A M-W-F digest, replete with #Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB content, gathered from reputable sources. Jeimer Candelario’s birthday, 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.
Today in baseball history:
- 1883 – The American Association agrees to expand to 12 teams by admitting the Brooklyn Atlantics, Indianapolis Hoosiers, Toledo Blue Stockings and Washington Nationals. (2)
- 1953 – The Brooklyn Dodgers sign the relatively unknown Walter Alston to a one-year pact as their manager for next season. Alston, who had served as the skipper of the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Montreal, replaces Chuck Dressen after Pee Wee Reese turns down the job. Alston will manage the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles over the next 23 seasons, winning 2,040 games and four World Championships. (1,2)
- 1977 – Former major league manager Mayo Smith dies at the age of 62. Smith skippered the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers during a nine-year managerial career, but gained most of his fame when he guided the Tigers to the 1968 World Championship. Smith later scouted for the Oakland Athletics. (2)
Cubs birthdays: Pete Noonan, Dave Hansen, Jeimer Candelario*. Also notable: Joe Medwick HOF.
Today in history:
- 1221 – Battle of the Indus: Genghis Khan’s Mongol force defeats Shah Jalal ad-Din’s army, last battle in Mongolian conquest of Khwarezmian Empire.
- 1639 1st observation of transit of Venus by Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree – helped establish size of the Solar System.
- 1859 – English naturalist Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species” radically changing the view of evolution and laying the foundation for evolutionary biology.
- 1971 – American “Dan Cooper” hijacks a plane, extorts $200,000 in ransom, jumps out of the plane over Washington State and is never seen again.
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.
- 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, so that we can address that to the originators and provide clarity if not ‘truth’. Nothing is posted here without at least one instance of corroboration