Here's a fun pop culture kinda fake anniversary that is loosely related to baseball (yes, it's a slow news day ... Why do you ask?). It was on this day 30 years ago that the Cubs played the Braves in Wrigley Field and the scenes for the comedy classic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, were filmed.
How do we know? A few years ago, Baseball Prospectus did the leg work (hat-tip: For the Win):
The movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was released on June 11, 1986. The ballgame then must have been filmed either real early in the 1986 season or sometime during 1985. Looking at game logs from those seasons, we see that there was no game in 1986 in which Lee Smith (#46) faced the Braves at Wrigley Field. There were four such games in '85, though Smith left the Braves hitless in one of those. Of the remaining three games, it isn't hard to find the game we're looking for.
Ferris Bueller and his pals were at the June 5, 1985, tilt between the Cubs and the Braves. The foul ball that Ferris caught was hit by Atlanta rightfielder Claudell Washington (#15) in the top of the 11th inning. The game was tied at two (not scoreless, like the pizza guy claimed) and backup second-baseman Paul Zuvella (#18) was being held on first by Leon Durham (#10) after a leadoff single (the fourth hit of the game, and Atlanta's first hit since the fifth). Washington would end his at-bat with a flyball to leftfielder Davey Lopes. The next batter, Rafael Ramirez, would wind up hitting a two-run home run and the Braves would go on to win 4-2. The movie, however, cut away before that happened.
Sadly, we don't have pitch-by-pitch data for the game, so we can't verify all the details presented in the movie (an 0-2 foul ball from Washington and then a bunt foul? Was that a bunt by Ramirez before his home run swing?). I have no reason to doubt that they are correct, though.
Here's the scene, though unfortunately the only YouTube I could find is a mirror image of the actual movie.
It's kind of fun in a way, right? When the ball is hit to left field, it looks like it's going to right, etc. I just wonder how or why that's the one time the scene made it onto YouTube, but I guess it's not that important.
Anyway, I know this made your day. It's very important. Now enjoy the Friday night MLB action.
