Cubs Historical Sleuthing: The Night Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin Waited in the Dark
Some baseball photographs scream action — a swing frozen in mid-air, a dive toward the gap, a celebration at home plate — but others whisper something quieter, inviting fans to slow down and ask questions rather than admire athleticism.
One such image features Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin, standing together on the infield grass at Wrigley Field, gloves on, seemingly doing nothing at all.
They are not positioned for a pitch.
They are not communicating with teammates.
They are simply waiting.
And in baseball, waiting almost always means something unusual has happened.
A Still Moment That Raises Questions
At first glance, the photo feels oddly serene for the middle of a Major League Baseball game.
There are no runners moving.
No umpire signaling.
No batter in the box.
The pitch count displayed nearby reads 66, telling us this is not the beginning of the game, but somewhere in the middle innings.
Castro and Colvin are wearing their fielding gloves, which immediately tells us the Cubs are on defense — meaning the batter who was just involved must have been a visiting player.
Even more telling, the field is bathed in partial darkness.
This is clearly a night game, but the lights are wrong.
Some appear dimmed.
Others are off entirely.
And suddenly, the image clicks into focus: this isn’t a pause in play — it’s a stoppage.
Following the Clues Like a Baseball Detective
A closer look at the photo reveals more subtle hints.
In the background, umpires appear to be grouped together in discussion rather than maintaining their usual positions, a telltale sign that play has been halted for reasons beyond baseball.
Zooming in further toward the visiting dugout provides the biggest clue of all: the Los Angeles Dodgers are in town.
That detail narrows the timeframe significantly, because Tyler Colvin’s Cubs career spanned only 2010 and 2011, meaning the photo must come from one of those seasons.
Even better, there is only one Dodger who wore No. 33 and played at Wrigley Field during that window: Blake DeWitt.
Ironically, DeWitt would later be traded to the Cubs that same year, but on this night, he was wearing Dodger blue.
The Missing Piece: A Power Outage at Wrigley
Once the Dodgers were identified, the final step was simple historical digging.
And the answer revealed itself quickly.
On a summer night in 2010, Wrigley Field experienced one of its most unusual interruptions: a power outage.
The official account explains it clearly.
During the fourth inning of a game between the Cubs and Dodgers, Cubs starter Tom Gorzelanny delivered a 3–1 pitch to DeWitt when a bank of lights behind home plate suddenly went dark.
Home plate umpire Wally Bell ruled the pitch a ball, awarding DeWitt first base on a walk.
As DeWitt jogged toward first, the rest of the stadium lights shut off.
Just like that, Wrigley Field went dark.
Eighteen Minutes of Stillness
The cause was mundane yet perfectly Chicago: power lines had come into contact with tree branches, triggering the outage.
But the result was unforgettable.
For 18 minutes, the game stopped.
Players wandered the field.
Umpires conferred.
Fans waited.
And somewhere in that quiet stretch, someone snapped the photograph of Castro and Colvin standing together, frozen in a moment that feels almost cinematic in hindsight.
It’s baseball stripped of motion — two young players simply existing in the middle of a disrupted game.
Context Matters: The 2010 Cubs Season
At the time of the outage, the Cubs trailed 5–2.
They would eventually fight back, narrowing the deficit to 7–5 after eight innings, teasing the possibility of a comeback.
But the Dodgers sealed the game when Casey Blake homered off James Russell, pushing the final score to 8–5.
The loss dropped the Cubs to 22–25, good for third place in the NL Central, five games behind the Cincinnati Reds.
That season, of course, never turned around.
The Cubs finished 75–87, fifth in the division — a year remembered more for transition than triumph.
What the Photo Represents Now
Looking back from 2026, the image carries meaning beyond the box score.
Starlin Castro was still the franchise’s hopeful centerpiece, a young shortstop expected to anchor the Cubs for years.
Tyler Colvin, full of promise and raw power, was carving out his place in the lineup before injuries altered his trajectory.
Both players represented potential — and the photo captures them not in motion, but in suspension.
Waiting.
It’s an accidental metaphor for that era of Cubs baseball: moments of promise interrupted, flashes of optimism delayed, seasons that never quite ignited.
Why These Small Mysteries Matter
Baseball history isn’t just built on championships and legends.
It’s built on nights like this — odd, forgettable games that become memorable only years later when someone pauses to ask, What was happening here?
That’s what makes historical sleuthing so rewarding.
A single image becomes a time machine.
A power outage becomes a story.
Two players standing in the dark become a snapshot of a franchise in transition.
Final Thoughts
This photograph of Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin doesn’t capture greatness.
It captures reality.
The unpredictability of baseball.
The pauses between action.
The moments fans forget — until someone remembers to look closer.
And in that sense, it’s one of the most Cubs photos imaginable.
Because sometimes, the story isn’t about what happened next.
It’s about what happened while everyone waited.
If you’d like, I can also:
⚾ Turn this into a Bleed Cubbie Blue–style column
âš¾ Write a photo-essay version
âš¾ Do another Cubs historical mystery
Just tell me which direction you want.
