There's so much that happened in this game that it is almost pointless to try to summarize it. Instead, I'll simply add some thoughts beyond the play-by-play:
- Sometimes our memories glorify athletes, and then when we see them in antique video, they don't impress. Not so with Ozzie Smith at shortstop. He glided. He made two very nice plays to his right, and his throws were effortless.
- Tony Kubek (NBC color commentator) quoted Smith's manager, Whitey Herzog, as saying Ozzie saved his team 100 runs a season. Smith was good, but not THAT good. He saved about 200 runs over his career.
- This was Sandberg's third multi-home run game of his career. He had just done it about three weeks prior at Philadelphia, and he would do it another 22 times in his career after this game against St. Louis. Although Sandberg got 6 PAs with Philly in 1981, he really began his career at the start of 1982 with the Cubbies, and he hit his first home run in the Cubs 15th game of the season. He also hit his second home run in that game! So his first game with a homer in the majors was his first multi-homer game.
- This was the only game in his career that Willie McGee hit for the cycle. It was actually harder for McGee to get the homer portion than the triple portion. He had 94 career triples and 79 career homers.
- The Cubs outfield was Keith Moreland (rf), Bob Dernier (cf) and Gary "Sarge" Matthews (lf). Tony Kubek described their arms as good, good and average, respectively. I remember Matthews having a poor arm. I checked his arm ratings, though, and he was in fact average, although he was otherwise not a good fielder. I checked the other two guys. Dernier was a decent outfielder, but his arm was average, not good. Moreland was a poor outfielder, with a slightly below average arm.
- The game was won on a single by backup shortstop Dave Owen. He was the last position player the Cubs had on the bench. Dave was indicative of the 1980s shortstop. Although taller than average (6'2"), he weighed only 170 pounds. He had an open stance, with a sort of weak-armed look. And he got weak-armed results. He compiled only 155 plate appearances in four seasons of play with a miserable 533 OPS. He had absolutely no power or batting eye. Must have been great on defense, right? Nope, just average.
- Dave Owen was the least likely hero for the Cubs. A Retrosheet search shows this was the only game winning RBI of his career.
- Dave's "little" brother Spike played for 13 seasons with five different clubs. Spike was three years younger, and four inches shorter, but weighed the same. He was known, at the time, for his defense, but his Total Zone rating has him at -23 runs for his career. He was a weak hitter too (665 OPS), but managed in 1992 (729 OPS) and 1994 (840 OPS) to be fairly productive. Unlike Dave, who was taken in the 10th round out of UT-Arlington, Spike was the 6th overall pick out of the storied University of Texas program.
- Spike also had only one game winning RBI in his career. He was playing for the Expos against the Giants in a 1989 contest, when he singled to right center field off of Atlee Hammaker with two outs in the 9th to plate Mike Fitzgerald. Actually, it was a single only because it was the game winner. It was a deep fly to right center -- almost certainly a double or triple at any other stage of the game.
