The 1972 baseball season began in an unprecedented way. A players’ strike cancelled the first 86 games of the season and so it began about a week late. Instead of having an Opening Day celebration — because no one knew when the season would begin until a day or two before — the Cubs opened the year on a Saturday at Wrigley Field, April 15, and posted an ugly 4-2 loss to a terrible Phillies team in front of just 17,401 on a 47-degree day.
The next day, Sunday, April 16, was even colder, 40 degrees, with drizzle falling most of the morning.