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.
Today in baseball history:
- 1845 – The first known box score appears in the New York Morning News a month after the first set of rules are written by Alexander Cartwright and some of his fellow New York Knickerbockers. (2)
- 1910 – After three straight defeats and trailing the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-2, in the ninth inning of Game 5, the Chicago Cubs tie the score, then win, 4-3, in 10 innings for their only victory in the World Series. Three Finger Brown, in relief, is the winning pitcher over Charles ‘Chief’ Bender, who throws a complete game. (1,2)
- 1920 – Eight members of the Chicago White Sox are indicted for supposedly throwing the 1919 World Series. Although considered heavy favorites to win the Series, the White Sox lost to the Cincinnati Reds in eight games in what will become known as the Black Sox Scandal. (2)
- 1972 – The Athletics defeat Cincinnati, 3-2, to win their first World Series since the franchise’s move to Oakland. Gene Tenace, named Series MVP, drives in two of Oakland’s runs. Future Hall of Fame pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter earns the victory in relief. (1,2)
- 1974 – The New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants trade popular outfielders, drawing the ire of their fans. The Giants send Bobby Bonds to New York for Bobby Murcer. Bonds will play one season for the Yankees before being traded to the California Angels, while Murcer will last only two years with the Giants before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs. (2)
- 1985 – Pitcher Bret Saberhagen gives the Kansas City Royals their first World Series victory with a complete game 6-1 decision in Game 3. The St. Louis Cardinals had won the Series’ first two games, played in Kansas City. (2)
- 1997 – The snow flurries and 38-degree game time temperature in Cleveland make it the coldest World Series in major league history, while home runs by Manny Ramirez and Matt Williams make it a long night for the Florida Marlins. Jaret Wright outdistances Tony Saunders, 10-3, in Game 4 in a battle of rookie pitchers. (1,2)
- 2002 – Joining Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson, Darryl Kile will become the third player to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot before the mandatory five-year waiting period. The 33-year-old St. Louis Cardinals pitcher was found dead in his Chicago hotel room on June 22nd, felled by heart disease. (2)
- 2016 – A magnificent performance by pitchers Kyle Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman, who face the minimum 27 batters over nine scoreless innings, drives the Cubs into the World Series for the first time since 1945 thanks to a 5-0 win over the Dodgers in Game 6 of the NLCS. Chicago scores twice against Clayton Kershaw in the bottom of the first, and Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo also homer off the ace lefty who leaves after five innings. The NLCS MVP Award is shared by Jon Lester and Javier Baez. (2)
- 2024 – Fernando Valenzuela, who took the baseball world by storm as a 19-year-old pitcher in 1981 and created the phenomenon of “Fernandomania,” passes away at age 63. One of the most popular figures in Dodgers history, he had been forced by illness to step down from his long-time broadcasting job for the team at the start of the month, just as it was starting a postseason run to the World Series. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Jimmie Foxx HOF, Frank DiPino, Michael Barrett, Eli Whiteside, Chris Rusin. Also notable: Ichiro Suzuki HOF.
Today in History:
- 362 – The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire. Might have been the Holy Hand Grenade.
- 1721 – Tsar Peter the Great titles himself “Emperor of All Russia.”
- 1827 – German chemist Friedrich Wöhler is the first to isolate pure aluminum.
- 1879 – Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb.
- 1884 – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide and creates 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich Meridian.
- 1962 – US President John F. Kennedy makes a live television address about Soviet missile bases in Cuba and imposes a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1963 – 225,000 students boycott Chicago schools in Freedom Day protest.
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.
