Opening Day a time for Chicago baseball miracles

It is fitting baseball home openers occur in temporal proximity to holidays celebrating miracles.

Chicago's green cathedrals, Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park, were the settings for some miraculous Opening Day moments for Cubs and Sox fans.

Take April 4, 1994, a day the wind gusted at a 22 mph clip toward the Wrigley bleachers.

That homer-friendly wind lifted a 25-year-old outfielder from obscurity to the status of instant legend.

Cubs manager Tom Trebelhorn tapped Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes to bat leadoff against one of the most feared starters in the National League, Mets ace Dwight Gooden.

Rhodes had logged a mere 107 games in parts of four major league seasons, mostly with Houston.

Rhodes responded with a major league first - he opened the season with three consecutive home runs.

If that feat wasn't impressive enough, he also became the first player to hit three round-trippers in a game off Gooden, who nonetheless earned his 27th victory in 31 decisions against the Cubs.

Wrigley temporarily turned into Chicago Stadium, as Cubs fans greeted Rhodes, who had four hits in four at-bats that day, by tossing hats on the field in honor of his "hat trick."

Alas, the baseball gods quickly abandoned Rhodes, who would hit only five more home runs in his brief career.

The Cubs were no strangers to Opening Day heroics.

Willie Smith's 11th inning homer April 8 set the table for a season for the ages in 1969.

On April 6, 1971, before 41,000-plus freezing fans at the Friendly Confines and with home plate steeped in shadow, "Sweet Swinging" Billy Williams ended a pitchers duel between Fergie Jenkins and Bob Gibson of the Cardinals by taking Gibson deep into the right-field bleachers with a solo shot in the 10th inning to break a 1-1 deadlock.

Tony La Russa factored into an incredible Opening Day comeback victory as a player for, of all teams, the Cubs, on April 6, 1973 against Montreal.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Expos were up 2-1, when Mike Torrez walked Glenn Beckert to fill the bases. Mike Marshall relieved Torrez but walked Randy Hundley to send home Cleo James, pinch- running for Joe Pepitone, with the tying run.

Then, after Don Kessinger fouled out and Jim Hickman struck out, Marshall walked Rick Monday to bring home La Russa, pinch-running for Ron Santo, with the winning run. It was La Russa's only appearance as a Cub and his last as a major league player. In 1979, he replaced Kessinger as Sox manager.

Comiskey Park was the setting for the unlikely late inning heroics of DH Ron Blomberg on April 7, 1978.

Blomberg's appearance in a major league game was a miracle in itself.

Hobbled by shoulder and knee injuries and sidelined by surgeries, the former Yankee missed the 1977 season and played only one game in 1976.

But Bill Veeck took a chance and signed him for $600,000. For one game, it paid off.

On Opening Day, the Sox trailed Boston 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth.

After Bobby Bonds grounded out, Blomberg stepped up to the plate and swung at a waist-high slider from Dick Drago. The ball barely reached the right field seats to tie the game.

The Sox scored the winning run three batters later, when Wayne Nordhagen drove in Chet Lemon with a double.

Blomberg's resurrection proved temporary - it was his last year in the majors.

Across the street 15 years later, new Comiskey Park provided the stage for the spectacular return of one of the greatest two-sport athletes of all time.

White Sox fans weren't sure what to expect from Bo Jackson as he came back from hip replacement surgery. But it quickly became clear that Jackson hadn't lost his flair for the dramatic.

The crowd of more than 42,000 endured what was shaping up to be a disappointing loss to the Yankees on April 9, 1993.

Already, fans had groaned as Tim Raines was lost to the disabled list when he tore a ligament in his right thumb sliding headfirst into second base in the first inning.

Then Jackson, batting for Raines' replacement, Dan Pasqua, in the sixth, ripped into a Neal Heaton changeup, sending the ball sailing into the right-field seats.

It was an emotional moment, as Jackson greeted the newly revived crowd with a tip of the helmet on the top step of the dugout.

The Sox lost 11-6, but for Jackson, the hit was the fulfillment of a promise to his mother Florence, who died of cancer in 1992. Prior to her death, he told her if he made a comeback, his first hit would be for her.

He told reporters, after a teenager who caught the ball traded it to Jackson for an autographed bat, "I'm going to have it bronzed and put on my mother's tombstone."

Later that year, Jackson hit the home run that clinched the AL West title, a glorified pop fly that somehow found its way to the left field seats.

Bo knows miracles, too.