It’s late September at Wrigley Field, Game 158 of another lost season for the Chicago Cubs, playing out the string on a Wednesday afternoon in front of a “throng” of 2,113 souls.
Team aces Tom Seaver and Rick Reuschel are on the mound for the Cubs and the Mets.
Seaver starts mowing Cubs down, though not quite as well as he did in July 1969 when Jimmy Qualls broke up a perfect game bid in the ninth inning. This time, five Cubs drew walks off Seaver.
But Reuschel was nearly as good. Through nine innings, the Cubs righthander had allowed just four hits, and the game went scoreless to the bottom of the ninth.