On Oct. 4, 1925, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-5, to close out the season. It was far from a memorable game or campaign for either organization.
The Fuzzies finished in seventh place while the Redbirds ended the season slightly better, in the fourth slot. So neither ballclub factored in the pennant race that went to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
It wouldn't be until the next spring that the importance of that game would be known.
The winning pitcher for St. Louis on that autumn day was McSherrystown's own Bill Sherdel.
Much like that day, it's hard to find out much else of importance about that contest.
The time of game, according to baseball-reference.com, was 1 hour, 34 minutes. So we know Roy Halladay would be impressed. We also know Tony Kaufman took the loss, dropping his record to 13-13.
He's far from a baseball immortal.
While Sherdel is not a name that comes readily to the mind of most baseball fans, he's an immortal for baseball enthusiasts from York and Adams counties. He owns 165 Major League wins, 21 of which came in 1928.
Sherdel's season-ending win also helped him capture the league lead in winning percentage (.714) for the 1925 season.
But it's not the winning percentage that's worth noting.
That game was the last game played at what was then known as Cubs Park.
In February of the next year, Cubs owner decided to change the name of the ballpark and name it after himself. His name, of course, was Wrigley Field.
No it wasn't; it was William Wrigley Jr.
Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
Anyway, Wrigley renamed his field. Within 82 years, ivy would be planted along the wall, the stadium would refrain from hosting night games until 1988, the Babe might have called his shot, Ernie Banks asked us to play two and the mound was graced by the likes of Greg Maddux, Ferguson Jenkins and Kerry Wood.
Along the way, it would become one of the country's most celebrated sporting venues.
And now we know that one of the region's own holds a special place in the history of the Friendly Confines.
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