Cubs, Dodgers meet in Tokyo with scarce -- but frigid -- Opening Day history

The last time the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers played on Opening Day was more than 60 years ago. And while so much has changed in the decades since, the April weather at Wrigley Field that day will be instantly recognizable to anyone has bundled up for an early season trip to the Friendly Confines.

The 33-degree conditions were, according to the Los Angeles Times, ¡°so frigid that the penguins and polar bears remained indoors at nearby Lincoln Park Zoo.¡± Gusts in the Windy City reached 20 mph.

Still, Opening Day 1963 remains a snapshot of baseball's past and, if history repeats itself -- the Dodgers went on to win the World Series after taking the April 9 opener ¨C perhaps a glimpse into the future.

The Cubs and Dodgers will finally end this Opening Day matchup drought when they open the 2025 season with the Tokyo Series.

The two-game set from March 18-19 at the Tokyo Dome (fortunately, a climate-controlled indoor venue) will showcase Japanese players such as the Dodgers¡¯ Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, and Chicago¡¯s Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki.

But before that happens, let¡¯s take a closer look back at the most recent Cubs-Dodgers opener.

Cold air, cold bats

The 18,589 fans who braved the cold back in ¡¯63 saw Dodgers right-hander Don Drysdale pitch a game that was a microcosm of his career. Drysdale pitched all nine innings and allowed 11 hits, but only surrendered one run in L.A.¡¯s 5-1 win.

Drysdale was 26 and in the prime of what became a Hall of Fame career highlighted by stamina and relentlessness. When he took the mound on Opening Day 1963, Drysdale was the reigning Cy Young Award winner and had just begun a streak of 40-start seasons that would stretch five years.

Such a streak is uncommon throughout baseball history and has only been matched one time since, by knuckleballer Wilbur Wood from 1971-75.

Drysdale overcame a Cubs lineup that featured four future Hall of Famers -- Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks and Lou Brock, still 433 days away from his notorious trade to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Dodgers not only boasted the reigning Cy Young winner in 1963, but also the Most Valuable Player. Maury Wills won the award in 1962, when he set a then-MLB record with 104 stolen bases ¨C later broken, ironically, by Brock.

Rickey Henderson set the MLB single-season mark when he stole 130 bases in 1982.

Distant history

Elsewhere on Opening Day 1963, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Felipe Alou and Orlando Cepeda all homered for the San Francisco Giants in Houston in a 9-1 win over the Colt 45s.

At the Polo Grounds, the man who was traded for Brock, Ernie Broglio, tossed a two-hit shutout as the Cardinals defeated the Mets 8-0. Duke Snider, Ed Kranepool and Marv Throneberry were among Broglio's eight strikeout victims, and Bill White homered for St. Louis off Roger Craig, while George Altman collected four hits.

And, six years before it became an official statistic, two players had pitching lines that would earn them a retroactive save. Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm pitched three scoreless innings in a 7-5 win for the White Sox over the Tigers, the 577th of Wilhelm's 1,070 career games. Jack Fisher one-upped Wilhelm, with four scoreless innings in that Giants win against Houston.

Those not tuning into baseball that day may have been transfixed by president John F. Kennedy signing a resolution making former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen. Churchill, then 88, was unable to travel to the U.S. to accept the honor.

Or maybe they were locked in on Season 1, Episode 27 of Combat!, starring Vic Morrow and Jack Hogan. Those same viewers could have wrapped up their Tuesday with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and guests Francoise Sagan, Bruce Gordon and Don Allen.

Divergent Opening Day paths

The Cubs and Dodgers have each played 61 Opening Day games since 1963 without ever crossing paths on the season¡¯s first day. They¡¯ve played on astroturf in stadiums that no longer exist, and both have squared off on Opening Day against a team, the Montreal Expos, that has long since relocated and rebranded.

Incidentally, Los Angeles has opened against every National League opponent on Opening Day since 1964 except the Washington Nationals, whom the Expos became after moving to D.C. in 2005.

The Cubs have played every NL opponent on Opening Day in the last 61 years except the Colorado Rockies. Chicago has opened the season against Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Philadelphia eight times, and against the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds seven times.

The Dodgers have met San Francisco and San Diego 12 times apiece on Opening Day.

The Dodgers, who you remember went on to win the World Series in 1963 by sweeping the Yankees, aren¡¯t the only ones with history on their side.

The last time the Cubs opened against a team with ¡°Los Angeles¡± in its name was 2016. That year it was the Angels, and 212 days after the Cubs won that Opening Day game 9-0, they finished off a seven-game World Series win over Cleveland.

In other words, the Tokyo Series will offer echoes of championship seasons for both clubs. So while the temperature will, thankfully, be quite different for the teams¡¯ first season-opening matchup in six decades, the Cubs and Dodgers both will be hoping history repeats itself come October.