with 13 at bats in 8 games and only a single hit.2

Anyway, if you’re keeping track the Astros and Cubs had now set the major league record for most players used in a game with players 52 (the pinch runner) and 53 (Mike Martin). Mike Scott was going to start the game later that afternoon for the Astros and was off limits. The Cubs Dennis Eckersley was somewhere in the stadium and there were a couple other relievers that might have been available3. Otherwise most everyone had been played or was playing. Also, I promise we are getting close to the ledger. I swear.

But first, let’s talk about that pitcher who had been warming up then came in to pinch run. The always prescient Steve Stone quipped (paraphrased), “how often is a pitcher’s debut as a pinch runner?” I won’t fact check Stone this time because if he said it, it was probably not often. The more important trivia here is who that pitcher was.

He was a September call-up from Triple-A Iowa and he had won ten games in a row leading up to his promotion. He looked like a promising 21-year-old pitcher. How much longer can I stretch this out? It was Greg Maddux. Greg Maddux made his major league debut in a meaningless (for the Cubs) early September game as a pinch runner.

But more important to the situation at hand, Maddux would have this game for a while, because he was one of the few pitchers left. Oh, I forgot to mention, but you may have figured it out – Mike Martin was a backup catcher. The Cubs would play at least this inning with a battery that had exactly three games of MLB experience combined.4

Maddux kicked off the 18th inning by cajoling a groundout from Craig Reynolds. In stepped El Hatcho. Billy Hatcher deposited the last of four straight fast balls halfway up the bleachers in left center field. It was the first home run he hit against his former team. The story continues below, but for a deeper dive about home runs like Hatcher’s please follow the footnote.5

Maddux would finish the inning with a pop foul and his first career strikeout. Just as the ledger was Billy Hatcher’s first against the Cubs, it was Maddux’s first ledger/home run/hit allowed ever. The game would also end with Maddux’s first loss.

The Cubs had fought back a few times in the game, but in the bottom of the eighteenth Danny Darwin got Brian Dayett, Ryne Sandberg, and Bob Dernier to all fly out. The game was over after five hours and fourteen minutes. There was no time for sadness. The next game was already supposed to start. So it did. And the Astros won, sweeping the Cubs ending a whirlwind 24-ish hours in Wrigleyville.

SOURCES AND FURTHER WATCHING AND READING

The internet is an amazing thing. This article would not exist if Tik Tok hadn’t been serving me lots of Harry Caray content lately. Go take a look at user dudestalgia and their many vintage videos. Especially this one from this particular game: