There are several sites out there that specifically dive back into the past to discuss the finer points of the game or some obscure player or game. Baseball nerds like me, enjoy these dives down the rabbit hole on occasion. Some of the posters admit to not being alive during the event and that they’re merely good researchers. Others don’t share that omission. I try to make clear when I’m citing sources or if I was present at a particular game.

Editor’s note: Phew!

While sorting through items believed to be lost in a recent basement flood, I stumbled across a cache of scored baseball scorecards from a bygone era. The first was dated May 29, 1988. And while I don’t pretend to recall the specifics of the Sunday afternoon game between the Astros and Cubs, the scorecard did refresh my memory to some extent. If we knew then what we know 37 years later, we’d make millions on future (HOF) bets.

A third-year lefty was on the bump for the Cubs, Jamie Moyer and was trying to figure things out after a semi auspicious rookie year in 1986. Starting for the Astros was one of my all-tine favorites, Nolan Ryan. While he probably hit more of his career high points elsewhere, I saw him pitch more for Houston than any other team.

For the most part, the format and look of the scorecard isn’t all that different than what I saw in 2024. However, I scored the game a bit differently (and less artistically) and there wasn’t the space dedicated to pitchers’ lines that most scorecards include now.

Objectively speaking, it wasn’t Nolan’s best outing although he did win career game #266 (out of 324) and limited the Cubs to four singles and one earned run in 7 1/3 innings. And while he only struck out four batters, most teams would kill for a line like that in 2025. Moyer wasn’t especially sharp that day either, but I expected less from him.

Continuing the theme of zooming in, shortstop, Rafael Ramirez, was the offensive hero of the day. If you weren’t paying attention to the NL back in the 80’s or were a fan of the Astros or Braves, the name probably rates a “Huh?” Back in the day, he was a middling sort of player, nondescript for one of the more important positions on the field. He had a run of 30+ errors a season for five years. He was neither a master of the routine or spectacular play, and unlike other shortstops, his offense didn’t make up for this consistency (bad fielding).

However, on this particular beautiful Sunday afternoon at Clark & Addison, he had quite the game. He was 3-4 with two doubles and five RBI-including a game-winning grand slam homer. If he had done that in the past five years, the accomplishment would have made big news, primarily because of the crazy coverage these days. While it might have made a Sporting News’s beat reporter’s notes, the overall game would have been lost in the weekly listings of box scores. Editor’s note: Back in the days of snail mail and printed news, that’s how TSN shared box scores. It was both wonderful and somewhat cumbersome.

Zooming out, Ramirez never achieved offensive greatness although he had a career batting average of .261. His slash of .261/.295/.329 is pretty pathetic. And while Moyer was a popular pitching prospect, nobody foresaw that he would win 241 more wins after the Cubs traded him, Rafael Palmeiro, and three magic beans to Texas for Mitch Williams, and a talking frog in 1989.

Suffice to say, this particular game didn’t affect the pennant race or anything bigger. However, I know that getting to see Ryan pitch against my Cubs on a Sunday afternoon was pretty darn special. One never knows what you’ll see at a game.