Padres-Cubs Will Finish Unfinished Business July 8

Harry Caray, wearing the hood of his damp Chicago Cub rain poncho, did a quasi-post game radio show early Sunday evening.

For this was a game still is not completed. Caray, the voice of Chicago, thanked all the mom’s and dad’s for taking their kids out to the ballgame. And he told them all to come back July 8th, when this quasi-game would become a completed game.

As it stands, Sunday’s Cub-Padre game has been suspended. The Cubs led, 4-2, after six innings when umpires decided (a) it was too dark and (b) it was too wet. The game had been scheduled for 1:20 p.m. CDT, but it didn’t end (and it really hasn’t ended yet) until 6:07 p.m.

The details: Just as the Cubs were about to take the field at 1:20, it began to rain. The start was delayed 11 minutes.

The game began then, and Cub starter Steve Trout threw four pitches before it rained again, this time heavily, this time hard enough that most fans put on their Cub ponchos, given to them free since it was fittingly “Poncho Day.”

So the players, the fans, the umpires sat for one hour and 37 minutes. Finally, the game began again at 3:08. The Padres led 1-0 on Steve Garvey’s RBI single, but the Cubs came back to score two runs off of LaMarr Hoyt, highlighted by a Ryne Sandberg triple and a Leon Durham RBI single.

At 4:13, as the Cubs had the bases loaded, it rained again. Shawn Dunston was up. The umpires stopped it.

So the fans, the players, the umpires sat again, feeling restless and useless. A Harry Caray imposter snuck into the press box and imitated him, saying over a microphone: “Holy Cow! Take me out to the ballgame.” Caray, disturbed, looked up to see whom the imposter had been, and then wound up singing: “Rain, Rain, Go Away . . . The little Cubbies want to play.”

He was cheered on by the crowd, the largest at Wrigley Field this season ( 36,388), and went on to say: “How ‘bout these rain ponchos. Pretty good, huh?”

Later, a young man ran onto the field, doing a belly slide on the tarp. He was chased and arrested by police.

And there was Hoyt, who had wanted to do so well in this his former city, sitting quietly in the dugout, watching raindrops fall on people’s head, watching the people.

“I did it to clear my mind,” Hoyt said. “In that situation, I don’t want to think about pitching. I’ll relax and clear my mind.”

Consequently, he said he felt stronger than he had all season when the game finally began again, one hour, 12 minutes later.

He struck Dunston out on a slow breaking ball, ending the fourth inning.

By the fifth inning, though, the grass here had been properly watered and was quite tall. So the Padres capitalized, getting three infield hits, scoring one run. It was tied, 2-2.

In the meantime, it was getting late. And, remember, there are no lights here. With Leon Durham on base, Keith Moreland hit a Luis DeLeon (he replaced Hoyt in the sixth) pitch into the left field bleachers, and the Cubs led by two.

After that inning, the sixth, managers Jim Frey and Dick Williams met with the umpire crew. Williams said it was getting a little dark. Frey said: “My guy (Moreland) saw the ball pretty good.”

But they suspended the game, to be picked up on July 8 when the Padres come in town again.

Said Frey: “I can’t argue too much. In their (the umpires) judgment, it was dangerous.”

Said Williams: “There are three innings left. Both sides are getting a fair shake.”

Finally, Moreland, who has the game winning RBI for now, said: “People want to come see ballgames. They want it played, we want it played and the other team wants it played. But sometimes you can’t allow it . . . I thought it was very dangerous to play today.”