Happy birthday to Jody Davis and other former Cubs.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a 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:
- 1920 – Owners unanimously elect Kenesaw Mountain Landis chairman for seven years. The owners’ action comes in direct response to the Black Sox Scandal, which threatens the integrity of the game. Landis accepts, but only as sole Commissioner with final authority over the players and owners, while remaining a federal judge (with his $7,500 federal salary deducted from the baseball salary of $50,000). (1,2)
- 1936 – Following the death of Phil Ball, wealthy owner of the St. Louis Browns, his estate sells the team to a syndicate headed by Donald L. Barnes and William O. DeWitt. As the new owners of Sportsman’s Park, they announce their intention to install lights and bring night baseball to the American League. (1,2)
- 1959 – Chicago White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox wins the American League MVP Award. Teammates Luis Aparicio and Early Wynn finish second and third respectively. (1,2)
- 1980 – Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Stone, who led the American League with 25 victories, wins the Cy Young Award over Mike Norris of the Oakland Athletics. (1,2)
- 2008 – Manager of the Year honors go to Joe Maddon of the Rays and Lou Piniella of the Cubs. Maddon led Tampa not just to the first winning record in franchise history, but also to the World Series. Piniella guided Chicago to the best record in the National League. It is Piniella’s third time winning the honor, having been honored in 1995 and 2001 while in the American League. (1,2)
- 2022 – A glove that was used by Babe Ruth during his playing career sells at auction for a record $1.53 million. (1,2)
Cubs Birthdays: Harry DeMiller, Fred Raymer, Gene Lillard, Jody Davis, Jeff Reed, Dave Otto,
Sammy Sosa, Aaron Heilman.
Today in History:
- 1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
- 1723 – Ambrose Godfrey patents a gunpowder-fueled fire extinguisher system in England.
- 1793 – The first Mayor of Paris and astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, is guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
- 1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anesthetic.
- 1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line is signed between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan – the Durand Line has gained international recognition as an international border between the two sister nations.
- 1933 – Hugh Gray takes the first known photo of the so-called Loch Ness monster.
- 1946 – A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows.
- 1966 – Buzz Aldrin takes the first “space selfie,” a photo of himself performing extravehicular activity in space during the Gemini 12 mission.
- 1990 – The World Wide Web is first proposed by CERN computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau.
- 2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 on its way to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in NYC, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.
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.
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. Also, this is supposed to be fun.
