July 2, 1967: A magic moment in Cubs — and Chicago baseball — history

The Cubs in first place in July is nothing to get excited about these days. But once upon a time, it was literally a cause for celebration.

On July 2, 1967 — 58 years ago Wednesday — the Cubs and Fergie Jenkins beat the Reds 4-1 at Wrigley Field as the Cardinals were losing 5-4 to the Mets in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium to move into first place in the 10-team National League — and delirious Cub fans ran onto the field to celebrate.

As reported by Jerome Holtzman of the Sun-Times, "... at 3:08 p.m. with [Ron] Santo at bat in the eighth ... reliefer Jerry Arrigo had had a one-strike count on Santo when the crowd suddenly rose and shook the roof with cheers. The Mets had beaten the Cardinals 5-4.

"When the score was posted, a group of four youngsters behind home plate lifted their home-made banner overhead, in the hopes it would be picked up by the television cameras. Their banner said: "Buy Cub-Sox World Series Tickets."

Jenkins finished off a complete-game victory, and for nearly three hours on that day, the Cubs and White Sox were alone in first place — on pace to at least dream about the first crosstown World Series since 1906. Later that afternoon, the Cardinals beat the Mets to move into a first-place tie with the Cubs, but that didn't take the edge off the excitement. The Cubs in first place in July — and both Chicago teams in first place in July — was front-page news in Chicago.

The Cubs in a tie for first place on July 3 — with the White Sox in first place in the American League — was front-page news in Chicago.

It was a monumental moment for Cubs fans. A year earlier, the Cubs were in last place on July 2 — 24 games behind the league-leading Giants. The Cubs, in fact, had not been in first place after June since 1945, when they won their last pennant. They had finished fifth or lower in the National League for 20 consecutive seasons — seventh (out of eight) or lower the past seven seasons.

The staying power of a legendary-to-be core of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Jenkins, Kenny Holtzman, Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley and Bill Hands (they would be teammates for six seasons from 1966-71) was a revelation in Leo Durocher's second season. They could feel the excitement of a fan base that seemed to be growing exponentially — not only the long-time fans who had not seen a winner in 20 years, but a new, younger group of fans growing up with this core through WGN (which televised 94 Cubs games that season — more than double the amount of most MLB teams except the Mets and Yankees). The Cubs drew 977,226 fans in 1967 — up from 635,891 in 1966.

"In '67 you could see it happening," Santo said in 2006. "We were averaging probably 600,000 fans, and then in '67 we just turned it on and the fans went crazy. We'd always sit in the clubhouse for two hours after a game having a beer and talking baseball. And then we'd come out and there would still be a hundred fans out there. And it just kept growing."

The Cubs stumbled shortly after that magic moment at Wrigley Field, but still were tied for first place on July 24 after beating the Cardinals 3-1 in the opener of a three-game series at Busch Stadium. They lost the final two games of that series and fell out of contention. They finished 87-74, in third place in the NL, 14 games behind the World Series winning Cardinals (101-60) and four games behind the second-place Giants (91-71).

It was just the beginning of a run of contention under Durocher. The best — and worst — was yet to come.

The Chicago newspapers captured the excitement of the Cubs' run to contention in 1967. Those were the days!

On July 3, 1966, the Cubs were in last place in the National League, 24 games behind the league-leading Giants.

Ron Santo and Ernie Banks were among the NL leaders in home runs and Adolfo Phillips was ninth in batting on July 3, 1967. Joel Horlen and Gary Peters were a combined 20-4 for the White Sox.