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:
- 1911 – Cy Young‘s farewell appearance in a major league game is a letdown, as he loses to Brooklyn 13-3 wearing a Braves uniform in his 906th game. (1,3)
- 1938 – Lefty Gomez sets a record with his sixth World Series victory without a loss with a 6-3 win in Game Two against the Cubs. The Yankees return home with a 2-0 Series lead. (1,4)
- 1945 – A goat and its owner make an appearance at Wrigley Field for Game 4 of the World Series. The pair is told to leave before the game ends, as other patrons complain about the animal’s smell, angering the owner, William “Billy Goat” Sianis. The Chicago Cubs lose to the Detroit Tigers, 4-1. Detroit will go on to win the Series in seven games and the Cubs won’t win another National League championship for the rest of the 20th century. A belief that the Cubs were cursed by the goat will eventually develop. (1,2)
- 2010 – Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay throws a no-hitter in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds. It is the second post-season no-hitter in baseball history, after Don Larsen‘s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The Phillies win, 4-0. (2)
- 2017 – The NLDS game between the Cubs and the Nationals is a true pitchers’ duel between Kyle Hendricks and Stephen Strasburg. Chicago does not get its first hit until two are out in the top of the sixth, by Kris Bryant, but it scores Javier Baez who had reached on an error by third baseman Anthony Rendon. Bryant takes second on the throw from the outfield and scores on Anthony Rizzo‘s single, and those two unearned runs are all Chicago needs, as they go on to win, 3-0, and Washington only manages two hits. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Dutch Meyer, Gene Clines, George Riley, Bill Johnson.
Today in History:
- 1783 – Benjamin Hanks patents the self-winding clock.
- 1889 – Famed cabaret Moulin Rouge opens as the Jardin de Paris at the foot of the Montmartre hills in Paris, France.
- 2023 – New research confirms fossil footprints 23,000-21,000 years old at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, as probably the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.
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
- 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.
