Cubs historical sleuthing: 1939 edition

Getty Images had the following caption for this photo:

Talking things over before their exhibition game at Wrigley Field, March 18, are four eminent gentlemen of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs baseball teams. After the brawl was over, the Cubs had won, 9-6. Left to right: Harold Traynor, Pirates’ manager; Russ Bauers, Pirate pitcher; Jerome “Dizzy” Dean, cub pitcher, and cubs manager Gabby Hartnett

Well. That doesn’t look like Wrigley Field, and it’s extremely unlikely that the Cubs and Pirates would have played an exhibition game in Chicago in mid-March nearly 90 years ago.

The thing is, the caption is 100 percent correct. These teams did play an exhibition game March 18, 1939 at…