On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various
narrative paths.
“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire.
Happy birthday to me!
Today in baseball history:
- 1942 – Branch Rickey, the architect of the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system, resigns as the team’s vice president. The future Hall of Famer will become the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers. (1,2)
- 1945 – Happy Chandler, who had continued to serve in the U.S. Senate after becoming commissioner, resigns his political office. He will move the commissioner’s quarters to Cincinnati. (2)
- 1979 – Hall of Famer Willie Mays severs all ties to Major League Baseball after signing a contract with the Bally Corporation, which is involved with legalized gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (1,2)
- 1981 – Bill Giles, Phillies vice president for the past 11 years, heads a group that purchases the club for just over $30 million, the highest price paid to date for a major league club. Giles is the son of long-time National League president and Hall of Fame member Warren C. Giles. (1,2)
- 1985 – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andújar is suspended for the first ten games of the 1986 season as a result of his World Series Game 7 tantrum during which he twice bumped home plate umpire Don Denkinger. A controversial call by Denkinger at first base in Game 6 helped to force a seventh game as the Kansas City Royals won the World Series championship. (2)
- 2001 – Commissioner Bud Selig says Major League Baseball is considering eliminating two teams by the start of next season. Contraction would include the Montreal Expos and either the Minnesota Twins or the Florida Marlins. (2)
- 2016 – The Indians win Game 4 of the World Series, 7-2, over the Cubs at Wrigley Field, behind the pitching of Corey Kluber. The Cubs take an early lead in the first, but it does not last as Carlos Santana homers off John Lackey in the second, and a couple of errors by Kris Bryant lead to another run. The Indians put the game away with a three-run homer by Jason Kipnis off Travis Wood* in the seventh. (2)
- 2018 – The Mets hire prominent player agent Brodie Van Wagenen as their General Manager, replacing Sandy Alderson. Other GMs have worked briefly as agents in the past, but none so prominent as Van Wagenen, who heads his own firm, CAA Baseball, and has a number of his clients currently playing in the organization. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Mark Baldwin, Solly Hofman, Richie Barker, Arismendy Alcantara.
Today in History:
- 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris.
- 1618 – English adventurer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against King James I of England.
- 1889 ”World Championship” Baseball Series, Polo Grounds, NYC: defending champion NY Giants (NL) beat Brooklyn Bridegrooms (AA), 3-2 in Game 9 to claim series, 6-3.
- 1929 – ”Black Tuesday” Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the “Great Depression.”
- 1945 – Happy Chandler resigns as US Senator, remains as baseball commissioner
- 1967 – Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s musical “Hair” premieres in NYC
- 1969 – US Supreme Court orders end to all school segregation “at once.”
Common sources:
- (1) — Today in Baseball History.
- (2) — Baseball Reference.
- (3) — Society for American Baseball Research.
- (4) — Baseball Hall of Fame.
- (5) — This Day in Chicago Cubs history.
- (6) — Wikipedia.
- (7) — The British Museum
- (8) — For world history.
*pictured.
Things are as near to the truth as we can get them. Some of these items spread from site to site without being fact-checked, and that is why we ask for verifiable sources, so that we can help update the records and have documentation.
