My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who said Ferris Bueller took this day off 30 years ago. I guess it's pretty serious.
Actually, it was the guys at Baseball Prospectus who used incredibly deductive reasoning to figure out which Chicago Cubs game Ferris (Matthew Broderick), Cameron (Ala Ruck) and Sloane (Mia Sara) attended in John Hughes’ masterpiece, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. They figured this out back in 2011, using statistics shown on screen during the game to peg the afternoon contest between the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves on June 5, 1985 as the Wrigley Field stand that attracted the gang. They even figured out that the foul ball Ferris caught was hit by Atlanta rightfielder Claudell Washington in the top of the 11th inning. That’s fantastic. I just want to scream, "Saaa-wing batt-ah!" at my laptop screen.
The report points out that real game was actually tied at two, and not scoreless, as the pizza guy tells principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) in jest. But seeing as how Hughes used the baseball game as a mere pitstop on Ferris’ busy day, we’re not going to nitpick the details. Especially because, as the baseball site calculates, the foul ball had to have been caught somewhere around 4 pm (inning 11 in an afternoon game), which means Ferris had roughly two hours to squeeze in the litany of events that took place in the movie AFTER the baseball game – namely, the museum visit, the trip to the Sears tower, the swim in Sloane’s pool, the confrontation in Cameron’s garage, and the parade dance.
The Von Steuben Day Parade has created suspicion that Ferris actually skipped school in September. Celebrating the life of Prussian general Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, it takes place late in that month around his birthday. As it turns out, however, both suppositions are correct. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the game Ferris and company attended was actually filmed on September 24, and the parade took place a few days later on September 28. When it came time to edit, John Hughes cut their footage with the earlier game to give the impression that Ferris' epic day out was on June 5.
Yes, yes. We hear you. It’s a movie. And it’s a classic. One of our favorites, which – thanks to some incredible number-crunching – took place on this calendar day 30 years ago. By the time that you are reading this, it’s likely far too late for you to ditch work or school. And saving a sick day by licking your palms and doubling over isn’t nearly as fun on non-anniversary days. But try to maintain the spirit of Ferris Bueller today, and heading into the weekend. Do something spontaneous. Entertain a close friend. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around for a while, you could miss it.
