Just another day at Wrigley Field

Mike Schmidt hitting against the Cubs on May 17, 1979

Mike Schmidt decides one of the wildest games – if not the wildest – in Philadelphia Phillies history 45 years ago today as his bleacher-bound, solo homer off Bruce Sutter with two outs in the top of the 10th inning accounts for the final run in a 23-22 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

“I didn’t even turn around to look at it,” Sutter tells the Chicago Tribune after the game. “I knew exactly where it was going.”

The home run – off a 3-2 splitter from Sutter – is Schmidt’s second of the day, which also sees Dave Kingman hit three homers for the Cubs before a crowd of 14,952.

In all, the teams combine for a single-game, major league-record 11 homers on a Thursday afternoon game that features a steady wind of 18 mph to left field – the direction for nine of the 11 homers hit during the four-hour marathon.

Schmidt finishes the season with 45 homers and 114 runs batted in, while Sutter, who like Schmidt is destined for the Hall of Fame, wins the National League’s 1979 Cy Young Award.

“Ballplayers often will say that you never can get enough runs to win in this park, but they always say it sarcastically,” Schmidt tells the Tribune. “After today, they can forget the sarcasm.”

Dave Kingman hitting against the Phillies on May 17, 1979