The Visitors at Wriggly Field

Who can forget that unprecedented World Series from a decade ago? You know, the one with the alien invasion that made Wrigley all wriggly?

To mark the occasion of the 2022 World Series, we present a science-fiction baseball story originally published in December 2009.

Photo by Matt Alaniz on Unsplash. Illustration inset by Frank Wu for ChicagoIn2012.org.

But first, a little context. I lived in Chicago from 2007 to 2013, and this story was solicited in support of the city’s bid to host the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention. Other offerings in the tongue-in-cheek series were contributed by Frederik Pohl, Gene Wolfe, Mike Resnick, Phyllis Eisenstein, Richard Garfinkle, Lois Tilton, and many more writers. In homage to Chicago’s past as a home to many classic publishers of pulp science fiction, we were asked to adhere to the following guidelines:

• The hero must be square-jawed and dim-witted, with B.S. for his initials.
• The heroine must be smart, capable and beautiful, with the name Elaine Ecdysiast.
• The evil-genius villain must be dastardly and scenery-chewing, with the name D. Vice.
• The story must be set at least partially in Chicago.

To this list I added my own requirement, which was that the story must end, in proper pulp fashion…