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.
Billy Williams* makes it into the Hall, and other stories for the discerning reader.
Today in baseball history:
- 1896 – A Chicago jury acquits Colts outfielder Walt Wilmot of charges of violating the Sabbath law by playing Sunday baseball last year. Charges against other players are subsequently dropped, and the way is cleared for future Sunday ball in Chicago. (2)
- 1940 – Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis gives free agency to 91 Detroit Tigers players and farm hands. Citing cover-ups of the movement of players within its organization, Landis hands freedom to Roy Cullenbine, Benny McCoy, Dutch Dietz, and Steve Rachunok from the parent roster and orders $47,250 paid as compensation to 14 players. Johnny Sain is one of 23 players who will later make it to the major leagues. Landis’s edict also nullifies a deal that would have brought the Philadelphia Athletics’ Wally Moses to the Tigers. (1,2)
- 1970 – Johnny Murphy, the New York Mets general manager who saw his team rise from the National League cellar to the World Championship, dies of a heart attack at age 61. Murphy was a top relief pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1930s and early 1940s. (1,2)
- 1987 – Catfish Hunter and Billy Williams* are elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Hunter made his name as the ace of the Oakland Athletics pitching staff in their World Championship years in the mid-1970s and made his fortune as one of the first rated free agents. Williams set a National League record by playing in 1,117 consecutive games and accumulating 426 home runs and a batting title. (1,2)
- 2002 – The Chicago Cubs sign free agent outfielder Darren Lewis to a one-year contract. (2)
- 2020 – The sign-stealing scandal claims another victim, as one day after Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch lost their job, Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was fingered by Major League Baseball for his participation in the scheme when he was Hinch’s bench coach in 2017, is let go as well before MLB can complete its investigation on his role in a similar scheme concocted by the Sox in 2018. This does not close the book on the matter, however, as he and the team will also likely be issued harsh penalties at some later date. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Hank Gornicki.
Today in History:
- 1690 – The musical instrument, the clarinet, is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
- 1761 – Third Battle of Panipat: In one of the largest battles of the century, the mostly Muslim Afghani Durrani Empire defeats the mostly Hindu Maratha Empire in Northern India. An estimated 60,000–70,000 were killed in the fighting and about 40,000 Maratha prisoners massacred afterwards.
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, in order to help correct the record.
