A M-W-F digest, replete with #Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB content. Happy birthday to A-Ram and other stories.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past, with plenty of the lore and various narratives to follow as they unfold over the course of time. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along.
“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly.
Today in baseball history:
- 1899 – The St. Louis Perfectos played the New York Giants in game one of a doubleheader, then the Cleveland Spiders in game two, losing to two different teams on the same date. (1)
- 1903 – Boston Beaneater Wiley Piatt becomes the only 20th century pitcher to lose two complete games in one day, falling to Pittsburgh, 1-0 and 5-3. Piatt allows 14 hits in the two games while striking out 12. Pirate player-manager Fred Clarke takes a pitch in the stomach, and will take a couple more hits tomorrow. Pittsburgh now leads the National League by 2½ games. (1,2)
- 1908 – The Cincinnati Reds debut two college twirlers, Jean Dubuc of Notre Dame and Bert Sincock from Michigan. Dubuc starts and Sincock relieves him. Unimpressed by the degrees, the Cubs trounce the pair by the score of 7-0. (2)
- 1924 – Pittsburgh relief hurler Emil Yde doubles in the ninth inning against Chicago to tie the game, then triples in the 14th to win it. (2)
- 1935 – Billy Herman cracks a first-inning home run off Carl Hubbell and the Cubs score seven runs in the first three innings to beat the first-place Giants, 10-5. Herman adds another three hits and Augie Galan has three hits, including two triples. Dick Bartell has four hits for the Giants. Al Smith takes the loss for New York, while Fabian Kowalik pitches the last inning for the win. (2)
- 1937 – Cubs switch-hitter Augie Galan becomes the first National League player to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game as Chicago beats Brooklyn, 11-2. (2)
- 1940 – The Cubs score five times in the 13th to beat the Dodgers, 8-3. Claude Passeau pitches four innings of relief for the win. It’s the Dodgers’ seventh loss in nine games. (2)
- 1950 – Hank Sauer’s two home runs and two doubles helps the Cubs defeat the Phillies, 11-8. (2)
- 1967 – Ernie Banks slams two two-run homers to back rookie Joe Niekro’s three-hitter, and the Cubs win 8-0 over the Astros to sweep. Bill Hands hurls a five-hitter in the opener to win, 4-1. Banks’ first blast breaks up a pitching duel with Bo Belinsky and his second caps a five-run seventh. (2)
- 1975 – Rick Reuschel is the hard-luck loser to Dennis Blair in the Cubs’ 12-2 loss to the Expos. Montreal scores 10 unearned runs. (2)
- 1977 – At Old-Timers Day in Chicago, the Cubs score four in the ninth inning to edge the Mets, 5-4. Larry Biittner doubles in two runs, and Bill Buckner’s wind-blown fly eludes two outfielders for a third double in the frame. With the sacks full, Manny Trillo hits a grounder to third base and beats out the attempted double play for the winner. (2)
- 1987 – Dwight Gooden (4-1) and the Mets top the Cubs, 8-2. For Doc, it is his tenth straight win over Chicago. He’ll lose his next decision to them on August 9, then roll off another 12 straight wins. (2)
- 1992 – Chicago’s Greg Maddux and New York’s Vince Coleman almost get into a fight, but Maddux takes it out on the Mets by striking out ten in a 3-1 Chicago win. (2)
- 1998 – Chicago’s Sammy Sosa hits a home run in the Cubs’ 6-4 loss to the Tigers, breaking Rudy York’s 1937 major league record for home runs in a month with 19. He will end the month with 20 roundtrippers. (2)
- 2010 – The Cubs suspend pitcher Carlos Zambrano indefinitely after he throws a tantrum in the dugout after giving up four runs in the 1st inning of a 6-0 loss to the White Sox. “Big Z” blames first baseman Derrek Lee for letting a Juan Pierre ground ball past him for a double that starts the rally, although the hard-hit ball was hardly catchable. Tom Gorzelanny replaces Zambrano, who is removed from the game by manager Lou Piniella. (2)
- 2016 – In a 4-2 loss to the Hiroshima Carp, Hanshin Tigers cleanup man Kosuke Fukudome singles off Akitake Okada for his 2,000th hit between Nippon Pro Baseball and Major League Baseball. That earns him entry into the meikyukai, the sixth Japanese hitter to do so with combined MLB/NPB performance. He follows Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, Norihiro Nakamura and Tadahito Iguchi. The hit puts Fukudome over .300 on the season, a mark he has not finished at for a decade as the 39-year-old shows no signs of slowing after his career had bottomed out in 2012-2013. (2)
Cubs birthdays: Bill Phyle, José Ortiz, Brad Woodall, Michael Tucker, Aramis Ramírez*, Paul Maholm.
Today in history:
- 1266 – Siege of Kenilworth Castle begins by forces of King Henry III; at 172 days, it is one of the longest sieges in English medieval history.
- 1630 – Fork introduced to American dining by Governor Winthrop.
- 1867 – First barbed wire patented by Lucien B. Smith of Ohio.
- 1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as “Custer’s Last Stand”.
- 1900 – Dunhuang manuscripts, including the Diamond Sutra, world’s oldest surviving dated book, discovered by Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu in the Mogao Caves, China.
- 1938 – US federal minimum wage law guarantees workers 25 cents per hour (rising to 40 cents by 1945) and a maximum 44 hour working week.
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.
Some of these items spread from site to site without being verified. That is exactly why we ask for reputable sources if you have differences with a posted factoid. We are trying to set the record as straight as possible, but it isn’t brain surgery. We take it seriously, but there are limits