Mark "The Bird" Lemongello

Among the items I found on Youtube was a clip of an event that I will never forget.   It involves one of the greatest meltdowns in MLB history.  It's also one you've probably never even heard of...until now.

The game I found was buried in a video called 1978 Chicago Cubs Broadcast Highlights.  It took place on June 5, 1978 as the Cubs played the Astros at Wrigley Field.

It was a pitchers duel as starters Dennis Lamp of the Cubs and the Astro's Mark Lemongello had each allowed only one run.  The game went into the bottom of the ninth tied 1-1 when the fun began.

Steve Ontiveros led off the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second by Dave Radar...man on second, one out.  The Astros intentionally walked Tarzan Joe Wallis to put the double play back in order.  Next up was Gene Clines, pinch hitting for Willie Hernandez (who pitched the 8th and 9th inning).

Clines worked the count to 3-2.  The runners took off on the next pitch, which came in here...

....and looks like a strike.  The catcher threw to third to try and nab the slow running Ontiveros for a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play.

The only problem was that home plate umpire Dutch Rennert called the pitch ball four.  No double play---bases loaded for the Cubs, instead.

And then Lemongello went nuts. Take a look



Here's a shot of Lemongello saluting Rennert on his way back to the clubhouse..

....and WGN caught it all.  I would have thought they would have cut away from him after his first salute, but they stayed right on him through the next one, too.  The next batter, Ivan DeJesus, hit a game winning single and Lemongello was tagged with the loss.

Pretty crazy stuff.

The Tribune article in the next day's paper mentioned the gesture and had a couple pictures, but for obvious reasons, they didn't show Lemongello flipping the bird.  They left that to me.

Topps was using a good number of action shots in their cards by 1979.  The 1979 cards would have shown game play from 1978.  Here's what Lemongello's 1979 card looks like...

...and Topps chose to not show any action from June 5, 1978.

They left that to me.