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.
Today in baseball history:
- 1879 – Baseball’s reserve clause is born. National League owners meeting in Buffalo, NY, seeking to limit player salaries, led by Boston’s Arthur Soden come to a secret agreement whereby five players on each team will be “reserved” — off-limits to all other clubs. The reserve clause will be in effect for the 1880 season. The owners tell the newspapers that they have agreed upon a uniform contract with no salary advances. (2)
- 1919 – Arnold Rothstein decides to finance the World Series fix. The plan calls for Nat Evans to give a $40,000 advance to Sport Sullivan to give to the players, with an additional $40,000 to be put in a safe at the Hotel Congress in Chicago, IL. Evans takes $29,000 and bets on the Cincinnati Reds, giving Chick Gandil only $10,000. (2)
- 1945 – The Cubs clinch the National League flag on Hank Borowy’s 4-3 win over Pittsburgh in the first game of a doubleheader. Paul Gillespie becomes the first of only two players in baseball history ever to hit home runs in their first and last big league at bats. The wartime Cubs reserve catcher went deep against the Giants at the Polo Grounds on September 11, 1942 and ends his career homering at the spacious Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. (1,2)
- 1953 – American League owners finally get rid of Bill Veeck… for now. The AL announces that Veeck’s controlling interest in the St. Louis Browns has been sold to a Baltimore, MD group headed by mayor Tom D’Alesandro. The new owners get immediate approval to move the team to Baltimore, something Veeck had sought in vain. (1,2)
- 1963 – Playing in his one and ONLY Major League game, Houston Colt 45 outfielder John Paciorek, brother of Jim and Tom, went three for three (all singles), walked twice, had three runs batted in and scored four times. (1,2)
- 1971 – Ron Hunt gets hit by a pitch from Milt Pappas. It is the 50th time this season Hunt is plunked, which at the time is considered a record, as no one is aware that Hughie Jennings had been plunked 51 times in 1896, and not 49 as was then listed. (1,2)
- 1986 – Chicago Cubs rookie Greg Maddux* defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3. The losing pitcher was his brother, Mike, also a rookie. It was the first time brothers faced each other as rookies. (1) Box score.
- 2001 – Astros starter Dave Mlicki gives up homers on three consecutive pitches to Fred McGriff, Rondell White and Todd Hundley. The back-to-back-to-back homers, which come in the 1st inning with two outs, enable the Cubs to beat Houston at Wrigley Field, 6-2. (2)
- 2016 – For the first time since the 2005 season, a major league game ends in a tie as rain stops the final scheduled contest of the year between the Cubs and Pirates in the sixth inning with the score at 1-1. The game will not be resumed as its result has no bearing on the postseason. The rules pertaining to ties were changed in 2007 making today’s situation the only one in which a tie game can now occur. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Harry Steinfeldt, Bob Anderson, Craig Lefferts.
Today in History:
- 480 BC – Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.
- 1829 – First units of the London Metropolitan Police appear on the streets of the British capital, the city’s first modern police force.
- 1899 – American Veterans of Foreign Service, later known as Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), support group is established in Columbus, Ohio, by a group of Spanish-American War veterans.
- 1916 – American oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller becomes the world’s first billionaire.
- 1923 – The British Empire reaches its geographical peak, covering a quarter of the globe’s land (nearly 14 million square miles), with the Palestine Mandate coming into force under British control.
- 1945 – Chicago Cubs clinch NL pennant with a record of 98–56.
- 1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules kill seven in the Chicago area.
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.
