This is Cubs infielder Ronny Cedeńo, pretty clearly having been called out on strikes against the Pirates at Wrigley Field. It’s another photo from BCB reader Clark Addison.
The Cubs wore blue jerseys at home on occasion pre-Ricketts ownership, and we are looking at an afternoon game.
I was given a clue here by the file name, which contained the year, 2006.
That helped.
The Cubs played nine games against the Pirates at Wrigley Field in 2006. Three of those were night games, now we’re down to six games. I eliminated two others because the game time weather conditions said “cloudy,” so that leaves four.
It’s clearly a warm summer day, as you can see by the way fans are dressed. That eliminates an early May date where the game time temp was 67. Many would have been in jackets or sweatshirts at that temperature.
Then the task was simply to look through the three remaining games to see if there was more than one time where Cedeño was called out on strikes.
Fortunately, there was only one. It happened in the bottom of the fourth inning, Monday, Sept. 4, 2006, an afternoon contest on Labor Day.
The pitcher was someone who’d become a Cub later on, Paul Maholm.
The Cubs lost the game 5-4. Neither team was very good that year. The Pirates were 55-82 after they won that game and the Cubs 55-83. It could be said that game decided fifth place in the NL Central, because the Pirates finished 67-95 and the Cubs 66-96.
Unfortunately, no video of this game appears to have survived, so this photo will have to serve as the only record of that strikeout.