Dennis Lamp was the Cubs’ third-round pick in 1971 out of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, the same school that eventually produced Nomar Garciaparra.
Lamp moved steadily through the Cubs farm system, eventually getting noticed when he was part of a 1974 Cubs farm team in Key West, Florida that went 37-94, yet produced four good MLB pitchers: Lamp, Bruce Sutter, Donnie Moore and Mike Krukow. Lamp posted a 1.47 ERA in eight starts for Key West, was promoted to Double-A and by mid-1977 found himself in the major leagues.
That’s when Jack Brickhouse wound up making one of the first “Dad jokes” ever when Lamp took the mound at lightless Wrigley Field on a cloudy day and Brickhouse stated on the WGN broadcast, “It’s pretty dark out there even though there’s a Lamp on the mound!