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 Dan Haren* and other former Cubs. No. 50 threw 88.
Today in baseball history:
- 1900 – Reds SS Tommy Corcoran, coaching at third base in a game at Philadelphia, uncovers a wire in the coaching box that leads across the outfield to the Phils’ locker room. There, reserve C Morgan Murphy reads the opposing catcher’s signs and relays them to the Phils third base coach by a buzzer hidden in the dirt. (1,2)
- 1928 – In the 9th against Chicago, Braves reliever Ray Boggs plunks three Cubbies, walks two and tosses one wild pitch. Chicago manages to score just one run off Boggs, but they win the away game, 15-5. Pat Malone picks up the win over Art Delaney. (1, 2)
- 1939 – The Dodgers pull within one game of the third-place Cubs, taking two at Wrigley Field. A yellow-dyed ball is used in the first game. (2)
- 1951 – In Chicago, ex-Dodger Gene Hermanski clouts a pinch homer off Clyde King as the Cubs rally for a 5-3 win over Brooklyn. The Dodgers also lose Roy Campanella, who leaves the field on a stretcher after being struck in the head by a pitch from Turk Lown. Campy will remain in a Chicago hospital when the Dodgers leave for St. Louis. He will rejoin the team in Brooklyn in a few days. (2)
- 1953 – The Cubs’ Ernie Banks goes 0 for 3 and makes an error in his first major league game, as the Phillies win, 16-4. He becomes the first black player for the Cubs; second baseman Gene Baker will join him in a few days. (2)
- 1976 – Shades of 1964. In Chicago, the faltering Phils lose to the Cubs, 4-3, when Champ Summers scores with two out in the 12th. (2)
- 1996 – Hideo Nomo pitched a no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers and beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-0. Nomo walked four and struck out eight. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Frank Schulte, Earl Webb, Sheriff Blake, Jim Woods, Thad Bosley, Dan Haren*. Also notable: Orlando Cepeda
HOF.
Today in History:
- 1683 – Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria.
- 1745 – Edinburgh occupied by Jacobites under Charles Edward Stuart (aka the Young Pretender or Bonny Prince Charlie).
- 1787 – US Constitution is signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention.
- 1789 – William Herschel discovers Saturn’s moon Mimas using his 40-foot reflector telescope.
- 1835 – Charles Darwin lands on Chatham Island in the Galapagos Archipelago.
- 1859 – Joshua Abraham Norton, an English-born resident of San Francisco, proclaims himself His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America.
- 1909 – Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan discover the skull of an adult male Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) during excavations in a rock shelter near La Ferrassie, France.
- 1920 – National Football League is born in Canton, Ohio; 12 teams pay $100 each to join American Professional Football Association; renamed the NFL in 1922.
- 1948 – WENR TV, Channel 7 in Chicago (later WBKB and now WLS-TV) begins broadcasting.
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 of why.
