by Douglas Yeo (June 26, 2026)
I live in the Chicago area and a few weeks ago, I went to Wrigley Field to see a Chicago Cubs game. But this was not an ordinary sporting event for me. I took part in the playing of the National Anthem before the game with the University of Illiniois Trombone Choir, conducted by Dr. Jonathan Whitaker. I was trombone professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2022-2024 while the University was conducting a search for a new trombone professor. I was thrilled when Jon Whitaker was hired to the position and when the Chicago Cubs invited the UIUC trombone choir to play the National Anthem on June 2, — part of the Cubs’ annual University of Illinois night at Wrigley Field — it took me exactly one second to accept Jon’s invitation for me to play with the group.
The University of Illinois Trombone Choir conducted by Dr. Jonathan Whitaker, Wrigley Field, Chicago, June 2, 2026. You can see me fifth from right among the bass trombone players (photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs).
The day was very special for me. I’ve played the National Anthem at dozens of professional and collegiate sporting events during my lifetime. It’s always been a thrill to be on the field or at center court in a stadium and this was a chance to enjoy the moment with some of my former students at Illinois who were also playing the Anthem. CLICK HERE to view the official video of the performance (on YouTube) that was provided to the University of Illinois Trombone Studio by the Chicago Cubs.
With my former trombone students Sam Murray, Louis Gray, and Derrick Neal. Wrigley Field, Chicago, June 2, 2026.
Before the game, I stopped in a sports shop in Wrigleyville and picked up a copy of a new book, Chicago Cubs 150 Years: The Official Illustrated History. I flipped through the pages and my eyes popped out when I saw a two page spread with photos of baseball players playing a game at the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt. Seriously.
Scott Gummer, Chicago Cubs 150 Years: The Official Illustrated History (Skybox Press, 2026).
Baseball game at the Pyramids of Giza. Chicago White Stockings (Chicago Cubs) vs. All America All-Stars, February 9, 1889.
Members of the Chicago White Stockings (Chicago Cubs) with members of the All American All-Stars at the Sphinx, Giza, Egypt, February 9, 1889.
Given my interest in Egypt (readers of TheLastTrombone can read my articles about Egypt HERE, HERE, and HERE), I started looking for more information about this. I found that the story has been told HERE (“The surreal afternoon a baseball game was played among the great Egyptian pyramids”), and, for detailed accounts with team rosters, the schedule, results of games, and much more, HERE (February 9, 1889: A Wondrous Ball Park: The Pyramid Game in Giza, Egypt”), and HERE (“The Great Base Ball Trip around the World in 1888–’19”).
The Chicago Cubs were founded as the Chicago White Stockings in 1870 and in 1876, the team joined baseball’s National League. In 1890, the team took on the name the Chicago Colts and by 1902, they adopted the name Chicago Cubs.
From October 1888 to April 1889, Chicago White Stockings team owner Albert Spalding took the team on a world tour where the White Stockings played exhibition games against a “All America” team of National League all-star players. The tour, which started in the United States, took the teams to New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, and included a game in Sri Lanka (January 26, 1889) and one in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza (February 9, 1889) before returning to the United States to finish the tour. Three players on the tour were later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Cap Anson, John Montgomery Ward, and Ned Hanlon. In addition, Albert Spalding and Henry Chadwick, who accompanied the teams on the tour, also were also inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Seeing these photos seems almost surreal. As if that wasn’t enough, as I was looking for more information about the games, I came across a page on the website of Because Baseball that implied that a type of baseball may have been invented and played in ancient Egypt. And they included a photograph to support their argument:
Photo courtesy of Because Baseball.
Well, it sure LOOKS like someone with a baseball and bat. Yes? This led me to dig more deeply and learn that there are a number of such representations in Egyptian temples. The photo above is captioned “400 BC relief from the Temple of Philae in southern Egypt: Baseball has deep roots in ancient Egypt.” I visited Philae in January 2026 when my wife and I took a tour of Egypt. We did not see this relief (there was so much to see on Philae. . .) and after doing some research, I learned that it appears in the Temple of Isis at Philae, on the outer east wall of the sanctuary/nous.
Here is the location of the relief:
The Temple of Isis at Philae, Egypt. Bertha Porter and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings: VI. Upper Egypt: Chief Temples (Excluding Thebes), Abydos, Dendera, Esna, Edfu, Kôm Ombo, and Philae (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1991), 230. The location of the relief is circled in red.
And here is an epigraphic drawing that shows the relief in context:
Georges Bénédite, Le Temple de Philae, Vol. 2 (Paris: Leroux, 1895), plate XXIX.
Carl E. DeVries described the scene (Carl E. DeVries, “A Ritual Ball Game?,” in Studies in Honor of John A Wilson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), 30.):
The second register on the exterior of the east wall of the temple of Isis [at Philae] has nine scenes of offerings made by Augustus. The eighth scene from the left shows the ruler striking a ball before Sekhmet, who is seated on a throne at the right. The king wears the double crown above horns, as in the first Edfu relief described above. Again he holds the ball in his left hand, while in his right he holds a stick which is more accurately described as a club or bat since it is considerably thicker at the striking end than at the handle. The position of the arms and the grasping of the club are more realistic than in the earlier representations.
It sure looks like baseball to our modern eyes. And there are some scholars that think that it’s plausible that some kind of game may be in play at the scene. However, recent scholarship seems to point to an act where the King — in the case of the Philae image, Caeser Augustus dressed as a Pharaoh — engages in a ritualized act of destruction, not a sport. The “ball” is not there to be played with; it is the evil eye Apophis (an ancient Egyptian diety of chaos and darkness). It is a symbolic enemy to be destroyed. The “bat” is not a baseball bat; it is a club or stick whose power derives from royal and divine violence. The setting is the temple wall, before the god Sekhmet (an ancient Egyptian diety of war and healing), within a series of offering scenes. Here, “hitting the ball” is an act of violence and royal protection whereby the King (Augustus) destroys a hostile power. For more on this, see, Panagiotis I. M. Kousoulis, “Some remarks on the ritual of ‘striking the ball’ in the liturgical environment of the Ptolemaic temples,” in ed. Ben Haring and Andrea Klug, Ägyptologische Tempeltagung, Leiden, 4–7 September 2002, Function und Gebrauch altägyptischer Tempelräume (Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz, 2007), 153–166.
And here is something else that’s important. Because Baseball’s article on baseball in Egypt dated this relief to 300 BC. That’s not correct. Rome conquered Egypt in 30 BC, and Augustus’s rule in Egypt was from 30 BC to 14 AD. The temple of Isis at Philae was erected in the third and second centuries BC during the Ptolemaic era of Egypt’s history but the Augustus reliefs were not made until the Roman era, several centuries later.
All of this is an interesting intersection of ancient Egypt and today’s modern sport of baseball. Things are not always as they appear but letting our imagination run wild — even if it flies in the face of historical accuracy — is fun. I will be visiting the Temple of Philae again when we return to Egypt next year and I will be sure to take some photos of the scene and then revise this article. For now, we’ll continue cheering for the Cubs (in baseball) and the Egyptian national team (in soccer/football). Go Cubs! Go Egypt!
