Gabby Hartnett’s famous “Homer In The Gloamin’” is not just the most famous walkoff home run in Cubs history — maybe the most famous Cubs homer, period — it’s one of the top walkoff home runs in all of MLB history, at least in a regular-season game. The BilL Mazeroski homer that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates and Joe Carter’s walkoff-winning home run for the Blue Jays in 1993 likely top it.

The home run by Hartnett is famous not just for the “darkness” that enveloped Wrigley Field at the time (and I put “darkness” in quotes for a reason, we’ll get to that later), but because that year’s Cubs had struggled mightily at times. They had a rough enough patch that manager Charlie Grimm was replaced by Hartnett with the team at 45-36, a decent record, but 5.5 games out of first place.

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