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A M-W-F digest, replete with #Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB content. Happy birthday to Cade Horton*!
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past, with plenty of the lore and various narratives to follow as they unfold over the course of time. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along.
“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly.
Today in baseball history:
- 1912 – In Washington, Walter Johnson wins his American League-record 15th straight, downing Cleveland, 4-2. Big Train is topped in the nightcap when Washington hurler Carl Cashion tosses a six-inning no-hitter, winning 2-0. The only baserunners reach on two errors by SS George McBride. Johnson’s effort takes one hour and 55 minutes, while Cashion’s six innings finish in just 65 minutes; the game is called to allow Cleveland to catch a train to Boston. Cashion will win only 11 other games in his major league career. (1,2)
- 1915 – The White Sox obtain Joe Jackson from Cleveland in exchange for OF Braggo Roth, OF Larry Chappell, P Ed Klepfer, and $31,500. Roth will lead the American League in homers this year with 7. (1,2)
- 1923 – A four-piece bat used by Babe Ruth is banned by American League president Ban Johnson because of the glue used on it. A protest is made against the Browns’ Ken Williams for using a bat with a wooden plug in it. Johnson rules that all bats must be one piece with nothing added except tape extending to 18 inches up the handle. (2)
- 1948 – The largest crowd (78,382) ever to attend a night game sees Satchel Paige become the fourth consecutive Indian to throw a shutout. The ageless wonder joins Gene Bearden, Sam Zoldak and Bob Lemon in blanking the opposition. (2)
- 1958 – Out of catchers, the Cubs put left-handed first baseman Dale Long behind the plate in the opener against the Pirates. He is the first lefty backstop since 1906. The Cubs lose 4-2, then win the nightcap 5-1 with Long back at first base. (1,2)
- 1961 – The Cubs and Pirates tie a National League record by playing their third straight extra-inning game. The Cubs take this one, 1-0. Chicago wins two of the three 11-inning games. (2)
- 1971 – Ferguson Jenkins wins his 20th, beating Houston, 3-2. The win pulls the Cubs to 4 1/2 games behind Pittsburgh. But following two losses to Houston, Leo Durocher and the players will square off in a clubhouse meeting on the 23rd. Durocher accuses Ron Santo of demanding that the team give him a day, and the third sacker has to be restrained from going after Leo. Leo will finally lip an “I quit,” but stay on through the season in a frosty relationship with the team. (2)
- 1993 – The Indians trade OF Glenallen Hill to the Cubs for OF Candy Maldonado. (2)
- 1996 – In the Cubs’ 8-1 win over Florida, Sammy Sosa picks up his 100th RBI the hard way when he is hit by a Mark Hutton pitch with the bases loaded in the 1st inning. The pitch breaks Sosa’s wrist and the slugger won’t play again this season, stopping his streak of consecutive games played at 304. (2)
- 2001 – Kerry Wood has an MRI that comes out clean, but the Cubs ace will miss a month with tendinitis in his shoulder. (2)
- 2014 – Major League Baseball upholds a protest filed by the Giants over their rain-shortened 2-0 loss to the Cubs on August 19th. The game was called after 4 1/2 innings, but the Giants successfully argue that the Cubs did not properly deploy the tarp at Wrigley Field, dumping accumulated rainwater on the infield and preventing the game from resuming when the rain abated after a few minutes. The game will resume tomorrow in the bottom of the 5th inning, prior to the regularly scheduled game between the two teams. This is the first successful protest in 28 years. When the game resumes, the Cubs will be able to hold on for a 2-1 win. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Robert Gibson,
Bull Smith, Fred Norman, Kal Daniels, Blake DeWitt, Nate Pearson, Cade Horton*. Also notable: Al Lopez HOF, Todd Helton HOF.
Today in History:
- 480 BC – Battle of Thermopylae: In one of history’s most famous last stands, 7,000 warriors from an alliance of Greek states led by Leonidas I block the pass of Thermopylae for a week against an invading Persian army under Xerxes I, estimated at 120,000 to 300,000 strong [date is approximate].
- 1000 – Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary, celebrated today as State Foundation Day.
- 1896 – The dial telephone is patented.
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 correct the record, if need be, and have some record of why we did so.
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