Here are two Cubs from the last decade who you likely remember well, Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin. This is another photo courtesy BCB reader Clark Addison.
They are standing together at Wrigley Field, apparently just waiting. There’s no one else on the field, the umpires appear to be having some sort of meeting, and the batter — who has to be a visiting player since Castro and Colvin are wearing their fielder’s gloves — has just walked. We’re somewhere in the middle of the game, as the pitch count says 66.
Advertisement
The next clue is the lights. This is obviously a night game and the lights have… mostly gone out. So the “waiting” is happening because of a power failure of some sort at the ballpark.
I zoomed into the visitors’ dugout to see if I could identify that team. It’s the Dodgers.
Tyler Colvin played for the Cubs in 2010 and 2011. There is only one No. 33 for the Dodgers who played any games at Wrigley Field in those two years. Oddly enough, that’s a guy who would be traded to the Cubs later in 2010, Blake DeWitt.
Then it just took a bit of googling to find out when there was a power outage at Wrigley in 2010.
Advertisement
The lights went out at Wrigley Field and the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cubs was delayed 18 minutes Wednesday night after power lines came in contact with tree branches, causing a power outage.
A bank of lights behind home plate went out as Cubs starter Tom Gorzelanny released a 3-1 pitch to Blake DeWitt in the fourth inning. Home plate umpire Wally Bell called the pitch a ball and granted DeWitt first base on the walk. As DeWitt was jogging down the first-base line, the rest of the stadium lights went out.
So there’s the whole story. This photo was obviously taken shortly after that, as players waited for the lights to come back on, and as noted in the quote above, they eventually did.
The Cubs trailed 5-2 when the lights went out. Eventually they closed the gap to 7-5 after eight, but a Casey Blake homer off James Russell gave the Dodgers an 8-5 lead and that was the final score.
The Cubs were 22-25 after this loss and in third place in the NL Central, five games behind the Reds, who eventually won it. The Cubs finished 75-87, in fifth place.
