For this one, I’m going to set the scene first and then you can watch the video of the 30-minute chaos that followed at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs will host the Cincinnati Reds in the last of a three-game series. They had lost their first two, but entered the day in first place in the NL East with a 26-17 record, one game ahead of the second-place Phillies.
No one scored in the first inning and the Reds fell 1-2-3 in the top of the second.
In the bottom of the second inning, Leon Durham led off with a walk and Mel Hall singled to third. That brought up Ron Cey.
Then this happened (VIDEO).
What followed Ron Cey’s hit was one of the craziest scenes ever experienced at Wrigley Field. From Retrosheet’s scorecard:
Pitcher Soto ejected by 3B umpire Rippley for arguing that Cey’s apparent home run was a foul; he bumped into the referee during an argument; the decision was reversed and Cubs manager Frey was ejected by HP umpire Runge; As Soto was led back to the bench, a Wrigley Field vendor hit Soto with a glass of ice; Soto was suspended for 5 days; both teams played the rest of the game under protest; The delay for the brawl and expulsions was 32 minutes
Third base umpire Steve Rippley, who was only in his second MLB season (he eventually umpired until 2003), called Cey’s shot a home run. From Fred Mitchell’s story of the game in the Tribune:
According to crew chief Bob Engel, who was umpiring at second base, Rippley told (home plate umpire Paul) Runge: “Maybe I missed it. What did you see, Paul?
The team, including first base umpire Randy Marsh, consulted and the call was changed to a foul ball.
That infuriated Cubs manager Jim Frey and third base coach Don Zimmer, who can be seen in the video, both of whom were furious. Frey, as noted in Retrosheet’s recap, was ejected, though that didn’t stop him from returning to the field several times to continue the “discussion.”
Meanwhile, things had begun to calm down when Reds starter Mario Soto, who had a reputation for hotheading, was hit, but not just by a cup of ice, according to Mitchell:
As Soto was carried off the field kicking and screaming, a Wrigley Field vendor behind the Reds dugout threw an ice bag that hit Soto in the chest. Soto grabbed a bat and tried to chase the seller.
In a way you can’t blame Soto for that, whoever the seller was shouldn’t have done that, although grabbing a bat was a bit much.
Of Cey’s success, Mitchell wrote:
Cey’s drive bounced off the left field screen. The ball was recovered by Alsip’s Wally Altmann, a sophomore at St. Xavier College.
“The ball fouled out by about six feet,” Altmann said. “He never crossed the fence. “It wasn’t even close.”
Thanks to the Internet I was able to locate Wally Altmann, all these years later. He now lives in Florida, but he still has that ball, signed by Cey and Harry Caray. He confirmed again that the ball was foul and said, “We actually went to another game and got to meet Cey and be special guests, courtesy of WGN.”
The reason Frey got so upset was because of the revocation of the call:
“It doesn’t matter one bit,” Frey said. “It doesn’t matter even half a percent that it was a foul. If the third base umpire made a strong and final call, which he did, he should live with it. He is the man closest to the work.
“I’m 100 percent sure that if the Reds don’t come out and argue, we’ll have a three-run home run. I think he let the Reds ask him a question. I think he got an out by asking the plate umpire if he had a play. The reds intimidated him.”
“Our main goal is to get the decision right,” Engel said. “After conferring, we decided that the ball had gone wrong.”
And that’s the goal of modern replay review: to make the right calls. If such a play were to happen in 2024, it would immediately go to replay review, in this case through home run review (“bounds protocol,” as it is officially called), and with modern HD television cameras, they would get a very good Watch it and make the right decision in a minute or two. The video you see here doesn’t really show exactly where the ball crossed the foul post, but given Wally Altmann’s testimony, the referees got it right.
So instead of a three-run homer, Cey had simply fouled out. Among other things, it took the maintenance staff about 10 minutes to remove all the trash thrown onto the field from the stands. When play resumed, Cey finally lined out to the shortstop for one out, and the Cubs did not score in the inning.
After the Reds took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the fourth and sixth, the Cubs took a 3-2 lead with a three-run sixth, with runs batted in by Ryne Sandberg (double), Gary Matthews ( simple) and Keith. Moreland (sacrifice fly). But the Reds managed single runs in the eighth and ninth, and although Jody Davis doubled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, putting the tying run in scoring position, Richie Hebner struck out to end the game.
One more note about this game, which you can see if you watch the full game video below, is that the Cubs starter was Dennis Eckersley, wearing number 40 instead of his familiar number 43. Eckersley had been acquired in a trade with the Reds. Sox just two days earlier and this was his first start in a Cubs uniform. He could have been forgiven for thinking: “What did I get myself into?” after this crazy fight. Eckersley pitched a complete game in a losing effort that afternoon.
As for the unusual number, at the time of the trade Don Schulze, a rookie right-hander, was wearing number 43. Schulze was sent to the minors shortly after and Eckersley regained number 43, which he would wear for the rest of his Hall. of the fame race. Meanwhile, Schulze would soon be part of a very important trade with the 1984 Cubs.
This crazy argument and fight happened 40 years ago today, Sunday, May 27, 1984. Here’s the full game:
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