Usually, I run just one sleuthing photo a day on the weekends during the offseason but I came across this one recently and it was too good to pass up. So let’s do a bit of baseball sleuthing as we wait for today’s Super Bowl to begin.
Here we have brothers Joe and Phil Niekro posing at Wrigley Field. The scoreboard is visible, just barely, and only the NL side.
Joe Niekro pitched for the Cubs in 1967 and 1968, and for a few weeks in 1969 before he was traded to the Padres. So that does narrow things down, a bit. The Joe Niekro trade happened before the Braves visited Wrigley Field in 1969, so that year is eliminated.
That would still leave 18 possible dates, as the Braves played nine games at Wrigley in both 1967 and 1968.
I didn’t have to look at a single box score to figure this out, though I did have to check league schedules. Here’s how this one went.
First, the style of road uniform Phil Niekro is wearing wasn’t worn by the Braves before 1968. So that eliminates 1967.
Now, we can’t see much of the board but here’s a portion that we can see, enlarged:
It’s blurry and pixellated but that doesn’t matter. If you are familiar with the Wrigley Field board and how games are designated, it’s 100 percent clear that the white squares in the games above and below the Cubs score line (and that one was in the middle in the 1960s) read NO GAME.
Thus, the Cubs and Braves were the only NL game being played on the day this photo was taken.
So, as I said, I didn’t have to look at a single box score to figure this one out, just the daily schedules. The only day that year that the Cubs and Braves played at Wrigley and were the only NL game was Thursday, April 25, 1968.
In those days, photographers didn’t cover every single game as they do now, and especially not on a chilly April weekday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The reason this photo was taken is very likely the fact that the brothers had pitched against each other in the series opener, Tuesday, April 23. It was the first time the Niekros had faced each other at Wrigley; it had happened once previously in Atlanta, July 4, 1967.
Joe was the winner that day, allowing four runs in eight innings. The Cubs scored five off Phil in three innings and won 10-4. The reason this photo had to wait until Thursday the 25th was that the Wednesday, April 24 game had been postponed because it was 39 degrees and snowing that day in Chicago.
The Cubs won the April 25 game 5-2. Fergie Jenkins threw a complete game and Ron Santo homered twice in front of just 4,399 on another chilly day, with a temperature around 50.
The Joe Niekro trade was one of the worst in Cubs history. Joe had thrown a complete-game shutout in his first 1969 start against the Expos, but then posted a 6.97 ERA in his next three starts, not getting out of the fifth inning in any of them. In a fit of pique, Leo Durocher wanted him traded and GM John Holland obliged him.
Yes, the Cubs got Dick Selma in the deal, and Selma was competent for the Cubs, not to mention fun with his bullpen antics. Selma was traded (with Oscar Gamble) to the Phillies after 1969 for Johnny Callison, another bad trade. Callison didn’t do much for the Cubs and Selma had an outstanding year for Philly in 1970 as a multi-inning reliever, posting 22 saves and 5.2 bWAR in 73 games and 134.1 innings.
Meanwhile, Niekro went on to pitch 19 more seasons for the Tigers, Astros, Braves, Yankees and Twins. He was a teammate of his brother’s in Atlanta in 1973 and 1974, finished in the top three of Cy Young voting in 1979 and 1980 and got a World Series ring with the Twins in 1987. He had 221 career wins and was one of the better starters of his time.
Just another little slice of Cubs history.
