The Homer in the Gloamin' is one of the most famous home runs in baseball

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, hit by

Gabby Hartnett Charles Leo "Gabby" Hartnett (December 20, 1900 – December 20, 1972), nicknamed "Old Tomato Face", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career in Major League Baseball as a catcher with the Chic ...

of the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

near the end of the 1938 Major League Baseball season. The expression was a play on the popular song, " Roamin' in the Gloamin'" and was used in the lead paragraph of a story about the game written by Earl Hilligan for the Associated Press.

The play

The

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

had led the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

for much of the

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

season, but when the final month of the season came, the Pirates began to falter. By the time they came to Chicago late in September for a three-game series, the

were one and a half games behind the Pirates in the standings. The Cubs won the first game of the series 2–1, behind the pitching of

Dizzy Dean Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean (both the 1910 and 1920 Censuses show his name as "Jay"), was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career ...

, who a year after an arm injury was past his prime. Dean relied on his experience and grit to defeat the Pirates and would later call it the greatest outing of his career. The victory cut the Pirates' lead to a half game and set the stage for one of baseball's most memorable moments. The game on September 28,

, reached the bottom of the ninth

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

with the score tied at five runs apiece. With darkness descending on a

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

that would not have artificial lighting for another 50 years, the umpires ruled that the ninth

would be the last to be played. At the time, suspended game rules did not provide for suspending games due to darkness. The game would have to have been replayed in its entirety the following day, prior to the scheduled third game of the series. Hartnett came to bat with two

outs In baseball, an out occurs when the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a batter or runner is out, they lose their ability to score a run and must return to the dugout until their next turn at bat. When three outs are recorded in a ha ...

in the bottom of the ninth inning. With a count of 0 balls and 2 strikes, Hartnett connected on a

Mace Brown Mace Stanley Brown (May 21, 1909 – March 24, 2002) was an American professional baseball player, scout and coach. He appeared in Major League Baseball, largely as a relief pitcher, over ten seasons (1935–43; 1946) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, ...

pitch, launching the ball into the darkness. Before it eventually landed in the left-center field

bleachers Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row ...

for a game-winning home run, the stadium erupted into pandemonium as players and fans stormed the field to escort Hartnett around the bases.

Aftermath

As a result of the shot, the Cubs vaulted into first place. They won the next day's scheduled game over the Pirates 10–1, completing a three-game sweep of the Bucs, and would clinch the pennant in St. Louis three days later. The Cubs would finish the season 89–63, with the Pirates two games behind at 86–64. That was the high point of the Cubs season, as they were swept in the 1938 World Series by the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

, their fourth

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

loss in ten years. For the Pirates, 1938 marked the closest they would come to going to the

between 1927 and

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

, as the team would slip to sixth place the following year, with average seasons in the early 1940s and a late pennant race in 1948 only to become one of baseball's worst teams from 1949 until 1956, not contending for the National League pennant again until the late 1950s. " Roamin' in the Gloamin'" was a popular song dating to 1911, written and recorded by

Harry Lauder Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...

. " Gloaming" is a regional dialect term of Scots origin denoting "

twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...

". Writers picked up on these facts and Hartnett's clutch hit became known in Cubs lore as the "Homer in the Gloamin'".

References

External links

1938: A Rockier Road
* Jack Bales,
The Homer in the Gloamin',"WrigleyIvy.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homer In The Gloamin' Major League Baseball games Chicago Cubs 1938 Major League Baseball season September 1938 sports events Historic baseball plays