Sandberg, the Chicago Cubs great and Baseball Hall of Famer, who died on Monday at 65, after a lengthy battle with cancer, was batting in the third inning against San Francisco Giants lefty Bob Knepper, with the score knotted at 1-1.
I was there because my high school Pop Quiz team had won a regional competition sponsored by a Valley radio station that qualified us for a national tournament being held that year in Lake Forest, Ill., just up the road from Chicago.
Our faculty sponsors, Anne Lewis and Diana Beam, led the fund-raising campaign to get us there, and made sure to include some money for us to experience the Windy City.
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I remember that we ate at a restaurant in Little Italy, did some museum-y things, and then there were the two trips to Wrigley – for a doubleheader on a Saturday afternoon where we saw a young Greg Maddux get shellacked in Game 1, and then the Memorial Day game with the Giants.
Our seats were down the left-field line – we called them “Ferris Bueller seats,” because it felt like we were in the general area where the kids in the movie had been on their day off.
Sandberg, in his third inning AB, connected on a Knepper fastball, sending a drive toward us and our seats near the foul pole that the third-base ump, Bill Hohn, ruled fair, and thus a home run.
Giants manager Roger Craig bolted out of the visitors’ dugout, initiating a lengthy discussion that continued after he was ushered away by the crew chief, Harry Wendelstedt.
The umps conferred for another couple of minutes, then Wendelstedt started waving his arms, signaling that the call had been changed, from fair ball and home run, to foul ball.
I remember, as all of this was going on, a beer hawker came over to where I was sitting with my buddy, Scott McGuffin, and asked us if the ball was fair or not.
I told him, confidently, that, no, it was foul, which, as I’ve done research on this today, for the first time, because I hadn’t thought about this game in years, the newspaper accounts report that TV replays indicated the ball was fair.
We didn’t have access to the TV replays, and neither did the umps or Don Zimmer, the Cubs manager, but Zimmer, predictably, went ballistic.
What I remember is Zimmer arguing vehemently for at least a couple of minutes, and picking up third base and flinging it about 30 feet toward left field.
The media accounts that I found today don’t offer up that degree of detail, but one did relate that he took his cap off and throwing it into the stands after he was ejected.
This is from the UPI wire story reporting on the game, which the Cubbies went on to win, 5-1:
“From my point of view, I can’t tell if it’s fair or foul,” Zimmer said. “If it’s foul, No. 1, the guy behind the plate would’ve said something. He (the catcher, Terry Kennedy) said nothing.
“Wendlestedt and (second base umpire) Joe West, who’ve got worse views than you or I, called it foul,” Zimmer said. “I came in here and watched the replay in slow motion five times, and the ball was fair.”
“From my point of view, it was foul,” Wendlestedt said. “Zim said, ‘You cost me two runs.’ I can understand – he’s trying to win a pennant, but we’ve got to get the play right.
“From my angle – I saw it from first – the ball never got to the pole.”
Which is what West, who gave Zimmer the heave-ho, told Sandberg.
“I don’t know,” Sandberg said. “I went 15, 20 feet up the line and I couldn’t tell. The umpire at third base had the best angle. That’s the way he called it.”
Ryno went on to single, one of his two hits in two official ABs on the day – he was also intentionally walked twice.
That 1990 season would be Sandberg’s career year – 40 homers, 100 RBIs, a .306 batting average and .913 OPS, and he won another of his nine Gold Gloves.
Don Zimmer would tell you he should have had another homer and two RBIs to add to that career year.
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Chris Graham
