We're only ever going to remember the Field of Dreams Game for one thing

For a gimmicky game played in a cornfield by two really bad teams, the first two hours plus of the Field of Dreams game between the Cubs and Reds went about as well as anybody could have hoped.

The weather was great, the field and the corn (oh the corn!) looked immaculate. The Cubs uniforms with the toilet squatting bear on them looked really nice (even if those Red Sox numbers were disorienting), the Reds looked like they should be selling ice cream at a theme park and the Cubs were playing well. Hell, Nick Madrigal got three hits.

Joe Davis and John Smoltz were doing the game for FOX. Joe got so excited about Madrigal’s third hit that he said it pushed his average over .300. Well, close. .250. Is fifty points a lot? Seems like a lot.

Joey Votto was mic’d for an inning and he was great. Ian Happ was mic’d for an inning and thankfully it was a quick one so he didn’t get a chance to work in any promos for his coffee, or his hair plugs or an extended car warranty.

All in all it was a pleasant night for once watching baseball.

Oh, and FOX did some hokey old timey stuff for the game, but the score box they designed for it was great.

A really cool touch was that whenever anything changed on it, they had an animation that made it look like a tile was being replaced on an old fashioned scoreboard. I’ve been complaining about the Marquee score box since they debuted it. Why wouldn’t they design something that mimics a famous scoreboard…you know like the one that looms over centerfield in their own park? Nah.

But anyway, things were going great.

Until.

We were warned earlier in the day that FOX had been testing a hologram version of Harry that was deemed “possibly offensive.”

So, did they scrap the idea? Nope. Their solution was, “Hey this thing looks awful and is pretty disrespectful, so let’s just shoot it from a distance and only zoom in for a second or two at a time. Maybe nobody will notice.”

“It looks like former Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev.” “Really? Thanks. That’s what we were going for. And, we made his glasses look more like a scuba mask!”

Oh, we noticed. And honestly, it’s the only thing we’re going to remember from the game. Every other thing they did, including the cool open with the Ken Griffeys coming out of the corn is forgotten now. All we’ll ever think of is whatever the hell that Harry Caray thing was supposed to be.

Oh, and this.

That’s our buddy Tob Manford, the commissioner, finally getting asked by a kid to sign a baseball and not being able to resist the urge to show the kid that his signature is already on it. What a guy. The kid’s likely from Iowa, so I’m sure Tob signed, “Dear Billy, Enjoy the blackouts! Rob.”

Anyway, for the Cubs the last fun thing of the season just happened (hell, the only fun thing of the season). So that’s…great?

Podcast - Remember This Crap? 1993 Cubs

The 1993 Cubs did something rare at the time, they had a winning record. Even more rare for the Cubs, they had a winning record and didn’t make the playoffs.

Oh, and they rewarded their manager by firing him. Probably because they were tired of trying to remember how to spell Lefebvre.

They let Greg Maddux go and acted like it was a genius move to use his money to sign four guys…only one of whom was worth a damn.

We relive Maddux’s return to Wrigley and Jose Guzman’s near no-hitter–and those were just the first two games of the season! Sammy Sosa went 30-30 and made Ron Santo mad (which was worth it.)

Rick Wilkins had one of the greatest offensive seasons by a Cubs catcher ever and we debunk the idea that it was his fault he only drove in 73 runs on 30 homers.

Fans threw Randy Myers’ posters on the field, Shawon Dunston made a triumphant late season return and Ryne Sandberg got paid and then broke his wrist. All that and much more.

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WGN knew what to sell with Greg out of town…a very non-hologram Harry

This Week in Baseball on Turk Wendell

Mark Grace hits for the cycle on May 9, 1993 (no Cub has done it since)

Greg Maddux’s return (you bastards booed him…I didn’t…I was drunk in a dorm room)
Check out the season opening montage. Arne used a Carole King song. He knew how to get everybody fired up.

Part Two