Here’s a photo of the popular Cubs first baseman Bill Buckner trying to break up a play in Pittsburgh:

Getty Images’ caption says:

PITTSBURGH, PA – CIRCA 1977: Phil Garner #3 of the Pittsburgh Pirates gets the put out at second base on Bill Buckner #22 of the Chicago Cubs during an Major League Baseball game circa 1977 at Three River Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Garner played for the Pirates from 1977-81. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

All of the facts in the caption are correct.

However, we can narrow this down a bit further. Buckner is wearing the light blue/white pinstripe “pajamas” road uniform that the Cubs wore only from 1978-81. So 1977 is eliminated as a possible date for this play.

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Buckner and Garner both played in 20 games in Three Rivers Stadium in those four seasons. This is obviously a day game, and that’s a big help — that eliminated 13 of the 20 games.

So now there are seven possible games.

This is clearly a play where Buckner is forced at second and Garner is attempting to complete a double play.

Looking through all the play-by-play of those seven games, there are just two possible plays. It’s pretty good to be able to narrow it down that far, considering one of the games involved went 13 innings and another went 20 (!) innings.

The first possibility is from the game of Saturday, Sept. 29, 1979. Buckner led off the 12th inning with a single and was forced at second. The Cubs eventually won this game 7-6 in the 13th, and that’s important because that Cubs win prevented the Pirates from clinching the NL East title. They were 97-64 after that game and the Montreal Expos were 95-64, one game out. The Expos had two rained-out games against the Braves in Atlanta that would have had to have been made up if the teams tied with the same number of losses.

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The second possibility for this play was the following day, the last scheduled regular-season game, Sunday, Sept. 30, 1979. Buckner singled with one out in the first inning, but Dave Kingman followed by hitting into an inning-ending double play.

I think that is the play we are looking at here. Why? Remember that back then, photographers didn’t routinely staff every MLB game as they do now. This was a critically important game in the pennant race that year and thus would likely have been staffed by photographers.

Also, Garner’s uniform doesn’t show any dirt on it. Garner was known as a hard-nosed player who wouldn’t hesitate to get his uniform dirty. Thus it seems to me to be more likely that this would be a first-inning photo than something taken in the 12th inning of a long game. Garner, in fact, had singled and stolen a base earlier in that 13-inning game, so his uniform would almost certainly have been dirty by the 12th inning.

So I believe what we are seeing here is Buckner unsuccessfully trying to break up a double play against the Pirates in the first inning in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 30, 1979.

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The Cubs trailed 3-0 when Kingman homered in the sixth, his 48th and last of the season. Willie Stargell, who would be named co-NL MVP, also homered in this game, and the Pirates won 5-3, finishing the season 98-64. Meanwhile, the Expos got shut out in Montreal by future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, their 65th loss, thus clinching the division title for the Pirates, who would go on to win the World Series. Forty-six years later, that remains the Pirates’ last World Series appearance. Other than the Mariners, who still have not appeared in one with their ALCS loss this year, that’s the longest any current MLB team has gone without being in a World Series.