What is the story about?
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:
- 1884 – National League president Abraham G. Mills resigns and is replaced by former league secretary Nick Young. (2)
- 1900 – At an American League meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago, Ban Johnson says the AL has chosen not to renew the National Agreement with the National League, but sees no need for friction between the two leagues. (2)
- 1996 – One of Major League Baseball‘s most controversial owners, Jerry Reinsdorf, and its most controversial player, Albert Belle, join forces with the Chicago White Sox. Belle signs a record five-year, $55 million deal that makes him the first player to surpass the $10 million per year mark. Reinsdorf, seen as the instigator in the owners’ vote against the collective bargaining agreement, draws the ire of owners in both leagues who feel he sold them out. (1,2)
- 1998 – Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa* is an easy winner in the National League MVP Award balloting over Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals, creating an historic Hispanic American sweep of the MVP awards with Texas Rangers OF Juan Gonzalez winning the award in the American League this season. Sosa received 30 of 32 first-place votes after leading the Cubs to a wild card spot in the playoffs. (1,2)
- 2000 – The Chicago Cubs obtain third baseman Bill Mueller from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for pitcher Tim Worrell. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Billy Sunday, Stu Martin, Manny Jimenez, Dickie Noles, Jeff Hartsock, Jeff Gray. Also notable: Roy Campanella HOF.
Today in History:
- 1620 – The Mayflower reaches Cape Cod and explores the coast.
- 1805 – Lewis and Clark expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, reaches the Pacific Ocean, first European Americans to cross the west.
- 1863 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg address beginning; “Four score and seven years ago…”
- 1873 – William Magear Tweed (“Boss Tweed”) of Tammany Hall (NYC) is convicted of defrauding the city of $6 million and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
- 1926 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.
- 1990 – Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning “Girl You Know Its True” album.
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.
Thanks for reading.
