BCB reader Joe Coney sent me a number of photos to sleuth and I decided to start with this one, a great look at the board from the 1970s.

So what are we looking at here?

The Cubs are, obviously, playing the Expos. It’s the top of the seventh inning — in fact, that half-inning has just ended, as we can see three outs on the board and the “0” denoting the score for that inning is just finishing being set in place.

The Cubs are losing the game 10-2.

The best clue, believe it or not, is the non-matching “66” for the Expos relief pitcher. Back in those days, numbers were given in much more standardized patterns than they are now. Most pitchers wore numbers in the 40s, some in the 50s, and almost none 60 or above. The Wrigley scoreboard operators would have needed numbers that large only for the Cubs and NL teams in those days, since the rest of the numbers would match those shown on the Wrigley scorecard. I’m not sure about the rest of the NL, but with the singular exception of Bill Voiselle, who pitched for the Cubs in 1950 and wore No. 96 because he hailed from Ninety-Six, South Carolina, no Cubs pitcher wore a number 60 or higher until Jon Leicester wore No. 63 in 2003.

Anyway, that’s the longish explanation of why the board operators had to make up a makeshift “66” for Bryn Smith, a pitcher who debuted with the Expos in September 1981.

And that’s when this game was played — Sunday, Sept. 13, 1981.

Mike Krukow got hit hard in the early innings, but the Cubs trailed only 5-2 before the five-run sixth you see from the Expos. Two relievers who normally were very good, Lee Smith and Dick Tidrow, got charged with all those runs.

The Cubs managed to mount a comeback of sorts off Smith, with a pair of RBI doubles by Bill Buckner and a home run from Jody Davis. The tying run was on deck in the bottom of the ninth when Davis flied out to end the game and the Cubs lost 1o-6.

The indications in the middle of the board are interesting, though. There are three outs, as noted, and the inning is over. But an “E” also appears, indicating an error. Terry Francona had reached on an error by Buckner and the next hitter, former Cub Rodney Scott, hit into a double play. Scott was No. 3. So the DP must have been on the first pitch and this photo was taken just after the third out, but before the “E” was taken down.