Rozner: This pitcher answers 30-year-old Cubs question

Mike Bielecki is hardly ashamed that he knows the answer to a Cubs trivia question most get wrong.

Of course, it's easy when you're the answer.

While most believe Rick Sutcliffe started the first night game played at Wrigley Field in 1988, it's not true.

Yes, Sutcliffe took the ball on Aug. 8, 1988, but the skies opened up with the Cubs leading in the fourth inning and the game never restarted with a vicious thunderstorm refusing to give way.

After the rainout, the first official night game took place the following night, with the 28-year-old Bielecki on the mound.

"I know Sut wanted that first night game and there wasn't any other choice. It had to be him," Bielecki said. "He was a Cubs icon. If he wanted it, that game was his."

The Cubs rotation that season consisted of Sutcliffe, 22-year-old Greg Maddux having a breakout year, Jamie Moyer, Calvin Schiraldi and some combination of Al Nipper and Jeff Pico.

Bielecki had been traded to the Cubs from Pittsburgh at the end of spring training and spent 1988 as a setup man until they sent him to Iowa (AAA) in early May. Rich Gossage and Don Zimmer didn't get along particularly well and Gossage was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career.

"They sent me down to work on being a closer," Bielecki said. "When I got called up, the last thing I thought was I would be in the rotation."

And he wasn't. His first 4 appearances when Bielecki returned in late July were out of the pen. On Aug. 4, he threw 23 pitches in an inning of relief, and a couple of days before 8-8-88 he discovered he would be starting on Aug. 9.

"I'm charting the game on Aug. 8 and never did it cross my mind that we wouldn't finish that game," Bielecki said from his home in Florida. "I don't remember how long we sat there, but I thought we would stay all night and get that game in.

"I had never been in a game like that. It was historic. The atmosphere was like the playoffs, bunting all over. It made the hair stand up on the back of your neck. I was like, 'Can you imagine doing this for five or six or seven games?'

"We were just glad it was going to be over finally because the hype all year was crazy. It's all we heard about every day. No matter what happened, the questions were about the first night game.

"Maddux was having this big year and he could have thrown a no-hitter and the first question would have still been about the lights."

Bielecki started on Aug. 9 and went 5 innings and 71 pitches, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits. The Cubs were down 2-1 when he departed and rallied to beat the Mets 6-4, with Frank DiPino getting the victory and Gossage the save as Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Rafael Palmeiro and Jody Davis drove in runs for the home team.

"So I got to start the first official game, but it just fell into my lap," Bielecki said with a laugh. "It wasn't normal with all the excitement and I was nervous, but once you get out there it's just a baseball game.

"It is cool. I have an envelope with a commemorative stamp honoring the first official night game. My name is on there. I have it framed in my baseball room. I still have the program from that night.

"I'm pretty sure the Hall of Fame has stuff from that night, so it's a thrill for me to be a part of it."

Bielecki went back and forth between the rotation and bullpen the rest of that season - he collected the win five days later, throwing 124 pitches - and in 1989 was a huge part of the "Boys of Zimmer," going 18-7 in 33 starts with a 3.14 ERA and 3.50 FIP, finishing ninth in Cy Young voting for a Cubs team that won the division and lost the NLCS in five games to Will Clark's Giants.

"People say, 'What's your proudest moment?' Well, playing 14 years in the big leagues was amazing, but that first night game was the biggest game I ever pitched in until the postseason in 1989," said Bielecki, who pitched in the World Series for the Braves in 1996. "When I'm in Chicago, it comes up once in a while, but it's 30 years ago and I don't think most people remember who started that game the next night.

"It's a good trivia question."

The answer is Mike Bielecki.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.