August 10, 1988: Mets at Cubs

It was August 1988, and our family was on summer vacation in Chicago at a historic time. The first-ever night game at Wrigley Field had taken place earlier in the week.

We had bleacher tickets for two afternoon games: Wednesday, August 10th, and Thursday, August 11th, both against the rival New York Mets.

The Mets were in first place in the National League East, only two years removed from their memorable 1986 world championship team. New York had a star-filled roster with the likes of Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, and Lenny Dykstra.

To jog my memory, I looked up the boxscores online. I even found the recap and some video of the August 11th game.

I was surprised I didn't remember the Mets winning 9-6 when Mets outfielder Kevin McReynolds hit a ninth-inning grand slam off the Cub's 37-year-old Hall of Fame closer Goose Gossage.

I didn't recall Mets Hall of Famer Gary Carter hitting his 300th home run that day.

Or that Gooden had started for the Mets, a young fireballer who had gone an incredible 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA to win the 1985 NL Cy Young only a few seasons before.

No, what I remember most from those two days at Wrigley was something that didn't even happen during the games.

Some Better Action

On that first day, we arrived super early to Wrigleyville and waited on Waveland for the gates to open. Being near the front of the line helped us get first-row bleacher seats in right field, giving us a terrific view of two talented all-stars: Darryl Strawberry of the Mets and reigning NL MVP Andre Dawson of the Cubs.

It rained before the game, delaying the start by several hours. But the sun eventually emerged, bringing muggy 90-degree-plus weather with it.

My younger brothers and I stared out at the field, wondering when the Cubs ground crew was going to remove the bright blue tarp and get the game going.

Then, out of nowhere, a bare-chested, bare-footed man in his late 20s walked down the steps and sat down in the middle of the aisle right next to us.

We gave him uneasy smiles, unsure of what he was up to.

The man sensed our nervousness and laughed, saying that he was at the game with his friends, nodding back to five guys drinking beer about ten rows behind us.

He explained that each of his buddies would pay him $20 if he jumped onto the outfield grass, ran to the infield, and crawled through the giant tube used to roll up the tarp.

The man looked around to make sure none of the ushers were tracking him. He then stood up and surveyed the chain-link fence basket along the top of the outfield wall.

The purpose of the basket is to prevent fans from reaching over and interfering with fly balls in play. But to this guy, it was the first obstacle blocking his quest to win $100.

The man drank his beer while nervously chatting with my little brother as he psyched himself up for the challenge.

Then all of a sudden, he chugged his beer and swiveled his head around to make sure the coast was clear.

He sprang to his feet with a grin and said, "Here goes nothing," and leaped off the top of the wall.

Unfortunately, he caught his left foot on the chain-link basket on his jump. As his bare feet landed on the plush outfield grass, he grasped his left ankle in pain but quickly shook it off, likely powered by liquid courage.

While enduring the rain delay, the Wrigley Field crowd had grown restless.

The fans were looking for any source of entertainment, and our new drunken friend provided an instant remedy to their boredom.

The stadium began to buzz as more people noticed the gutsy trespasser.

Three overweight Cubs security guards jogged out to apprehend the man and take him off the field.

Emboldened by the fans' support, the man started waving his arms, darting around the outfield.

He quickly sensed his agility advantage over the Cubs security staff.

The man would allow his pursuers to close in on him and then juke like a young Walter Payton, leaving them in his wake.

The security guards started to slip and slide in the grass, to the crowd's delight.

As the security guards leaned over to catch their breath, our fellow bleacher bum decided it was time to make his move for the tarp roller.

He sprinted to the infield and ducked down as he reached the end of the roll, ready to make his trip through the tube.

But there was a big problem with his plan.

The tube wasn't hollow in the middle; there was no way through it.

None of us realized this because of the tube's position down the third baseline. From our seats in the right-field bleachers, we didn't have a good view of either end of the roller to know it was completely solid.

Our fearless friend quickly pivoted and jumped on the tube, hopping across the top of it like he was riding a horse.

The Wrigley Field faithful howled in laughter.

By this time, Cubs security had sent reinforcements. The man was about halfway across the roller before he had to jump off to avoid capture.

As he disembarked from the tube, he sidestepped a guard and then bolted for the short brick wall just past the first base dugout.

The man easily hurdled the wall and raced up the stadium steps as he faded into the concourse with guards coming at him from every direction.

With the pre-game ruckus over, we had a quick laugh and then headed to the concession stand to kill some time before the first pitch.

An Amusing Ending

The game finally started, and our attention turned to baseball.

The Cubs jumped out to a 6-0 lead after four innings before the Mets struck back for four runs in the fifth off the Cubs 22-year-old pitcher, a future Hall of Famer named Greg Maddux.

Maddux would get out of that inning but have to leave in the sixth after taking a Met line drive off his right forearm.

We sat down after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with Harry Caray when we suddenly heard someone yelling in our direction from the concourse along the first base line.

Everyone in our section looked at each other, unaware of what was happening.

We then noticed a nearby usher shaking his head in disbelief with a big smile on his face.

My dad asked the usher what was going on. The friendly black man informed us that the fan hollering at us was the drunken fan who had run out onto the field prior to the game.

The security guards had caught him and taken him to the Chicago police station down the street. But someone had quickly bailed him out, and he had re-entered the stadium to catch the rest of the game.

I had to look at the box score online to see that the Cubs held on for a 6-5 win.

But the adventures of the crazy bleacher bum are etched in my memory forever.

Ray Craig
www.midwestsense.com